/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance★

Bernsen slowly put the scrying bowl away into his beard instead of his pocket and straightened out.

The situation in the city was improving now that the remaining guards were able to activate the servant’s collar enchantments but it was still far from over. Deafening roars of cannons being fired at the docks and the returning fire from the magitek rifles still tore through the air so Richter and his soldiers must have gotten delayed by something and were unable to leave immediately.

The cacophony of the riots continued, now with the extra sounds of spells being launched by the local witches and sorcerers who were previously unable to cast anything.

A large and long cigar shaped object rapidly zoomed past the landscape, above of the buildings. The Union’s leyway train that was trapped in the train station was leaving the city and carrying the noblemen to safety, back to the capital.

As the man examined the state of the city from a large hole in the building’s wall that was created when Bellatrix caved the floor in the room where the mana scrambling device was located, he lit up a cigar to calm down his nerves and think about what to do next.

“Y-your majesty! Come, hurry!” One of the small lizard women suddenly ran into the room while wildly moving her clawed hands up and down.

“Huh? What is it this time? Is someone attacking?” Bellatrix turned around and cracked her knuckles.

“No, it’s much better! I think we found the prize pool for the grand championship!” The kobold announced and Bellatrix’es eyes widened and she hastily left the room. The warrior exchanged looks with his team mates and decided to see what this was about as well.

They soon found themselves in Cair’s vault which was busted open, it’s enchantments broken and the people guarding it long since abandoned their posts. In the middle of it stood a large wooden chest surrounded by a group of kobolds, including Camilla. It’s lid was slightly cracked and its contents were visible. Gold, a very, very, very large amount of freshly minted gold coins that was the highest-grade currency in Deleor that depicted the face of the first king of the dynasty on one side and the Sanctiford palace on the other.

“That’s, that’s fifty thousand gold right there.” Webster noted in awe as he narrowed his eyes and suspiciously eyed the other groups surrounding it.

“Alright! This is enough to fund my campaign!” The tarasque pumped one of her right hands in the air and tried to reach toward the chest but one of the Sahuagin’s slapped her claw away with a trident.

“Get your filthy claws off that gold, dragon! We shall be the ones to take it as compensation for all the damages and hardships we were forced to endure!” The fish woman then tried to place her own scaled hand over the chest but it was Greybeard’s turn to slap it away with his harpoon.

“Let’s not reduce ourselves to petty raider levels quite yet.” The one legged man noted as he breathed out some smoke. “And besides this is intended for the champion. And I lost my last match so…” The old man then glanced at Kred who casually shrugged.

“Money iz gut, but revenge is better. I would trade all zhat gold in at the chance of getting a shot at that horned bitch of a woman Skorne.”

“I doubt The Wall is interested in this right now either so that leaves, let’s see Big Bear, Tenma and Emiliya. Haven’t seen the latter two yet.” Greybeard pondered.

“Tenma didn’t make it.” the warrior responded grimly and breathed out some smoke himself from the corner of his mouth. “And I haven’t seen Emiliya anywhere either. Did anyone else?” Bernsen asked with perhaps a bit more hopefulness than he should have shown.

But everyone in the room shook their heads.

“Nah, me and Kred went out for drinks after our fight concluded right away and she didn’t pass by us.” Greybeard shook his head.

“Hey minions! Did you see a black haired badger woman while we were moving through the city!?” Bellatrix sharply shouted and turned her head towards her lizard woman entourage.

But all of them simultaneously shook their heads much to the tarasque’s disappointment.

“She must have left early on. Smart woman.” Kred nodded and crossed his mechanical arms on his chest.

“Guess that only leaves you Big Be-, I meant agent B.” Greybeard corrected himself and pointed at the chest full of gold with his chin.

The warrior stared at the box of shiny yellow rocks. With this much money he could live like a king, but frankly speaking, he was a king once. It was not all that great and it ended very badly. So the man instead closed the lid, grabbed the heavy chest and forced it into Bellatrix’es arms, much to her shock.

“I have more important things to do and you said that you need it most. So take it.”

But before the lesser dragon could respond the warrior added something else.

“But on one condition. You need do something for me.” The man gave her a tense look and the tarasque nodded slowly.

“Yea?”

“I need you to break The Wall.” The man concluded.

~~~

{Are you sure that was wise? This incident will surely spark a war in the northwest and you just gave someone a greenlight to start another armed conflict in the east.} The lion inquired as he ran next to the warrior along with the black robed wizard toward the center of the town where the massive walled off section of the city laid around the entrance to the ancient ruins. A strange place to take a hostage but apparently, that’s where Skorne and Delilah had retreated.

{And if I may add.} Maxie spoke out. {That scarred man who attacked you, he was quite dangerous. Dragons are powerful creatures, even the lesser kind but that man felt even more dangerous to me.}

{I have told her his secret and weaknesses and Greybeard volunteered to help as well, they will be fine.} The warrior responded absentmindedly, his thoughts were in a much different spot right now.

{And what about that other man?} Zapp asked next and turned his head to look at the unexpected addition to their team, the red-haired man in the sleeveless black jacket who was equipped with a pair of huge enchanted mechanical arms. {He said he wanted revenge but he seemed all too eager to help.}

{Let him do what he wants, if he was working for Al-Sabbath and Galmathoria, he would have done something to prevent us from disabling the transmitter.} Bernsen answered to that as well.

“Strange, there iz not many people here.” Kred contemplated and then suddenly raised one of his arms in front of himself to block a crossbow bolt that nearly struck his face.

Another one was directed at the warrior who likewise blocked it with his left hand. The top of the wall around the ruins was housing a large amount of Cair’s guards.

“Hey stop! The transmitter is disabled! You can subdue the escapees now!” The warrior shouted and hid behind a corner of a nearby building to avoid a few more shots. The wizard and the lion quickly followed suit.

“I don’t think those are regular guards boss.” Webster pointed at the street which was lined with bodies of civilians that were struck down with countless crossbow bolts, some of them were very obviously not escapees and a few of them were guards themselves.

“Any ideas?” The red-haired man crouched down behind the corner as well after blocking a few more shots.

“Go around the other side, I’ll distract them. While I do that, you get that gate open.” The warrior quickly calculated and pulled down his bow but the lion’s internal voice cut him off.

{Let me take care of this. There should be an opening mechanism inside.}

“Wait, nevermind, help me distract the guards on the walls instead. Kred, do you have any ranged weapons?” The warrior addressed the red spectacled man.

“Ja, I do.” The rugged man immediately responded.

“Okay, remember to get behind cover during return fire.” The man then quickly rolled around the corner and began to fire his obsidian tipped arrows at the guards above, as he had run out of his steel tipped ones against Richter.

His aim remained as spectacular as ever, as his first two shots struck the unarmored parts of the guard’s faces, instantly killing them and made them topple down and fall from their posts.

They wised up after that however, the third shot struck the gauntlet that the guard raised up to his face. It did cripple him however and he dropped his weapon. One of the guards whistled loudly and ordered a return fire and Bernsen quickly rolled back behind the building’s corner to avoid a volley of crossbow bolts crashing against the paved road.

But as soon as he was out of sight, Webster appeared from behind another building and launched a lightning bolt diagonally upwards. The spell struck one of the guards with enough force to send him flying backwards but the spell also had the added effect of arcing to the two guards standing next to them and seemed to stun and paralyze them enough for one to stumble and fall down from the wall while the other collapsed.

Before the aim could be redirected again, Kred ran out of another alley holding a…handful of stones? This was not exactly what the warrior had assumed when he said he had a ranged weapon. Bernsen immediately changed his mind though when the first stone was launched at a blinding speed and with enough force to make a loud gonglike sound as it struck another guard precisely on the head and made a large dent in his helmet. The crossbowman staggered from the blow but then the next rock struck his chest and sent him plummeting down to his death.

No longer able to focus fire, the men at the wall started to shoot at random in-between the three targets assaulting their post while occasionally ducking behind cover. While this was going on, no one was even bothering to look at the spot of the wall where a black panther was steadily climbing the vertical surface. Normally such a feat would be impossible as the wall was smooth and frequently maintained and painted but the beast had the advantage of being able to cling to the stones using his spirit energy.

Before long, the massive beastly figure reached the top. The person holding that section of the wall finally looked down and tried to shoot the predator but it was too late and Zapp forcibly pulled him down with his claws and the guard screamed all the way down during his fall before it came to a sudden halt when his neck snapped from the landing.

The beast then snuck inside undetected, now out of the warrior’s sight. After their initial assault concluded, they were no longer as successful, as the guards wised up and began to use their cover more efficiently and started to focus fire on one of them again.

Thankfully, it did not take too much longer. The heavy set of gates rose with loud metallic creaking, much to the defender’s surprise.

{I am done.} The lion helpfully pointed out.

Not bothering with the rest of the guards, the warrior rushed forward toward the open gate with Webster and Kred following closely and using his armored body as a mobile cover as the warrior found out that the crossbow bolts uselessly shattered against the Maximum armor without him so much as feeling their impact. Maybe Pappas was on to something with this heavy armored/fast movement style of his.

After passing through the gate, Bersen regrouped with the lion and now found himself standing before a massive gash in the earth. He vaguely saw it from an elevated space back when he arrived but up-close, he really had to wonder what could have possibly done this much damage to the landscape that was apparent even after however many years had passed.

It seemed to go deep into the earth and to help with access to it, wooden ladders and staircases were built into the ruins. He didn’t have much time to marvel at it however as a more projectiles rained upon his armored body again.

And so, the trio of men and the lion rushed down the makeshift staircase, deep into the darkness below.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t take care of those guys first? What if they follow us!?” The wizard shouted as he fired another lightning bolt behind himself that knocked a few people down.

The soldiers indeed attempted to give chase but as soon as they reached the edge of the colossal rift in the earth, they seemed to hesitate and mutter among each other, only shooting a few loose crossbow bolts after the descending group.

“Or not…?” The wizard narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Perhaps they have orders to hold zhe outside walls?” Kred pondered but he too seemed to be confused at the reaction of the guards.

The warrior’s group continued to descend the stairs which, despite their makeshift nature, proved to go much deeper than it would appear and soon the daylight sun above began to get replaced with an encroaching twilight and the air started to feel more dry and musty to breathe.

“You sure we should just let them go like this?” One of the guards topside inquired from another armored man standing next to him.

“You heard what Skorne said. No one is to go down there until she and that creepy blonde chick come out. If you want to go after them, be my guest but I am not about to cross her.” The second guard replied and pulled his crossbow away when it became obvious that the group that forced itself through was out of sight and range.

“I heard that weird magic suppression device was broken already and with all the canon fire coming from the docks, maybe we should help the Galmathorian envoy? I mean, we are going to join their ranks when Skorne becomes the new duchess, right?” The first guard pondered again.

“Just stay put and do what you were ordered to, Skorne’s got things under control, we’ll get out of this as rich men yet, who knows, maybe Galmathoria will even give us titles and land around Cair in gratitude for this.” The second guard chortled.

“You two! Stop gawking around and get back on the wall!” A guard of higher rank barked to the duo and they hastily returned to their posts.

Meanwhile, the darkness around the warrior and his allies became almost pitch black as the seemingly huge crevice above shrunk to the point where it was hardly visible and the light coming from it was no longer reaching them. Fortunately, the wizard knew how to conjure light and was leading the way by raising his cane overhead and illuminating the steps down that were finally made out of stone now.

{Hmm, listen Bernsen. There is something you need to know. One of our enemies is a Dullahan as I already mentioned. The minotaur champion might be tough but it is the grim reaper who you should really look out for. They are powerful undead creatures and most weapons and magic are ineffective on them.} The lion began to give some advice as the group continued its descent in tense silence.

{Any suggestions?} Bernsen asked as he scanned the walls which began to hold strange writings and faded murals on them that looked like arrows pointing up the steps but the letters made no sense.

{It is fortunate that you learned spirit overdrive. I am not sure if I had mentioned it yet, but it has a particularly damaging effect on undead of all forms, even those brought to unlife through divine means like Nerg’s servants. A single decisive blow will cause your spirit energy to tear at and eat away the overwhelming presence of Yin in their bodies and destroy them.} The lion continued before the warrior interrupted him.

{But how? We are underground right now.}

{Yes, this does create a problem, as you don’t know how to hold on to your spirit energy reserves without the assistance of direct sunlight, fortunately I do and I have built up a decent amount while we ran amok topside. By sending it through our familiar link, I will allow you to call upon it but without the sun to refresh the energy, I will only be able to do it thrice at best so make sure that it counts when you decide to use it.}

{Will do.} Bernsen nodded with determination in his eyes.

“Oh thank god, it’s finally the bottom!” The wizard exclaimed as he panted and put his hand on one of the walls.

“Sahra! Sahra where are you!” The fairy poked her head out of the warrior’s beard and called out to the dwarf with desperation and worry in her voice.

“I don’t think she will hear us from here little friend.” The warrior noted and left the large vertical shaft that held the stone staircase.

“Oh, oh wow.” I guess I can kill the lights now.” Webster spoke out, his voice full of awe.

The warrior likewise had to take a step back as they found themselves standing in an absolutely massive cave whose ceiling was so far up that it was impossible to discern it. The cave seemed to be housing an entire, town or even perhaps a city with its own buildings and streets.

“Iz dat? Iz dat adamantium?” Kred’s mouth flew open as he quickly ran up to one of the building to examine a red metallic pipe that seemed to be connected to it. His artificial hands brushed along its length. “Hot to the touch too, was ist das?”

The town seemed to be illuminated by many different torches, as if the city was still full of activity and still used. They were not traditional ones however but rathe,r seemed to be burning through a small flow a gas that was directed to them through similar red tubing, like the large pipes that were connected to each stone home.

The buildings themselves were rather plain looking and organized in almost perfect lines, making it easy to get lost in as they all looked the same: grey three story boxes with a column in the center that reached all the way to the ceiling and appeared to be acting as the support for the ceiling.

The warrior pulled a few of the metal doors that each building had open but found the interior to be completely barren and empty, as if all the furniture and personal belongings have bene picked clean, leaving only a handful of dust and trash around. Upon closer examination of the city, it was also revealed that some parts of the large pipes were attempted to be disassembled with rather violent results.

“Is that a…is that a person?” The warrior uttered in shock as he pointed forward at one of the pipes which was broken in half and near the point of rupture half of a scorched skeleton was poking out of the ground as if it had been fused with it. The ground around the pipe was also highly uneven and of a different color compared to the plain smooth stone floors everywhere else in the city.

“Was there like a spill or something?” Kenzie cocked her eyebrow as she also curiously examined the scene.

“A spill of what?” Kred poked the ground with his hand. “It looks like someone had spilled stone here but that’s crazy, stones can’t spill.”

“Um, actually.” The wizard began to sweat as some sort of realization seemed to come over him. ”Nah, nah there is no way.” He quickly shook his head. “Not even magic would make that work.”

“Webster, this could be important, what is it?” The warrior addressed the black robed blonde man who seemed to hesitate briefly.

“Well, you know, under certain conditions, a very large amount of heat can turn stone into a liquid, however the sort of temperatures we are talking about here would melt most metals instantly, then again if these pipes really are made out of adamantium or an alloy containing a certain percentage of it…”

“These pipes hold lava in zhem?!” Kred turned back to the wizard with a shocked expression.

“Well I mean, probably? It does look like molten stone had been spilled from one of them but the only way to know is to break another one open and I would rather not do this. Just standing next to it could burn you alive in seconds because it superheats the air around it.” Webster nervously wiped some sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his black robe. “If it is true however, it is quite fascinating. Who could have built such a complex contraption and why?”

“We can figure this out later. We still need to find Sah-“ As the warrior began he suddenly felt a tremor beneath him.

“E-earthquake!?” Kred exclaimed and planted one of his arms on the ground to balance himself as the ground shook wildly, it only lasted for a moment but the damage it caused one the pillars that was holding up the ceiling to crack and a piece of it broke off and landed on the roof of the building it was extending from and destroyed the roof of it.

“T-that was close.” The wizard breathed out.

“Let’s hurry, there must be another part to this place we are not seeing.” The warrior spoke out and walked deeper into the underground domain of whoever lived here. Despite all the torchs being lit, it was clear that no one had been living here for years, it was eerie. There were signs of very obvious looting however everywhere like scratches on the ground, as if something heavy was dragged over it and loose hair, dust and pieces of clothing scattered around the houses that had been picked clean.

“Wait, Bernie look!” The fairy suddenly exclaimed and pointed down. The warrior followed the direction of her finger and noticed a burn mark on the ground. He then leaned down and brushed a little off it to smell it.

“It’s fresh. Good job Kenzie.” The warrior began to scan the ground and noticed that there were subtle signs of struggle here and there accompanied by more burn marks.

Eventually, they walked up to what appeared to be the center of this underground town which held a building slightly different than the rest. It was round in shape and was almost empty, save for a bunch of thick, long chains and a seemingly bottomless hole.

“The track ends here.” The warrior thought out loud as he circled the pit.

“Look, a lever!” Kred pointed to the side of the pit that had a brass lever attached to the floor. Bernsen walked over to it. Unlike most other objects in this ruin, this one looked worn and well used and even had a fresh smell on it. Someone had touched it just a little bit ago.

“Maybe try pulling on it?” The wizard suggested and the warrior tightly grabbed the handle and with a bit of effort, pulled the lever back. Immediately, the chains were brought to life and started to move as if by some invisible force that was pulling them.

“I think there is something moving below but it’s far away still.” The warrior contemplated as he put his ear over the pit.

It took a whole five minutes before whatever object that it was, finally pulled up. It was a large metal platform, enough to house a small group of people and possessed a lever just like the one the warrior just pulled in the middle of it.

Bernsen placed his foot on the platform to make sure it was firm and then stood up on it entirely. It looked solid.

“Man, we just keep getting deeper and deeper down. At last we don’t have to take the stairs this time.” The wizard swallowed hard and stepped on the platform as well.

“Death.” The fairy suddenly muttered as she looked down at the black void below through the spaces in the grate that the floor of the platform was made from.

“Huh?” The warrior turned his head down at the shaking fairy as did the other two men and the lion. “What did you say?”

“The stench of death down there. It’s very strong.” The fairy explained and shrunk back into the warrior’s beard. “Bernie, I am scared.”

The warrior looked at the lever that would most likely carry this platform to the bottom of this shaft and then at the tense faces of his companions. Even Zapp looked like he was on edge and the armor he was clad in was softly vibrating every once in a while, as if it was shivering.

He had a feeling that he won’t be coming back up from here until he was done with whatever laid below. If there were any final preparations or decisions to be made, he had to do them now because Skorne and Delilah awaited below.

>What do you do?

I think we should think about the option of going down there alone or at least leave Webster Kenzie and Zapp there if Hans can't be persuaded to delay his revenge act.

We can take on the Dullahan alone with the spirit punches. The Minotaur will be more problematic but if I'm correct in the assumption that the Balrog in the OP is not just a random picture we might get to play the floor is lava with an angry fire demon.

How fast can Webster open and get people into his pocket dimension? We should tell him to be ready to take our companions and get the fuck out of there if thinks should get too heated.

>>281169

Incoming Boss Battle.Before we go down we should talk with our team and share what little info we have about those two, Have Kred tell what he knows about the Minotaur, fighting style, special techniques, etc, then discuss with the wizard and Zapp about the Dulahan and anything she might throw at us, we don't want to lost anyone to her death scream after all. After the info exchange split up in teams to fight those two, one lead by Bersen to fight the Dulahan and another by Kred to fight Skorne. Also give to Kred one of our magic brownies, tell him if things are going sour to shove one of them down her throat.

>emmy left

Aw, I hope our fuckup didn't make us miss out on Bearson's reunion. I was really looking forward to that.

So Skorne and Deliah are confirmed allied with Galmorthia, although they acted independently to achieve their own interests. Probably working for Al-sabbath, without The Wall being aware of it based on his reaction in the arena. Although they might also not be -- previous assassins haven't had any interest in Sahra in particular.

Either way, they kidnapped Sahra, but didn't just kill her. My guess is that the reason they did this is because there's some sort of dark ritual involving her. Maybe to unseal a Balrog-type thing? I.e. she's the last dwarf of a noble bloodline sealing an ancient evil, they need to sacrifice her to break the seal or somesuch. This sort of thing lines up pretty well with the sort of fuckery Dullahans like to do in this universe too.

Fortunately this means that we just need to get Sahra and we also disrupt the evil plan. Unfortunately, I just don't think we can win against a Dullahan and a Minotaur as we are now in straight up combat, so unless anyone has some brilliant battle tactics, diplomacy or trickery might be a better bet.

A guard also mentioned that

>No one is to go down there until she and that creepy blonde chick come out.

Which, unless I'm reading too much into it, implies that Sahra *isn't* coming out. So it's likely that they're going to kill her (or maybe she is the Balrog lol). So we probably can't negotiate for her life.

Other options for diplomacy seem limited. We could try and negotiate with Deliah, since her objective is probably to just cause a large number of deaths -- if I recall, they usually aren't even bound by a contract or anything. We did just start another war, that's gotta be worth some good-Nerg points, right? Still, probably not enough to outweigh the destruction from whatever they're trying to unleash.

If I got the above mostly right, one idea would be to try and figure out a way to disrupt the ritual (maybe have W try something?), then negotiate with Deliah. If there's no ritual she doesn't have any incentive to kill us other than anger, and we can work out a deal to become her patron and help her sew destruction, using the war we just started as proof that we're serious. Hell, we're CIA, starting wars is one of the main ways to keep the peace, and Bernson isn't some moralfag.

Another option that might work better and wouldn't leave us in debt to a Dullahan would be to use W's magic to make a fake Sahra (or knock out a guard and disguise him as Sahra). He's shown the ability to fake appearances pretty convincingly, even for getting past magical defenses and wards in heists, so it can probably even convince a Dullahan at first glance. We do this and charge in guns blazing. In the confusion, W does the old switcharoo, and then we retreat. They'll be more interested in finishing the ritual which should buy us a head-start. If we could make a distraction and do this without them even noticing, that would be even better. We could also throw Sahra into the El Dorito gate if W still has access to that.

This is tough. I'm liking option 2 the more I think about it -- just get Sahra and get the fuck out.

>>281220

>spliting up the party

I don't think thats a very good idea tommy

>>281279

Yeah, we need to stick together and find sahra

Boss battle soon.Mpeg one a scale of one to d-day invation how intense is this going to get?

>>281302

>i sincearly hope we have some explosives left

We're out of thunderclay unfortunately. We still do have four explosive crossbow bolt but I doubt that's enough to bring down the big supportive pillars. But the lava in the pipes has to come from somewhere right? Maybe if we find and destroy the pumping mechanism we can do some serious damage.

But there was already that small earthquake that brought down a few of the structures. I doubt that was a natural earthquake. Only question is did it come from above from Richter or from below? I'm guessing from below and in that case I think our fight might just be enough to bring this whole place down anyway. Won't be coordinated or necessarily give us a tactical advantage but I doubt the undercity will still be in one piece when were done here.

>>281323

lets hope so, the last thing delenor needs is a fucking chaos incursion. no mather how utterly awesome that would be

No update today i guess

I guess we could tell Kred to pocket a bunch of rocks to use as projectiles too.

Unrelated but after we deal with this there are going to be a fuck load of people on the spice and that spicr ia going to.be spicked with black dash so were have going to gave a massive health panic in the next few days as people start going into withdrawal

But well cross that bridge when we come to it

Also i am now growing concerned that Anderson might be compromised though i am only about 25% sure

“Before we go down there…” Bernsen began and turned around to address his allies. “Is anyone having second thoughts? It’s not too late to turn back. I barely know you Kred and you were roped into this whole mess against your will because of me Webster.”

“I care little for your reason to be here Big bear.” The red spectacled man turned to face the warrior. “My only grudge is with Skorne. I wazn’t able to beat her in zhe tournament so I will rip her apart down here instead. Not even zhe grim reaper will get in my way.” The red-haired man cracked his metallic knuckles threateningly and glared down the pit of the shaft that the elevator had ascended from.

“I won’t leave either.” The wizard shook his head. “If you would have asked me a couple weeks ago, I would have taken this opportunity in a heartbeat as I try to avoid trouble if I can, but this… something tells me there is something far more sinister going on in here than a kidnaping.”

“I will help too! Sahra is very nice and she is part our tribe, so we need to rescue her even if it’s scary!” The fairy mustered all of her courage and spoke up as well.

Bernsen nodded at everyone in understanding and then addressed the last two members of his group. {And you two?}

{We made a pact.} Zapp spoke up first. {I have no personal connection to your short friend but as part of our contract, we must help each other in our endeavors. So, come hells or high water, I will be there by your side and will expect the same from you.}

{I had slept for a long time and am still not entirely sure what is going on.} Maxie spoke next. {But I am a tool for combat, it is not my place to judge or second guess. Only to obey. I had allowed you to wear me and so I shall protect you from whatever may lay beneath.}

“Then let’s go.” The warrior spoke up with a sense of finality in his voice as he forcibly pulled the lever in the center of the platform.

The metal chains shook loudly and they cage they carried began to descend into the black abyss below with a grating screeching sound.

Everyone stood in tense silence during the entire trip. Their minds and thoughts directed toward the upcoming battle. Another earthquake shook the elevator they were in.

“Hmm. Iz it perhaps Zhe Wahl causing zhem?” Kred suggested as he glanced up.

“No. This kind of seismic activity would require ritual level spells. And besides, can’t you sense it?” Webster slowly looked down. “It’s coming from bellow.”

This revelation created a long pause, as no one had anything to respond to it with. That was until the heat began to rise. The wizard tried not to show it, but it was obvious that he was getting uncomfortable by how much he had begun to sweat.

Kred was taking it better, but his breathing started to become more ragged. Even Zapp began to loudly pant to cool down.

“We are almost there. I can see the light below.” The warrior noted. Strangely, he was not bothered by the almost scalding dry air. He could feel it, sure. But it was not causing discomfort. He figured this must be the side effect of him consuming Ignacia’s heart.

But the light coming from below was not warm or welcoming. It was a subtle shade of red menacing glow. Straight out of one the realms of Nerg that were reserved for truly despicable people who had committed truly unforgiveable crimes in their life.

The elevator finally reached the bottom and the chains creaked to a stop. The framed red adamantium gate opened with another high-pitched screech to reveal the hellish subterranean landscape ahead.

“Well, that answers the lava question.” Webster nervously noted as he carefully stepped out and examined his surroundings.

The warrior stepped out as well and took a deep breath of the dry scalding and foul smelling air that was richly infused with the scent of sulfur. Simply put, they were standing in a sea of fire. Tall rocky cliffs and spires were poking out of the boiling stone far, far below. This strange series of islands was loosely connected to each other with the same red adamantium pipes that they saw on the upper level and they held scaffolds made out of similar metal to allow one to use them as bridges.

Unlike the communal area above where the houses were, this area looked almost pristine and completely untouched, to the point where not even the many remains scattered around were cleaned up.

“Oh gods, are those children?” The wizard exclaimed as he looked at the countless little skeletal remains scattered around the scorched floors of the area they were in. Their bones have been burned to the point where it looked almost like they were covered in pitch

“No.” The warrior finally began to realize something. “It’s dwarves. I didn’t mention it before, but I asked one of Anderson’s contacts to make some inquires and one of them theorized that this place might be a dwarven ruin. Looks like she was right.”

“Come to think of it, the proprtions are a little off for children.” The wizard frowned and carefully poked one of the black scorched skulls with his cane.

“What about zhese?” Kred pointed behind some rocks where a much larger skeleton could be seen. It had thick downward and forward curling horns and hooved feet.

“Skorne…?” The warrior blinked in surprise. The shape of the skull and the horns were almost identical.

“Ja, zhat’s what stood out for me as well. I cannot say I am familiar wizh dwarves, did zhey also have minotaur living among hem?” The fighter with the red spectacles pondered.

“Not as far as I know.” The warrior narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “Let’s keep going. No use disrespecting the dead.”

The group hastily moved over the catwalk spread over one of the adamantium pipes toward the next scorched island. They encountered more strange items on the way there. Most made of the same reddish tinted metal as the pipes.

What caught the warrior’s attention were the metal statues that were vaguely humanoid. They stood among the skeletal remains with their weapons ready to fight, almost like they were the ones that had slain them.

“Zhere is so much adamantium in here.” Kred pointed out sounding curious. “Tools, plates, even zhe floor coverings. Zhere was a recent drop in its market price because of a large amount of it being introduced to zhe market in Cair. Zhis must have been where it was obtained from.”

Another island passed uneventfully and they were forced to walk over the scaffolding to the next one. This one was much larger in size, probably the biggest one among the rocky masses floating over the sea of magma below and it housed hundreds of the large red pipes that connected these islands. They were all directed upwards, toward the ceiling of this cave. At the exact point where they all grew out of the center of the rocky island was a raised platform housing many different levels and switches. And on the very top of the staircase stood a group of three monsters.

“Sahra!” The warrior shouted as he finally saw the dwarf.

“Bern!?” The witch turned her head, her expression surprised and full of hope.

But the witch was not alone. Towering over her was the figure of Skorne. Her red armor glinted in the hellish orange light coming from sea of flames below. Her hand was tightly wrapped around the dwarf’s wrist and was forcing it toward a glowing disk of some sort.

“Your soldiers have failed champion.” An icy cold emotionless voice noted and the warrior quickly looked at its source, which came from a blonde woman with red glowing eyes. Her skin was still as sickly pale as it was outside. Not even the overwhelming heat around them could give it color or make it sweat it seemed.

“Hah! I told you assholes he would come! Get ready, because he is going to fuck you up now!” The dwarf yelled in defiance.

“I will only say this only once.” The man stepped forward and brandished his blade threateningly. “Release her.”

“No.” Skorne’s warped voice boomed and she forcibly pulled Sahra’s hand away from the dial on the metal panel, revealing a bloody handprint on it and then faced the warrior. “Her life is mine and only mine to take.”

The warrior tensed up, feeling his anger boil to the point of overflowing but the blonde woman with the scythe spoke out and her blood chilling voice made the warrior hesitate.

“It was very foolish for you to come down here.” The dullahan moved down a few steps away from the top platform with incredible, almost otherworldly grace that clashed with her armored appearance, creating an odd sense of cognitive dissonance that made Bernsen feel uneasy.

“You are attempting to mettle in things far beyond your understanding and ability. And yet, the plague father did not foresee your arrival. Otherwise I would have eliminated you before you could become a threat. Ah…” The blonde woman’s eyes flashed with evil light and a crack of a smile spread in the right corner of her lips.

“I see. You were beyond his sight because you are man who shouldn’t be. A false life clinging to hope even though it has no future. A parasite who can only take but never create, a homunculus.”

This remark made everyone’s face twist in confusion but the warrior felt his blood chill in his veins at the blonde woman staggeringly accurate summary of his identity.

“Who are you? How do you know this?” He asked the monster standing on the steps above him.

“My name is Delilah. I am a dullahan, a servant of Nerg and through his divine will, many truths become known to me that elude the minds of those who dwell in the mortal realm. For someone like me it is as plain as day that you were not brought into this world through natural means. I also know that you came here because you seek to save something that you hold very dear, or something that you think that you hold dear.”

“If you know what I seek then give it to me and I’ll be on my way.” The warrior glanced at the form of the dwraf that was firmly held in place by the towering figure of the minotaur in the crimson jagged armor.

“I cannot do that. As the champion has already said, the dwarf’s life belongs to her. Such was the deal of her agreement to serve the putrid lord.” Delilah slowly shook her head.

“Serve…? You mean Nerg? Wait, that can’t be right. You are working with Al-Sabbath and Galmathoria! That’s why you killed the countess and her husband!” The warrior exclaimed and the dullahan slightly narrowed her eyes in response.

“Richter has been a valuable pawn but his time in the mortal realm is coming to an end. Father no longer needs his services. He and Al-Sabbath had served their purpose and brought the Galmathorian soldiers to Cair to seed chaos and confusion among it’s citizens so we could obtain the dwarf that would arrive just as father foresaw and begin Cair’s judgement day.”

“Bern! They want to flood the city with lava!” The dwarf suddenly shouted.

“Silence!” Kred struck Sahra’s face with the back of her gauntlet. “You shall speak when you are told to, halfling.”

“W-what!?” The wizard exclaimed in shock.

“You wish to destroy zhe city!? But why!?” Kred spoke up as well, his spectacles sliding halfway down his face in surprise.

“To punish the people who live in it of course.” Delilah spread her arms out dramatically. “For years, Cair has been a festering wound upon the land of Deleor, it’s people had forgot the true value of the gift of life that was given to them. They had reduced people’s lives to nothing more than just another commodity as they put chains around the necks of their own brothers in sisters in their mad desire for wealth and fame. And the people they had treated like animals have become animals in turn, savage, brutal and merciless.” Delilah lower her hands and addressed the warrior again.

“You have seen what their first reaction was, have you? They did not choose to run to freedom when their chains were broken. Richter believed that they would join his side in gratitude, but he made a fatal error in his calculations when he had assumed that “People” lived in Cair. This city, every building in it, every person born in it, is a mistake.” The blonde woman scowled.

“Twenty years ago, I was tasked by father to cut out this grotesque tumor and cure the land of its influence but I had failed then and in that time, it has only become worse. It has metastasized, it’s corrupting influence is now reaching even the king of this land and his noble servants, it has become too powerful, too big. There is only one thing left to do, to cleanse in with fire that the earth dwelling tribe, who lived here long before any other person had set foot on this land, had learned to harvest and control.”

Before the warrior could even think of a reply, the rocky spire shook, this time much harder than the last two times.

“Another one!?” The wizard shouted as he clung to a nearby stalagmite.

It quickly subsided, thankfully but something else became apparent then. A loud rolling and rumbling sound could be heard above. It was coming from all the pipes around, some of them even began to vibrate as if they were carrying something heavy and were struggling to keep it contained.

“You are insane! Do you know how many people are in zhe city right now!?” Kred shouted at the dullahan and raised his mechanical arm upwards.

“Hold on, this doesn’t add up!” The wizard suddenly exclaimed. “There is no way you can pump all this molten stone up there at a rate fast enough to flood the city, this is not water!”

“No, you can’t” Skorne’s warped voice spoke out a few steps above Delilah. “But there is no need, once the pipe going under the river ruptures and breaks the ground underneath it, all the water will rush down here.”

“Huh? What? But won’t zhis just cool it down? What are you talking about?” Kred blinked in confusion.

“Ooohhhhhhh shit.” Webster on the other hand went completely pale in the face.

“Ah, you know what will happen, yes?” Skorne let out a throaty chuckle and the warrior turned his head back at the wizard quizzically. Webster understood the warrior’s silent question and nervously began to explain.

“The water will cool it down, yes. But with how much magma there is down here, if all that volume of the water in the river was to suddenly flow here as well, the water would rapidly superheat and expand at an insane rate as it turns into a gas like state. The sheer amount of pressure this will create underground, as the gas attempts to escape, will tear the entire cave system apart and cause a massive eruption akin to a citywide explosion. Even if someone manages to survive the earth beneath literally tearing apart, the superheated steam will flash boil every living thing for miles around.”

The warrior stood there with his mouth open, paralyzed by his own internal mental image of what that would be like and then turned his head back to Delilah.

“Unfortunately, it is a slow process.” Delilah spoke again. “The dwarves had built the lava pumps out of their most favored material, the mystic ore adamantium. Even with all the flow directed to one specific pipe, it will take two hours to build up enough pressure to rupture it.” The blonde woman then pulled her long blonde braid off her shoulder and behind her back.

“And you are supporting her in zhis endeavor Skorne!?” Kred addressed the armored figure again.

“How did you even learn all of this, how to operate all this equipment? Did Nerg tell you that as well?” Webster asked simultaneously.

“No. Father did not possess this knowledge. I needed someone who was born in this city to learn it’s secrets.” Delilah slowly shifted her eyes at the minotaur who in turn raised her armored hand up to her head and pulled down her helmet.

Skorne’s face was not pretty. It might be that long ago, she was beautiful but now she was disfigured. Her hair was completely gone, only horrible scars and warped flesh visible on her scalp. A thick metal ring covered with arcane runes was tightly bound around her neck. It looked just like the ones that the indentured servants wore but it looked…older, much, much older.

But it was not her repulsive appearance or her collar that worried the warrior. It was the fact that her flesh seemed to be simmering and burning almost akin to the salamander whose heart he had consumed.

But it was not the bright, powerful fire of life. It was the fading embers of a dying campfire, black flames filled with hate. They carried no warmth, only malice.

“Born out of Sveth’s raging fire but in place of earth and stone, bound by Dolora’s pitch black darkness deeper than a moonless night.” Then warrior remember the quote from the book he had read in Sanctiford as he stared at the monster before him.

“A balrog that the countess of this city had discovered trapped in the ruins below it.” Delilah continued. “One that she then made her personal servant and bodyguard out of amusement and spite when she was finally brought down after killing one hundred experienced adventures that were sent to plunder these ruins for their riches.”

“She would not have subdued me.” Skorne spoke next, her voice much clearer now but still full of barely contained rage and unending hatred. “But one of her pawns had discovered how to activate the leash that the dwarves had put around my neck. It was quite aggravating, to finally awake with my oppressors extinct only to become a servant of an even less worthy master. My sorrow only grew when I found out that all my sisters had died along with the dwarves, after our bloody conflict concluded and that I was the last of my kind.

But I never lost hope, every day I dreamt of revenge, of ways to kill all the pathetic vermin who put this leash on me again. I prayed to Sveth for strength, to give me a sign. And one day, my prayers were answered. But not by Sveth. By Nerg. He had sent an angel of death to this city with an offer to become his champion and I agreed in heartbeat. She had told me that her god had wished this city erased and that I would be the one to cut off its head. When the dwarves ruled over my kind with their overwhelming cruelty and crushing order I learned how to operate the flow of the molten stone that they needed to work adamantium.

But even though I knew what to do, I was unable to operate the ancient magical seals that kept this city asleep because the pathetic halflings had keyed in every enchantment to their own blood to prevent my kind from tampering with them. I was confused, how was I supposed to act out my role as Nerg’s champion and bring death and destruction to this land then? But the angel brought more wonderful news. She said that one more dwarf had survived, kept in magical stasis by her mother, the Queen of dwarves after their civilization had crumbled and was then carried outside by one of the kind adventurers who were tasked with searching this dungeon for valuables.

The angel said she would return to her home this year when the time for the strong to bleed for the amusement of the weak will come. And now, my vengeance is almost complete. In two hours those who dared to control me will be purged with fire and I will finally extinguish the last of my rival’s kind and prove to Sveth the superiority of my race. To show once and for all that it was US who deserved to wear THIS CROWN!”

Skorne forcibly ripped the tiara off her helmet and planted it on her head while simultaneously pulling out her massive two handed blade to raise it over the witch’s trembling form. The weapon was large with a long handle and had two short spikes protruding perpendicularly from the middle of the blade.

{The Beidhander of Discord!} Maxie cried out internally. {So that’s where it went!}

But the warrior ignored the armor’s excited comment and quickly fired a shot at Skorne out of his bow. He only had a handful of arrows left but the shot was enough for the time being. The obsidian tipped projectile was launched forward, aimed directly at the balrog’s exposed head but her reputation was true to the letter.

She saw the attack coming and immediately let go of the dwarf to block the shot with her gauntlet. The volcanic glass shattered upon impact, it’s shards raining down on the floor around the giant horned woman.

But Sahra, either through the help of his training or a desire to survive, used this opportunity and rushed down the stairs immediately in desperation, stumbling and nearly tripping on the way down.

“Boss! Watch out!” Webster suddenly cried out and the warrior twitched his head sideways to see the black armored figure standing to the side suddenly vanishing out of sight. Well, not exactly. Her body just seemed to break apart into a cloudy morphing shape that moved forward at blinding speed with a loud, ear splitting screech. The warrior’s eyes widened in surprise as he recognized Blitzkrieg’s signature move and immediately backed away and raised his sword just in time to block an overhead scythe attack from the blonde woman.

Their weapons clashed and vibrated as the two pushed against each other, the dullahan was not only quick but seemed to possess an impressive strength as well.

“This is your final warning.” The blonde woman stared at the warrior with her evil red glowing eyes that chilled him to the bone with the malice that they were projecting. “Begone from this place. Abandon your friend. Her place is here, as a sacrifice and payment to Nerg’s champion. Father does not require your souls in his service yet and I bear you no grudges either so I will not pursue you.”

“Never!” Bernsen raised his claymore back and it broke apart from the sudden movement.

“What the…!” The man stared in disbelief at his weapon and watched as it rapidly decayed before his very eyes. Rust was rapidly spreading from the point of impact where the sword and the scythe that the Dullahan wielded clashed.

He tried to drop it in surprise as the rot reached the handle but suddenly found himself unable to let go of it as his fingers were so tensely holding the grip that he couldn’t unclench them anymore. Thankfully, the decay did not transfer to his armor and the remains of the blade fell apart into dust on the floor.

>Highlander’s Pride destroyed.

“Mere mortal weapons cannot hope to stand against the force of all-encompassing death and decay that lies within this blade.” The dullahan made a flourish with her scythe and then looked up at the stunned armored figure. “Do you understand the futility of your resistance yet?”

The warrior’s answer was pulling down his bow again and firing an arrow at her. “I see, if that is what you wish, then I shall be the one to escort to the world of the dead.” She casually moved her head, avoiding the projectile as if it was nothing, despite it being fired at point blank range. She then raised her hand and a powerful blast of some dark energy traveled forward in a wide arc in front of her. The warrior attempted to quick roll underneath it but found out that it had a much larger vertical reach than he had assumed.

The black inky shockwave struck his body and he was suddenly launched backwards and screamed as he rolled down the steps while overwhelming pain assaulted his body and mind.

“Bern!” Sahra cried out above in fear.

The sensation he felt was akin to being set on fire and simultaneously getting stabbed with hundreds of needles. It was beyond physical, it was like his very souls was being torn apart.

He vaguely saw Delilah in his blurry vision appear before him and raise her scythe overhead, readying for a motion that would decapitate his grounded form. He tried to scramble for safety but his body was refusing to move from the effects of the dark magic spell that he was just struck by.

Before she could end his life however, a mighty roar reverberated through the scorching air of the caves and the form of Zapp pounced at the Dullahan with one of his claws glowing with brilliant golden light.

He did not manage to land a hit however. The dullahan dispersed into her shadowy form and moved out of the way using speed that was beyond human.

“You again. I see the wound you had suffered from Skorne wasn’t enough.” The dullahan narrowed her eyes as she examined the lion’s glowing claw.

“Stop running!” Skorne roared and reached toward the dwarf that she quickly caught up to. But a red and black clad figure leaped up the stairs and threw a punch forward before she could grab her.

Skorne was forced to raise her mighty blade that glowed with infernal energy to block the incoming attack. The magitek enchased fist crashed into the adamantium blade, causing a shower of sparks as the two pushed against each other.

“Remember me Skorne!” Kred roared. “I am here to collect! I don’t care what kind of god you threw your lot wizh but I swear by Solos, I shall have my revenge this day!”

“You. A weakling like you, how dare you stand in my way when I am so close!” The balrog’s voice twisted into a warped roar that was unlike any animal that the warrior heard, the noise it made his blood briefly go still in his veins but Kred’s thirst for revenge was burning even brighter as he did not hesitate for even a moment and threw a powerful punch at the Balrog’s exposed face. As soon as his fist impacted, an intense bright flash nearly blinded everyone, as a powerful current of electricity escaped Kred’s fist and transferred into Skorne’s body.

Skorne roared again, reeling from the powerful blow and staggered backwards while clutching her face which was smoking and smoldering even more now.

“That ability of yours, beast.” Delilah said quietly. “It’s dangerous. It would be unwise to get close to you, even if the chance of you successfully striking me is almost nonexistent.”

The dullahan clutched her right hand and some sort of black energy began to build up in it with an ear-splitting screech.

The warrior managed to recover from the first spell at this point but he had no idea what this one would be like and he prepared to dodge along with the lion.

But Delilah did not finish her channeling process. Another bright flash briefly overtook the infernal red glow that covered everything when Webster fired a lightning bolt at the Dullahan. It struck dead on, but did not cause as much damage as the warrior thought it would.

Delilah grunted and staggered forward slightly as arcs of electricity rapidly escaped her body. It was enough to make her break her concentration however and her spell faded out of existence once the power was cut off.

The black armored monster then turned her head backwards, almost one hundred and eighty degrees which creeped the warrior out.

“You should not have done that sorcerer.” Her form turned semitransparent again and she moved toward Webster almost as quickly as his lightning bolt had traveled towards her.

The Wizard was an agile person but before this great overwhelming power, he stood helplessly as the Dullahan’s form became whole again and swung her scythe at his abdomen horizontally to impale him.

“Double you!” Bernsen cried out as time seemed to slow down to a crawl. This new rush of adrenaline made the warrior rush forward but even in his tranquil fury empowered state, he would not make in time.

The tip of the scythe reached toward the wizard’s stomach. And swathed at the empty air a split second after Webster had vanished out of existence in a flash of golden light.

“What!?” Delilah’s stoic expression finally showed some emotion, a surprise to be precise. “A wizard? Here? How?”

“Bern!” Sahra finally managed to get down and rushed up to the warrior to hug him which he happily returned. Good, she was safe at last.

The warrior stopped for a second and instead concentrated on his mind. He had an opportunity to think while the Dullahan was distracted and Kred was keeping Skorne busy with far more effectiveness than the Warrior expected from him. He really must have lived every day of the last year for this moment as he fought with the kind of anger and ferocity that made him reminiscence of the good old days in the Black Forest.

>What do you do?

>>281807

Use [Spirit Overdrive] on the dullahan.

>>281821

Apply sprite overdrive to tranquil fury pump our body up so much we activate [transcended rage]

Because if were going to literally punch death in the face

We will have to temporarily leave the mortal coil that is slowing us down

>>281807

[Spirit Overdrive] ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA Delilah

>>281824

If we cant do this then flood the handcannon with our raw arcanic power and firer a beam of pure evergy at her

First we kill Delilah let Kred have the final blow against the Balrog destroy the lava pumps save the city and then hold a quick crown ceremony for queen Sahra. Easy. Then repopulate the dwarven race?

But first things first. We only have 2 or 3 tries to fuck up the Dullahan and she can just turn into a cloud if we come too close. So we need to either surprise her or get her to stay still long enough for us to hit. Freezing Bitzkrieg worked well enough but Webster fucked off to wizard paradise and I'm not sure how effective Ice would be when you're standing in a sea of lava anyway. We still have the hexagrammic wards. Would they be strong enough to prevent her from turning into gas for a few seconds or so? Maybe a coordinated attack from our allies could serve as a diversion? Regardless of what we do we need to be smart about this. If we don't get the harmon attack right we're in big trouble.

Oh and we also have a ultra mana potion left in our inventory. Maybe we should give that to Sahra if we want to include her in the battle. Kid could probably use a drink anyway after all that shit she just went through

Have the fairy sprinkle her dust over Skorne and Delilah!

>>281827

Well Kenzie's a child of Jackor so we already got the whole pantheon in attendance. But the fucker still owes us for the ring we returned. I agree we should make some memes happen with the Brownie. Are we even sure it just shrinks people? We only used it once right? Maybe it just does whatever Jackie thinks would be funny at the given situation.

Not sure if it would do anything but it certainly wouldn't hurt to sent a little prayer to Jackor or Solos.

>>281827

How about have Bersen eat the brownie, Delilah might be distracted enough for a smaller Bersen sneak at her and use Spirit Overdrive right under her neck, or give it to Sarah to get her fairy sized and hide her with kenzie on our portable beard.

>>281843

Sage fag!

>>281807

Out of all people here we counter the two opponents here the best. Delilah with [Spirit Overdrive] and Skorne with our new fire resistance. We can't take them both at once, so we have to leave Kred to Skorne for some time while we deal with Delilah. We can't just waste the [Spirit Overdrive] we have limited uses, so our general strategy will be to work together with Webster and Sahra and when Delilah is distracted by one of them use it. To get Sahra into this fight she will need a mana potion. So no ifs, no buts, she will be guzzling the vial.

Everyone is saying to stay and fight, which while that would be cool to beat down a dullahan with [Spirit Overdrive] I think its also short-sighted. The only person who knows how to operate the pipes is Skorne and she is dead set on blowing up this whole city no matter what, we wont be able to reason with her. The best option right now is to grab everyone and run and warn as many people as we can to get as far from the city as we can because unless Sahra just instinctually knows how to relieve the building pressure in the pipes then there's no way we can stop the explosion. There's still a couple hours to go until it explodes so I'm sure we can at least get our new friends (particularly Bellatrix, I'm kinda of fond of her character, also we should make sure Emi is out of the city instead of just trusting hearsay) to safety before the whole city gets wiped off the map. Kred is likely going to stay and fight Skorne to the very end so I doubt we'll have to worry about her chasing us and Delilah wont try to stop us if we're not trying to prevent the explosion. The writefag already punished us once for focusing too much on cool fights over everything else, lets not throw away anymore lives. I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion but you fuckers know somebody is going to die here if we stay, nobody walks out of a fight with a dullahan unscathed.

>>281871

>The only person who knows how to operate the pipes is Skorne and she is dead set on blowing up this whole city no matter what

There has to be a pumping mechanism that pumps the lava through the pipes. Without the pumps they won't be able to blow the pipes up. We don't need an instruction manual to destroy some pumps… was what I was thinking until I just now realized that these pumps are most likely made out of solid adamantium.

So you probably have a point there. If we don't have the firepower to destroy the pumps or can cut off the lava flow manually we might just be completely fucked even if we win the fight.

>>281878

>If we don't have the firepower to destroy the pumps or can cut off the lava flow manually we might just be completely fucked even if we win the fight.

See:

>“What the…!” The man stared in disbelief at his weapon and watched as it rapidly decayed before his very eyes. Rust was rapidly spreading from the point of impact where the sword and the scythe that the Dullahan wielded clashed.

The Highlanders pride was made of adamantine. We should loot some adamantine from this place after the fight for materials to reforge it so that we can return the oni girl her family heirloom if we end up back in somalot one day.

We have some [Zoom potions] that was stated,

>They sharply increased your reflexes and speed to the point where it appeared that the world had slowed down but were very short lasting and had a nasty withdrawal effect.

I think we might have to use them during this fight. We also have [Feather fall potions], but I don't think they will be useful in having us dodge. We can also give them to our allies in hopes that they can dodge but quickly warn them about its side-effects afterwards.

>>281883

>The Highlanders pride was made of adamantine.

Uh, no. It was just a very well made steel blade, you are thinking of Sir David's sword: Verteiler which was made from adamantium alloy and was an optional loot you could have gotten if you decided to fight him back in Ironhill. She said her scythe can only destroy mortal weapons. I am not sure if I was too subtle in my implication or what but I'll say it now, mystical metals like gold, adamantium and orichalcum are immune to the decaying touch of time.

>>281930

I thought orichalum was a mortal metal? Also, thanks for reminding me what material the highlanders pride was made from, it's been a while. Can we still loot the adamantine stuff for materials for reforging a new highlanders pride?

Well in that case, make sure to fight off her attacks with our adamantine hand and switch to our orichalum axe if we are sure we can afford to be unable to switch to a different weapon afterwards. I just realize that bearson can no longer use his spinning axe throw move anymore.

I like the idea of force feeding sharia the brownie and then hiding her in the beard with the fairy

She can finally have a guest visit her fancy house

>>281962

Also the cancer analagy gave me an idea for what we can do after the fight to "fix" tje city

But well cross that bridge when we come to it

Its going to be pretty rad though

“Stay close to me at all times. She is too fast, and you can’t temporarily blink out of existence unlike W.” The warrior quickly ordered to the dwarf and she nodded with a determined expression.

{Same goes to you.} Bernsen then added.

{Understood.} Zapp replied. {Shall I transfer some active spirit energy to you now?}

{Not yet. She’ll just dodge it. We need an opening first.} The man replied and pulled out his old axe out of his beard before rushing at the form of the black armored woman.

His attempt at counterattacking her while she was exposed was unsuccessful however, as she immediately turned around and swung horizontally at him and he was forced to strike the handle of her long weapon with his axe.

This knocked the scythe off course, allowing the warrior to press in to deliver a powerful punch at her head but the reaper’s form blurred out and passed through him before becoming physical again as she swung her weapon at his exposed back.

His allies were not lagging behind though and the lion attempted so smash her again with his own spirit overdrive forcing the Dullahan to retreat again with an annoyed scowl. She quickly let go of her scythe and it floated away and vanished while she brought both of her hands before her. She was starting to channel some sort of dark magic spell in them. The warrior reached towards his quiver but realized that he was out of projectiles and was no longer able to interrupt the attack.

Another flash of light briefly lit the area where the wizard had disappeared in and his form returned while holding a long metallic staff in place of his cane and tensely looking around.

“W!” Get us out! Now!” The warrior shouted and simultaneously grabbed the dwarf and the lion standing next to him before charging at the wizard.

“No! Stop!” The dullahan exclaimed and shot the half-channeled spell outward. The warrior felt an incredible sensation of dread then for a brief moment but in his adrenaline boosted haste he reached the wizard in a single leap and only heard the start of the screeching insanity inducing noise that the spell the dullahan cast made before his body was enveloped in a cloak of golden light and was pulled into the gate inside the wizard’s bag.

The noise, the heat and the overwhelming pressure instantly vanished and the group staggered into the little spherical stone room that was Webster’s El Dorito vault.

“Holy crap, this was close.” Sahra panted wildly while holding her chest after the warrior gently set her and the lion on the ground.

{I could have moved by myself, you know. I am not that old yet.} Zapp noted, somewhat annoyed at the warrior unceremoniously tossing his form over his shoulders during his hasty retreat.

“We are not done. Everyone listen closel!” The warrior exclaimed and everyone’s attention immediately snapped to him. He then pulled something out of his beard and tossed the item to the wizard who quickly caught it and examined it.

“The hexxagrammic ward?” Webster blinked.

“We need to hold her still for at least a few seconds so I can strike her with a spirit overdrive. Zapp says it can destroy undead completely and I willing to believe him. Can you do the same thing we did with Blitzkrieg in Derrick? Can you freeze her?” The warrior asked the wizard.

“Not a chance. Ice magic will be very weak in that kind of environment. And there is no way a low-level ward like this will keep something like her out.” Webster bit on his lower lip in frustration as he tossed the stack of rune covered wooden stakes in his hands up and down.

“We don’t need to.” Bernsen shook his head. “We just need to slow her down. Here is what we are going to do. We will go out and I will distract her, my axe didn’t break yet unlike my sword, so that’s a good sign. While I am doing that, set these up and I will bait her into passing over the affected area whereupon you will activate them. Kenzie, are you there?” The warrior then quickly glanced down at his beard.

“I am!” The fairy poked out and waved her hand at Sahra.

“Get your bonemen ready, I am going to need them.” He addressed the caith sith and she nodded enthusiastically and summoned her whole group of undead soldiers which stood there silently ,awaiting orders.

“Bern, what about me?” The dwarf balled her fists and looked up at the warrior.

“How is your magic?” The man asked her.

“I used most of it trying to fight that armored bitch off but she just shrugged it all off.” The witch shamefully admitted. “But I still have my broom, maybe I can fly around and bombard that dullahan with-“

The warrior pulled out a vial of cloudy white liquid out of his beard and held it in front of the girl.” She briefly hesitated with a blush but grabbed it. “Right, got to top myself off.”

She quickly uncorked the vial and drank its contents before sighing, which made a few embers escape her mouth. “Alright, I am ready to go.”

“Good, now eat this and get inside my beard.” The warrior promptly showed a piece of the fairy cake into her mouth.

“Wait wha-mmpph!” The witch blinked repeatedly in confusion and instinctually swallowed the piece of pastry. “B-bern, what the heeeeeeeeell.” Her voice began to rapidly become more quiet and higher pitched as her form started to rapidly shrink. Her clothes became baggier and then fell off completely as she sunk to the floor.

“What the fuck Bern!? What was that for you jerk!? What if I stay like this forever!” The even smaller than usual humanoid screeched in protest as the warrior hastily grabbed her naked form off the floor and stuffed her into his beard.

“Keep Kenzie company until we deal with the enemies, they are still after you so you will be safer here.”

“Yay! Hi Sahra! Do you like my room?” He felt a muffled excited shout from the fairy followed by rustling noises and awkward muttering from the dwarf.

“Uh, couldn’t we just leave her here…?” The wizard suggested and spread her arms.

“Is there a way out besides through your bag.” The warrior asked.

“Erm…no not really.” Webster shrugged helplessly.

“And what will happen then if we won’t make it out?” The warrior asked another uncomfortable question.

“Okay, I get you!” The blonde man raised his hands and quickly shook them.

Good, is everyone ready then?” The warrior addressed the group and they nodded in unison. “Then let’s go back.”

The wizard moved his hand and with another flash, they all stood in the hellish landscape of the subterranean dwarven city again.

As soon as the world manifested around him however, the warrior saw the blade of Delilah’s scythe fly at him and he promptly raised his artifical arm and caught it, his fingers tightly binding around it in an attempt to break the blade with the pressure they were projecting. However, his grip suddenly started to weaken as his prosthetic began to vibrate and twitch as if the power was getting repeatedly cut off or destabilizing and Delilah pulled her scythe back while simultaneously leaping backward gracefully to avoid a vertical chop from the warrior’s axe that he held in his good hand.

“[Blink] may allow you to hide but it won’t let you escape.” The dullahan grimly noted and raised her weapon overhead which began to crackle with some sort of black energy.

“Go! Go! Go!” The warrior ordered the bonemen and they charged forward at Delilah. But the woman only made a wry smile in response.

“Using the fear aspect of death against a servant of Nerg? You can’t be serious.” She then made a flourish with her scythe and the black energy building up on it suddenly spread out in five blasts vaguely resembling lightning bolts that struck each bone man.

“Oh no! She is doing it again!” Kenzie exclaimed in fear inside the warrior’s beard.

The bonemen stopped in their advance at once but they did not collapse on the ground as if their invisible strings were cut. Instead, they stood still while the purple light in their eyes faded and was replaced with a malicious glint of red. The white bleached color of their bones began to rapidly fade and turn dark until they became pitch black. They then slowly turned around to face the warrior and out of nowhere, weapons appeared in their hands in bursts of black inky smoke. Two spears, two sets of swords and shields and a bow.

“Okay, that was a bad idea.” Bernsen noted as the bonemen charged at him. The two wielding the shields and swords reached him first and he got ready to avoid their blows when Maxie’s voice yelled in his subconscious.

{What are you doing! Their weapons are nothing compared to me! Do not waste time avoiding their blows, fight!”}

The warrior felt awkward, resisting the natural temptation to not get hit like this but maybe the armor knew what it was stalking about? The skeletons’s sword stabbed into his chest dead on… and harmlessly slid and then bounced off, as if hitting a solid brick wall without even leaving a scratch.

This also had the added effect of making the boneman lose his balance and the warrior promptly slashed horizontally, making the skull fly off.

“Bernie no! Break the skulls!” Kenzie shouted again and the warrior realized his folly when the skeleton attacked again, this time along with his allies that quickly surrounded the warrior and began to strike at his head.

With the warrior distracted, the dullahan switched her targets at the wizard again who was channeling another lightning spell while standing next to the lion who stood guard next to the wizard.

Not daring to approach the lion, she instead made her weapon dissolve and everyone assumed that she was going to cast another spell but this ended to be a wrong assumption.

Delilah reached toward the belt area of her armor and pulled back hard, revealing a long, white-painted chain whip that had been wrapped around her torso before.

“Submit!” She exclaimed as the whip suddenly started to glow in an eerie green light. The warrior realized that it was not chain links it was made from but vertebrae pulled off the spinal cords of countless men and women.

She swung with her left hand that clutched the whip and the weapon flew forward, as if alive and struck at the lion.

Zapp, to his credit, managed to jump out of the way and the whip struck the blackened stone floor with enough force to make it slightly crack, even as the bones that comprised it remained completely intact.

A malevolent glint appeared in the dullahan’s eye as the corner of her lips twisted in a cruel smile.

{The wizard!} The warrior heard Zapp realize but it was too late. The tip of the whip suddenly shot sideways out it’s resting place and the very end of it, which was tipped with a snake skull, bit on the wizard’s leg, effortlessly breaking through his robe and skin.

“Gaahh!” The wizard clutched his leg and fell over while Delilah pulled the whip back and then lashed it at the lion again, which forced him to back away even further to avoid the venom spewing tip.

“Oh no!” The warrior exclaimed and threw the bonemen off him in one adrenaline enhanced, powerful motion, making their bones scatter and break while he rushed toward Webster’s side.

“And where do you think you are going?” Delilah cackled and swung her bone whip at the warrior, he immediately rolled sideways but the whip lashed after him without the dullahan making any other motions with her hand, as if the weapon had a mind of its own.

The snake tip was unable to breach his armored greaves and boots and instead tightly wrapped around his ankle and forcibly pulled back on his leg, tearing him off the ground in a display of uncanny strength and flinging him high into the air.

“Oh shit!” The warrior shouted as he realized his trajectory was going to carry him outside the boundaries of this lone stone pillar that was poking out of the sea of fire.

{Hold on! This might hurt!} Maxie exclaimed and suddenly the warrior’s body felt incredibly heavy and his flight was abruptly cut off and he instead plummeted down on the ground with a heavy crash that left an indent in the ground.

“Ngh…” The warrior struggled to move with the armor that suddenly multiplied a hundredfold in its weight. His body was bruised from the sudden fall but he was otherwise alright and the armor quickly became lighter again, but he did not stand up immediately.

“Kenzie, can you fly?” He quietly muttered.

The dullahan meanwhile approached the fallen figure and clicked her tongue in annoyance at him avoiding her environmental kill attempt. Wielding the whip in her left hand and a scythe in her right she swung the bone string forward and the warrior immediately turned around and raised his right arm. The bone whip wrapped around it tightly and Delilah pulled back, only to nearly stumble when the warrior’s form didn’t budge.

Her eyes widened and then she realized that the man had buried his augmented hand into the surface of a nearby stone spire. With a powerful tranquil fury powered motion, he pulled the whip back this time.

The dullahan hadn’t anticipated this sort of turn of the tables and her body was launched forward when she didn’t let go of the whip in time.

“Haaaaaaahhh!” The warrior inhaled deeply and felt a large portion of active spirit energy flood his body through the familiar link he shared with the lion. His body became engulfed in a golden glow that rapidly concentrated on his fist that he immediately shot forward, toward the rapidly approaching form of the reaper.

“Spirit…!” He shouted but his attack whiffed when Delilah’s eyes widened and her body shimmered and blurred out of existence, turning into a shadow that passed over his body before reappearing behind the rocky spire. The whip that wrapped around the warrior’s arm was gone along with its mistress.

“Now!” Bernsen instead yelled as soon as Delilah was out of sight and the fairy shot out of his beard, flying as fast as she could while clutching a vial that held a detox potion.

Delilah’s head snapped at the form of the rapidly retreating fairy and her form blurred out again to rush after her. The fairy was rather quick but not even a necromancer like her that had conquered the bodies of the dead could hope to outrun death incarnate.

But as soon as the smoking black shape was about to reach the fairy, it stopped in midair with a sudden crash. The smoky figure let out a high-pitched warped screech as a shimmering barrier popped into existence around her solid form.

“Gotcha!” The wizard smirked and passed his hand over his face, making the skin return to its normal healthy color while he shook an empty bottle of his own detox potion with his other hand.

Delilah immediately returned to her material form and raised her scythe to strike at the barrier. It exploded outward from a single blow of her weapon, but by doing this, the dullahan allowed the roaring form of Zapp to descend upon her with his claws glowing with spirit energy.

Her eyes widened in surprise and fear when she realized her folly. Zapp was going for a direct hit on her throat but at that moment, just before he could deal the decisive blow, her head came undone.

The lion’s glowing claw swathed past the empty air and at the same time the dullahan kneeled and drove her armored gauntlet that clutched the whip into the lion’s abdomen.

Zapp growled in pain and the reaper’s spine whip quickly spun around his body, constricting and holding it in place it until it’s snake headed tip lined up perfectly to strike at the lion’s bare neck.

And that was what the predator struck. With the energy of his spirit overdrive still bound to his claw, he swathed it at the snake head. The warrior had to cover his ears from the sudden piercing screech but it seemed to help little, as the scream felt like it was coming from his own head.

The golden energy struck against the snake head with a very explosive result. The tip of the whip was flung back and its entire length was rapidly overtaken with the same glow as cracks popped over its surface at alarming rate, until the entire weapon exploded in a shower of golden sparks and the sickly green glow that covered it’s length was burned away by the golden flames of the lion’s spirit energy.

Delilah reeled back from the explosion, covering her face with an expression of pure horror.

“C-caduceus!? No! How!?” She shouted as she looked upon the rapidly fading embers left from her whip until it disintegrated completely.

“What is this? What is this accursed power you wield that defies death itself!? Where did you learn it!? Who are you!?” Delilah screamed at the lion, her quiet, stoic demeanor completely destroyed from beholding an act that should not have been possible.

A mortal, an animal at that, destroying the vile bone serpent that father had gifted to her for her service. A relic and a being of unlife like her that should merely return to the underworld if it loses its physical form. And yet, the burning rage and defiant golden flames seemed to damage, to shatter it’s very aethereal body, as if it was struck with the antithesis of it’s very existence that cancelled it out and made it simply cease to be.

The lion, now free of his bindings, let out a low growl and slowly walked up to the wizard and the fairy, preparing another portion of spirit energy.

“No, no, no , no, NOOOOOO!” Delilah’s voice turned into a scream but the noise was beyond mere sound or even the bone serpent’s death wail. Suddenly, the warrior felt his life slipping out of his body, making him go limp.

His friends were not doing any better. The wizard went pale in the face, for real this time, while covering his ears which suddenly began to bleed out along with his eyes and nostrils. The same exact process spread out to the lion who winced, twitched and collapsed as his body was torn with terrible convulsions. The poor caith sith flopped on the ground, seemingly lifeless.

Whatever was happening right now, it was killing everyone and he had to stop it. He realized that as his body became weaker and weaker, blood began to pour out of his orifices as well. But he was healthier, he was stronger and he crawled forward toward the screeching dullahan whose body and floating head now had a visible red outline around them.

Just a little more, and he will-

{I am sorry I can’t-} The armor’s weak voice whispered and then faded out. A great powerful weight crashed down on his shoulders and he became immobilized by the armor’s weight again.

He helplessly stared at the dullahan’s form, unable to even lift his hand as he desperately tried to think of something.

“Bern! What’s going on there, are you on the floor!? I can’t see anything!” Sahra’s high pitched voice cried out in worry and an idea struck the warrior. Using the last vestiges of his strength, he raised his bleeding head, the skin on which was starting to flail off in small strips, toward the screaming reaper and positioned his chin in a way that pointed directly at her.

“Sahra…” he gritted through his teeth, his voice weak. “Fire, now!”

The dwarf did not hesitate. Bernsen felt a great amount of heat buildup near his chest and his beard suddenly unfurled itself as a huge bright orange light poured out from its depths.

The dullahan was completely obvious to the danger that was about to face her.

The [Dragon’s Breath] blasted out of the warrior’s chin at full force hitting Delilah head on.

The scream was immediately cut off when the wall of infernal fire devoured the dullahan’s entire body, burning so hot that the rocks behind and under her began to melt.

The weight on his shoulders vanished again and he felt Maxie’s presence again. Sahra’s spell was finally concluded. The aftermath was not pretty but it was also not enough.

Bernsen, a man who frequently had to encounter some very ugly and terrible things had to do a double take at the figure of Delilah.

Her hair was completely gone and her skin was burned away, revealing the charred muscle and bone underneath. Her black armor was heated so much that it had cracked and broke in several spots and the parts that were still intact had melted and fused into her very flesh. And somehow, despite all that, she was still alive and standing.

Her head was, once more, firmly attached to her body and she glared at the warrior with her only one left intact eye while the boiling contents of her right eye socket leaked down her face.

She shakily stepped forward, reaching toward the collapsed warrior. Her scythe appeared in her grasp in a burst of black smoke and she brought it high over her head to stab the warrior with its blade, thinking that he was unable to move.

She was wrong. His arm, still carrying the spirit energy that he had whiffed against her, was thrown out as he jumped to his feet and charged forward.

“Spirit Overdrive!” He roared and smashed his right hand into the partially melted chest piece. He was not sure how strong her armor was or what it was even made from. Perhaps it was brittle originally, perhaps it was the fire that weakened it or maybe the spirit energy that he wielded did what happened next. It didn’t matter.

His balled hand punched through the thick layer of armor, making it shatter like glass as his gauntlet then buried itself deeper and deeper into her body driving the sharp pieces of her chest plate inside, tearing through her ribcage, lungs and heart in a single blow until his forearm skewered her like a piece of meat and burst out of her back, destroying the armor again.

The next moment, the spirit energy that augmented his hand struck against her very being. The warrior felt what must have been her soul at that moment. The black swirling mass that smelled of death and decay, of disease. The burning yellow flames and lightning bolts enveloped that black mass, piercing it, just like he had pierced her body and simultaneously expanded.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!” Delilah let out one final scream and her body exploded. It was not gory, but it sure was spectacular as the pieces of her armor flew everywhere, burning away into ash along with her body in a giant shower of sparks that ended with a burst of mana expanding at the point of impact that was so strong that it shook the very ground beneath them.

The dullahan’s scythe spun through the air and with one final metallic clang stabbed itself into the rocky ground next to the warrior, spared of the wrath of his spirit overdrive due to the dullahan dropping her weapon at the last moment.

Bernsen panted heavily and backed away from the fading embers that were left from the reaper’s body.

“Did we get her!?” Sahra’s alert voice asked and after catching his breath, the warrior replied.

“Yea. Good work.”

He then hastily turned back to his collapsed friends who were not moving. Thankfully, they were still breathing, albeit very weakly.

{I can’t feel Zapp’s presence anymore. That must have been the fabled Dullahan’s death scream that is said to carry the souls of anyone who hears it to the underworld.} Maxie nervously spoke in his head. {He is still alive but he is very weak. I wasn’t affected as much, because I am not truly alive but they won’t be able to stand any time soon.}

{This is bad news.} The warrior realized that he couldn’t use spirit overflow to patch them up, due to a lack of sunlight or Zapp’s help. This left the option of potions. But when he tried to reach into his beard, the second opponent finally made herself known.

Kred’s body was flung backwards at speed that was comparable to a cannonball and smashed into one of the rocky spires that littered the island the warrior and his friends were on.

Skorne descended down the steps, looking furious, her helmet resting upon her head once more.

“Finally! Delilah, what’s taking you so lo-“ She examined her surroundings in silence until her gaze finally fell upon the discarded scythe and the fading pile of ashes next to it.

“What have you done!?” The balrog roared in fury and charged at the warrior with her burning claymore held high.

It was time for round two it looked like and he wasn’t about to get a break. At least his opponent looked pretty bloodied too and maybe Kred wasn’t entirely out of the game yet?

>What do you do?

>>282665

Time for our second wind, while we face her have Kenzie deliver healing potions to our allies, after that, team up with Kred to finish Skorne.

>>282665

pose, but instead of taunting Skorne, we should [Praise the Sun] because that will totally work and goddamnit we need a Warriors of Sunlight reference in this

>>282688

and after we [Praise the Sun], we should punch Skorne so hard she falls off the platform into the lava because that would totally kill her because it would be bullshit if she could survive swimming in a lake of molten rock

>>282688

kenzie is down, my man, but sahra isn't

she can do that for our party and see how kred is

>>282665

>second boss fight

IT BEGINS!

Our armor is as strong as the mountains themselves. We hold our ground and meet the balrog's attack head on with our metal fucking fist. Then strike a [WELL! WHAT IS IT!] pose.

she aint gonna hit us anyway we dexxy as fuck boi

Would be nice if we could get Zapp back online again. He should still have a spirit charge for us right? The Balrog is fuelled by hatred and vengeance and is willing to murder off tens of thousands bystanders in her bloodlust. Spirit overdrive should be very effective against her.

We should also keep the scythe of death in mind although it won't penetrate her adamantium armour it still might come in handy later on when we try to stop the coming volcanic disaster.

>>282690

Sahra is mini sized and can't fly. I'm not sure that's a good idea.It might be better just to keep her in our beard. If Kred is not dead and able to do things we should get him to do it and take his place fighting Skorne. We have fire resistance now, so ideally this should be the easier fight.

Lets wrestle the balor to defeat her. If she is too hard to wrestle normally, then we can use the deadly wrestling moves like the neck breaker move we used on Tanya, the first wild king. If she is too strong to wrestle then stop and fight her normally.

>>282707

Oh man, what a lovely art piece! Thanks anon!

for ace more then write man, we might not of actually kill your character we could of just changed her alignment and neutralized her evil nature by rebalancing her yin and yang so im sure you can find a way to write her into the new wiz quest story if you tried/wanted to maybe make here into some kind of nature sprite whos keeping the balance of life and death though more means then just killing idk it your world writemans just playing in it

Oh.

Hmmm.

Delilah ah… i see.

A shame, Dullahans are not inherently evil, and certainly Delilah was not. Some of her sisters on the other hand, well, thats a different story. They just follow orders and do their best to fill daddy's requests, even if it means genocide. Given that a Dullahan's soul is only able to be destroyed when their connection with Nerg is severed (aka: a null field) she would technically still exist. Basically it was a really cool fight but dont disappear the Delilah.

>>282819

**It dont work that way kiddo.

Besides, would you really want her to connected to nature? A daughter of Phallia?**

>>282825

>>282836

Is Delilah a wizard quest character?

>>282823

>aren't balrogs spikey and superhumanly strong though?

She'll probably be able to bench press more than you and me but as long as she is stuck in her heavy armor I don't think we need to be afraid of her spikes (if she has any).

>>282841

Yes, she's a WizardQuest character.

If you want to find out more, please go and read Ace's WizardQuest saga.

“I took out the trash.” The warrior casually replied and struck a taunting pose. Judging by how irritated his enemy was, this was a perfect opportunity to get under her skin to make her loose her concentration. Except, she didn’t react to it.

She stopped in her charge, her weapon still held high and slightly moved her helmet encased head around, as if looking for something.

“Where is the dwarf?” Her voice was powerful and full of commanding authority that made the warrior feel uneasy as he felt his own willpower strike against his enemy’s in a quiet mental struggle for dominance.

“Somewhere safe where you won’t reach her.” He replied after a strained pause and reached with his armored hand towards the discarded scythe to pull it free of the stone it had embedded itself into.

He gave the weapon a practice swing which made a loud whistling noise. It sat uneasily in his hand, as if not recognizing him as it’s master and was projecting distant whispers that spoke in the back of his mind, telling him that he was making a mistake by defying the god of death and the rules of the natural order.

He didn’t care one bit about what it had to say and raised it in front of himself silently. It was awkward to wield compared to his sword and especially his axe, but right now he needed as much reach as he could get.

“I see.” Was all Skorne said before drawing her weapon.

With both of her armored hands on her sword, the balrog stomped forward, traveling down to the base of the staircase with staggering speed and swung at the warrior horizontally with her fire enveloped blade.

The warrior’s left hand shot forward at the arc of the weapon in an attempt to catch it. He succeeded. Partially.

While his mechanical fingers tightly gripped the blade, getting a firm hold, the force behind the blow took Bernsen off-guard.

“Oh shit!” He exclaimed in surprise as his forearm was suddenly bent and pushed back from the force of the blow. The enemy’s weapon, not slowed in its momentum by his strength in the slightest, slammed into his armored torso with enough force to knock him off his feet and get sent flying into a nearby stalagmite that promptly cracked and shattered from the force of the impact, sending a bunch of stone shrapnel flying in all directions.

Skorne let out a powerful grunt and pulled the weapon back and the warrior, who was still clutching her weapon was pulled along for the ride as the balrog raised her weapon overhead and brought it down on the ground.

Okay, disarming her would definitely not work and he promptly let go of the weapon at the peak of her swing and instead landed on the ground with a crash that he quickly recovered from with a quick roll.

Skorne’s beidhander dove into the stone, cutting a deep gash in it that sent a small cloud of char and ash that covered the ground into the air.

Hoping to use her temporary inability to counter with her weapon half buried in stone, the warrior quickly closed in to strike at her form with the scythe but once more, his calculations proved to be off.

Skorne effortlessly pulled the sword out of the ground and slashed diagonally to meet the swing of the scythe and the warrior quickly pulled it back to prevent his unwieldy weapon from flying off course and leaving him exposed.

The beidhander swung at nothing but was then masterfully pulled back as well without leaving a warrior an opportunity to exploit.

The two stood opposed to each other, carefully studying each other’s movements with their eyes as they circled the small rocky platform that housed his collapsed friends and the remains of Delilah, countless dwarves and several Balrogs. He was trying to think of some way to his allies out but he felt that Skorne would close in at the first opportunity if he did so. At least she was not trying to finish off his friends. Was she assuming that they were dead perhaps?

Skorne broke the tense break first and charged in again into the warrior’s personal space, halfswording her blade and aiming to stab him. He quickly swung his weapon sideways to make her back off but she instead closed right in and to his surprise, performed a quick roll that carried her around him and under his scythe swing.

The warrior hastily tried to turn around and swing behind him but Skorne got a crazy jump on him and promptly drove the point of her adamantium sword into his exposed backside.

“Ngh!” The warrior grunted in pain as he felt a powerful blunt force strike against him that forced his body to stagger forward and nearly fall. A deafening gonglike noise reverberated through the caves as the flame enveloped blade bounced off his adamantium armor.

“Adamantine…” The balrog spoke out, her voice full of disdain. “Wearing the remains of my ancestors with such disrespect. Unforgiveable. I shall strip you of them like I will strip the flesh off your bones.”

The balrog quickly closed in toward the recoiling warrior but a whistling stone projectile struck her head, causing her to stagger and angrily look at its source.

“And yet, you still live?” She asked Kred who was back to his feet. His spectacles had cracked and one of the lenses was missing but he did not look hurt too much, besides a few bruises.

“I survived worse than you.” The red-haired man replied cockily and beckoned her to attack with a taunting gesture.

“All you are doing is wasting my time.” Skorne stepped away from the warrior and turned her attention to the fighter while taking a few steps toward him. “You have replaced your flesh with metal but you are just as weak as before. Do not think so highly of yourself just because you-What!“

>[Hide deactivated]

As soon as the balrog’s attention was away from him, Bernsen sprung back into action, concealing his presence and silently rolling forward along the ground behind Skorne to grab her waist. Before the horned monster even realized what was happening, her body was forcibly pulled up. One of warrior’s arms wrapped around her neck while the other was firmly placed over her thighs as he lifted her and placed her body up on his shoulders.

“D-die Streckbank!?” The fighter’s eyes widened in a surprised realization, as if he recognized what the warrior was doing.

Picking up the armored monster was hard enough and holding her up was worse. The weight of her armor was not as insane as the Maximum armor set was, but if he delayed any further, it was his back that would break. So, he decisively pulled down with his arms, painfully bending the balrog’s spine in the opposite direction.

But instead of the expected crack of a spine breaking, the warrior’s hearing was assaulted with an explosion. An explosion that happened right above him and enveloped his entire body in an infernal blast of flames that pushed against him with enough force to make him fall down with the monster he was holding.

Kred hastily raised his metallic arm over his face to protect it from the blast of flames. “Big Bear!”

The warrior slowly opened his eyes and patted himself. Huh? For a moment there, he could have sworn he was hit with powerful flames and yet, his face was not warped or burned and not even a single hair in his beard was singed.

Wait, his hands were empty so-

The balrog’s burning form appeared in the corner of his vision, bringing down her weapon upon his head.

“Ghh!” He clapped both of his hands together and caught the tip of the blade, but once again, his strength had failed him and the sword kept moving down until it smashed into his windpipe.

Bernsen’s air flow was instantly cut but the alternative was worse. He was using all of his strength, both natural and magitek, to stop the weapon from piercing his neck and as a result, was choking himself out. Not even that, the pressure of Balrog’s attack was so great that he felt his neck muscles squish and his neck bones crack from the strain. His neck would break faster than he would choke at this rate!

He rapidly began to kick Skorne with his armored feet but each blow harmlessly bounced off her armor as easily as her own blows were shrugged by him earlier.

His beard ruffled a little and something poked out of it. The warrior didn’t realize what it was supposed to be at first but when he did, he tried to tell Sahra to stop what she was about to do. Unfortunately, only a pained gurgle came out of his strained throat and the crossbow, that he had looted from one of his encounters with the Al-Sabbath assassin, shot its explosive payload right at Skorne’s face.

He appreciated the sentiment but his face was right there too! Fortunately, Skorne saw the unusual movement in his facial hair and hastily moved her head sideways and the explosive crossbow sailed past her, only exploding a couple seconds later in the air.

But as she moved to avoid the attack, her overwhelming grip weakened slightly and with a tranquil fury boosted adrenaline rush, Bernsen pushed the tip of the sword away from his throat.

The blade immediately stabbed the ground with a loud crack and buried itself halfway into the ground while the warrior rolled to the side.

Skorne pulled the weapon out and faced the warrior again but was suddenly interrupted by the fighter who flew forward with his fist crackling with electricity.

She quickly raised her burning weapon to block her attack and the fighter’s metallic hand struck it. But the electricity it carried just passed along the blade, unhindered and the monster roared while backing away and holding her spasming hand, that was having trouble holding her weapon straight.

“Sorry for taking so long. I waz distracted.” Kred told the warrior without turning his head and Bernsen walked up to his side.

“Your hand is melting.” The warrior pointed out and Kred quickly raised it up to his face and then frantically started to swing it back and forth in panic.

“What zhe hells! This is carbon stahl! How hot is she!?”

The warrior glanced at Skorne’s body that was enveloped in a cloak of flame that she had conjured earlier when she escaped his backbreaker. It was intense and the flames were also letting out clouds of black toxic fumes that were making it even harder to breath down here.

“You should probably stick to projectiles. A few more hits and they will break.” The warrior suggested and pointed at the fighter’s right melting hand again, whose fingers were no longer even possible to flex, as they broke down into a glowing pile of molten metal that dripped down on the ground.

“Oh to hellz with zhis!” Kred yelled in defiance. “If zhis arm is to go bust zhen I will make sure it goes out with a bang!”

The fighter then ran forward, deftly avoiding a slash from the balrog until he stood right next to her. The heat being projected was overwhelming and he had to close his eyes and wince as the scalding air started to cook his skin but he gritted his teeth and locked his forearm around Skorne’s wrist.

The Balrog looked amused at his vain attempts of pulling her down. Even with his magitek prosthetic, he simply did not possess enough strength to do that and she instead yanked her hand back to flip the tables on him. And yanked his hand off along with it.

“What!?” She exclaimed in surprise, a second time today, as she beheld the removed arm that was locked around hers at the wrist. The fighter meanwhile was rapidly running away.

“You may mock me Skorne, but do not mock these arms!” The red-haired man threw his head up and suddenly let out a loud laugh that was nearly hysterical. “I have used my whole fortune that I amassed over my years of mercenary work and participating in Cair’s major events to order one of this land’s greatest magical engineers to construct me a weapon that would bring you down! Get ready Skorne! You are about to learn what it feels like to lose everything you have!”

As he said so, the man reached into the front pocket of his sleeveless jacket and pulled out some boxlike contraption with a single button on it.

Skorne seemed to feel there was something off and desperately tried to cling to the metal arm and pry it off but it had coiled itself around her wrist so tightly that not even the heat she was producing could melt it in time.

The warrior suddenly felt an immense sense of dread overcome him that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Kred, wait!” he shouted but it was too late and the red-haired man pressed the button. Nothing happened at first but then, the arm attached to Skorne’s wrist started to glow with an eerie blue energy that seemed to leak out of it. And then it exploded.

The warrior barely managed to cover his face in time before the flash and the deafening crackle occurred. Skorne’s form was completely overtaken by the brilliant white blueish light, as was the entire island over the sea of flames they were on.

The already unstable ground underneath the warrior began to move or perhaps, it was him who was sent flying backwards from the force of the explosion. All he knew is that his ears were wildly ringing and that he felt sluggish and not quite right as he blinked his eyes repeatedly to get the blinding flash of light out of them.

Skorne was nowhere to be seen, as was the ground around and beneath her. It was as if that entire small patch of the island had been completely vaporized and left a smooth crater in its place. The balrog’s blade somehow survived the blast and was launched forward to fast that it got buried up to the handle in one of the rocky spires.

Kred was still alive but the force of the explosion had carried him to the opposite end of this rocky formation. He was staring slaw jacked at the aftermath.

“Was, was ist das? Zhis was not supposed to happen.” The fighter muttered and coughed as he glanced down at his chest which had a massive chunk of Skorne’s armor sticking out of it. “I…” He slowly reached toward it with his remaining arm to try to pull it out.

The entire island shook as a blast of pure white energy cut through it and Kred’s second arm like a hot knife through butter.

“Oooohhh shit!” The warrior shouted as the island began to break apart. A large chunk of it started to slide down into the fiery abyss below and he was forced to leap closer to the center, where the platform with the stairs that housed his collapsed allies was.

Kred stared in abstract horror as his precisely cut off arm made a spin through the air and then started to fall down over the edge of the island. Right into the awaiting hand of Skorne.

“To lose… everything…?” The balrog’s form slowly rose over the edge of island, carried by a rising column of molten rock that expanded upward.

The overloaded magical batteries had exploded with enough force to strip most of Skorne’s armor, exposing her scarred and tattoo marked flesh underneath. But something was very, very wrong. It was hard to describe it as flesh any longer. It was no longer burning, it was melting, or perhaps it has become one with the sea of molten rock below, as it shimmered and flowed over the balrog’s body like blood.

“What can you possibly know about loss?” She slowly lowered her face at the terrified fighter and crushed his prosthetic in his arm like it was made out of paper, sending a shower of sparks to pour down on her body. Or what was actually left of her body.

The middle of her torso lacked any skin or flesh on it and seemed to be artificial, housing her internal organs under a protective red layer of some glasslike substance. Obsidian, the warrior realized.

Her left hand, where the epicenter of the explosion was, had been blown off and in its place sat a massive magitek canon that was loudly hissing and glowing with a pale white light. Her left leg was also completely artificial, even if it resembled that of a bull’s, it was cruder, much thicker and uglier, something that he was unable to see while she was still wearing her armor.

“All you have lost were your arms.” The daemon discarded the crushed prosthetic in disgust and it sailed down into the sea of magma below. As soon as it struck it, the surface exploded in a tall pillar of orange splattering red that disintegrated and melted the metal arm until it became one with its surroundings.

“Me? I have had my body ravaged, torn and replaced for the amusement and benefit of this city’s rulers. To create the perfect gladiator, that they could use to scam the entire country every year out of their fortune. Announcing more and more outrageous prize pools that they never intended to give away to anyone, as I would be forced to kill the runner up in an “accident” that they would cover up to ensure they would not return next year.”

The balrog stepped down from the lava pillar onto the rocky ground next to the fighter and stood over him menacingly as he writhed and screamed in pain as her presence began to make his skin blister and turn red.

“I was forced to become their toy! Every attempt at disobedience would be punished with the activation of the collar that the dwarves had put around my neck.” She tugged on the item for emphasis that miraculously enough, was left completely untouched by the explosion that had torn apart her, presumably, adamantium armor.

“But that was not all, no. They had put thunderclay inside of me. Lots and lots of thunderclay, the payload of which they could activate with a single word to kill me if I ever went rogue. Do you know what it feels like to live every single moment of your life under constant pressure, knowing that it could end on a whim of someone else who you were nothing but property to Kred?”

She leaned forward to the screaming man, her eyes no longer possessing any irises but instead burning with a solid red glow, matched by the red gem embedded into the cracked iron crown she wore over her head.

“You do not. No one does. All my life since the day I was born, I was faced with nothing but cruelty and hardship. I saw my mother and sisters get worked to the bone in the black empty mines of the dwarves to dig for their gold and other valuables hidden in the earth until they became too weak and useless.

It was then that I saw their bodies get melted down to extract the valuable material they called “adamantine”. This whole city is lined with and built upon the bones of my ancestors! We had fought back when the dwarves became weakened by Dollora’s curse and won, but at what cost!” The monster spread her arms out and let out a sad laugh.

“Total mutual extinction! There is no one left alive of my tribe or the dwarves besides myself and the princess! But today, my vengeance will conclude! This city, I will erase it and all of its history and people. Both the ghosts of the dwarves haunting these halls and the worms who had made home on its rotting carcass!”

Kred was no longer moving, choked by the noxious fumes and scalding air that was producer by the balrog’s ascended body. She frowned at that and turned away from him before walking along the edge of the cliff and facing the warrior.

“And you…you, who has taken my prize. Everything that I had lived for. I will not forgive you either. The angel had promised me two things. Revenge and salvation. For the latter, she offered me peace in the land of her father and to be reunited with my mother and friends in death after I destroy Cair and you took it from me, just as you took my chance to avenge my tribe by killing the last member of the species that drove us to fight to extinction for our freedom, for our right to live!”

The warrior realized that her eyes were leaking something out of them that was evaporating almost instantly. The balrog was crying.

“Your fate is already sealed, but I will not allow you to die in peace.”

The balrog raised her right hand and the flames burning in the air around her began to condense until they shaped themselves into a solid whip of fire that she clutched and lashed against one of the rocky spires which cut through it like nothing, either through the virtue of its sharpness, heat or both.

The pieces of the iron crown had melted completely and the red stonet that used to be embedded into it, sunk into her malleable molten flesh until it became a part of her.

“With the power of the integrity core that Dollora had bestowed upon the dwarven tribe, I will be sure to make these finals hours as excruciating for you as possible.” Her form flashed orange and her body completely became fire, red and bright, covered with a thick veil of swirling black smoke. She raised her whip and pointed her glowing magitek cannon at him in threatening fashion and let out a roar of misery and pain, reminiscent of a rabid, dying and cornered animal lashing out in desperation and agony.

>What do you do?

>>283204

Ask her, "What about your possible future daughters?"

With her body giving off such a high temperature we can't engage in close combat, and since we don't have any arrows left our best option is to use the cannon in our adamantion hand, we can also check kred's remaining hand for potential power sources

>>283229

considering just about her whole body has been modified, she probably can't conceive

>>283204

tell her

"its all for nought

the dwarves escaped though they are small in number they still exist

even if you kill their princess, which spoiler you wont

all you have done is sparked a war to end wars, what happened here today will be used as a trigger, you haven't just condemned the people in this city to die

but million's, Hundred of millions to die in a war that will make the war of the gods look like child's play, you don't deserve salvation, you deserve nothing not even the bliss and release of death, i will make you into nothing more then a stump and for the rest of time you will have to watch and pay witness to the hell of your own creation "

then pull out a swiftness potion and chug it

and proceed to "disarm" her

also disleg her attacking the points where the mechanical components attach to organic ones

while continuing to say " you could of left, you could of stopped being a tool, before they found you, you had chance after chance, after chance, when the change came to the Dwarves , when they fled from you! when they died trying to stop you from killing children because you and i both know that, that is what they were doing!, you are A MONSTER ON THE OUTSIDE AND THE INSIDE"

>no more words

"YOU AREN'T GETTING OFF THAT EASY MONSTER"

then keep berating her for her actions

>>283229

im guessing they made it so she can't have any

also nice choice in music write-man

YOU REALLY NEED TO GET A NAME BRO FOR REAL!!

>>283232

>With her body giving off such a high temperature we can't engage in close combat

We munched on salamander heart anon the heat shouldn't harm us.

>The middle of her torso lacked any skin or flesh on it and seemed to be artificial, housing her internal organs under a protective red layer of some glasslike substance. Obsidian, the warrior realized.

This seems like her mayor weak point. Does anyone know how to easily break obsidian or do we just brute force it open?

>>283232

>considering just about her whole body has been modified, she probably can't conceive

We don't know that dude. I can't see why the dwarves would neuter her. And I can't see a reason why the count or/and countess would. They may have more likely tried to breed from her! Think of how much a Balrog child would be worth?! From the 1- Year Grand Champion no less.

>>283235

>you are A MONSTER ON THE OUTSIDE AND THE INSIDE

She's the last of her kind. She's been enslaved from her birth. Seen her family worked to death. Seen her race destroyed in front of her. Then enslaved again for equally cruel masters. Forced to fight for their amusement. Why should she care about this city or it's people whom laughed at her torment? You my friend, are far too willing to deal out judgement here. It's very easy to dole out vengeance. Far harder to be merciful.

Her only hope: to die and see her kin again…

Bernsen has already killed off another 'last of her kind', in the Blackforest when he was just a kid! And he's suffered under a "Overlord". As well as having his family, his friends and tribe taken from him! He knows what it feels like to to lose anything!

>"YOU AREN'T GETTING OFF THAT EASY MONSTER"

And then you wish to continue to torment her? Who is the real monster here?! What is your excuse? But, her and her kin are the victims here. I'm not saying she's forgiven for the harm she's done. I sure as hell can't forgive her for killing Iggy, Temna and trying to kill Sa. But, I'm willing to show mercy to this poor wretch!

>"They had put thunderclay inside of me. Lots and lots of thunderclay, the payload of which they could activate with a single word to kill me if I ever went rogue".

Dude, they put explosives in her fuckin' body. Having all that done to her, is going to make her really fucked in the head!

Besides it was Ritcher and the Galmathorians that brought this war to Cair. Not Skorne.

She's the last of her race, if she dies then something unique will be lost from the world!

Ask the Union to help her. See if they can remove that damn "COLLAR" and thunderclay in her body. At least give her the chance to choose. Between being enslaved by her past and dooming her whole race to extiction. Or letting her seek freedom in a new future. Disarm her and deleg her, fine. But give her the chance to be free or at least her daughters (if that's possible).

I know this sounds crazy but I don't think Skorne is all that cruel. She took Kred's arms, she maimed him but did not kill him. It was his choice to enter the arena, she didn't have any.

>"I would be forced to kill the runner up in an “accident” that they would cover up to ensure they would not return next year.”

She looking at Bernsen when he defeated but did not kill the Thunderbird.

I'm sorry if this makes me sound like a self-rightous, arrogant dick! But I've just seen too much death and suffering in Cair. I want to see some good come from this arc.

If I've missed anything. Please let me know!

>>283264

Don't forget that at the time, Bearson didn't know that Romula was the last of her kind until days after he killed her. Although I don't know how we would be able to convince her while dodging all her energy attacks.

>>283264

>If I've missed anything. Please let me know!

We should also mention how the "overlord," the fake goddess, the super mantango, told us a sob story and still did all those horrible things afterwards.

>>283264

Yeah I feel like killing would be the wrong way to go on this too.

Tell her how much Bearson's suffered. Just the quick version, we're still racing the clock here. If that works and calms her a little use the opening to Give her a hug and then *pet her head. Chances are she hasn't experienced genuine kindness since she was a kid. She might reverse the destruction of Cair if we win her over but I don't think it will be a big deal if it gets wiped off the map as long as we can get people to safety first. I'm also assuming there's going to be some BS about how Sahra can remove her slave collar cause dorf princess or whatever**

>>283362

>That makes murder of children fine?

No, it doesn't. As I said she fucked in the head from her life of enslavement.

>I'm not saying she's forgiven for the harm she's done. I sure as hell can't forgive her for killing Iggy, Temna and trying to kill Sa.

>She's also sparking a war.

How the hell did she start a war? Last I checked it was Ritcher and the Galmathorians that brought an army into Cair and started a war. Not Skorne. She just took advantage of it.

>I'm not the same guy but she's murdered our friends, and kreg, and wants to murder Sarha even though Sarha has done nothing to her, Sarha didn't even know anything about her race because She's an orphan. Skorne on the other hand has done bad by us.

Look at my previous post for why she's not an upstanding member of society. >>283264

>She's not going to let up anyway.

She won't be able to fight back with most of her limbs hacked off.

>Uh, wow. Even I think that's a bit much.

We agree on something at least.

>These dwarves are more like dwemer than dwarves

Aye they're nasty buggers. Unless the Bolrogs were not a very friendly race before the change.

How is that scene in that pic even remotely related to this story?

So i guess it comes down to

Route a :we kill her for shes done

Route b :kindness/forgiveness/acceptances

https://strawpoll.com/zs3x9zy

>>283371

guess were doing route b

:V

bearson is getting to old for this shit

>>283204

you think id care about you life or traumas after you purposely killed my friends and ally with a servent of the embodiment of death and try to use an innocent dwarf orphan who knows nothing of her people to destroy a city of people who know nothing about the atrocities comitted on you then you really are just a mad demon

if you cared so much about freedom and living then you wouldnt even have considered revenge you would've focused on freeing yourself and looking for help for people who could make those who made you suffer face true

JUSTICE

you could've lived on lived a normal life but no you've chosen to live and fight like a demon animal so you can die like one but dont mistake me here i didnt choose to end you you choose to die yourself

>>283367

>How is that scene in that pic even remotely related to this story?

Anakin had his arms and legs chopped off near lava?

I'm guessing that the Skorne's magitech arm cannon can destroy adamantine into sharp objects. We can bate her into shooting at the railings made of the stuff or even the lava pipes and bridges as well and use the ruined debris as make shift arrows for attacking her. Also, we should ask maxie if she can fit over any one no matter the size and have her be worn by Kred to either get him back into the fight or to atleast lead him away from the balrog if he has passed out. This is assuming we can somehow avoid or parry her flaming whip.

Since it looks like were going the peaceful as it gets route we berated her for whats shes done, then shift tone to one if understanding clearly shes had a harder life then anyone remotely deserves but at the same time, things have changed, we give her a single chance, a single solitary chance yo stop this, we can help, weve seen the hopless and the damned and we've saves them before we can save her now we can take her to people that will help her, people who will remove collar the thunder clay, people who will try to give her new life a free life

Then have bern go in and hug her,then keep hugging her

Only the strongest man in the world has the power to forgive even the harshest curlest and most vial of transgressions

Lets see how strong bear son really is

The warrior said nothing and pulled down the burned remains of his eyepatch to expose the mechanical eye underneath. His left hand then reached toward the scythe his fingers were clutching and with some effort, he managed to pry it out of his death grip.

The black curved blade of the reaper’s tool landed on the ground with a clatter and the warrior then pulled his axe out of his beard, holding it in his left mechanical hand. Just in time, as it turned out, Skorne’s fiery whip lashed against his form the next instant. He quickly slashed at it while simultaneously rolling to the side, in the direction where the beidhander was set in stone.

The golden shimmering blade of the axe struck against the infernal string but instead of melting into slag, the orange ribbon was cut through.

The impact that the tip of the whip carried was harmlessly transferred into the air as it’s cut off part fizzled out of existence, the mana it was constructed from expanding in every direction with a sound akin to a loud pop that displaced the air around the point of it’s dispersion.

Skorne looked surprised at this turn of events and the warrior recovered from his roll and rushed toward the Beidhander of Discord, the blade that had saved Cair and the rest Deleor once before and was now called for aid again after being liberated from the clutches of those who sought only death and destruction.

The fingers on his right hand trembled as he painfully forced them open, nearly tearing his locked down stretched tendons in the process. But then his hand firmly clutched the handle, forming an unbreakable seal of his own flesh and the maximum armor’s gauntlet.

With a loud metallic shing, the blade was pulled out of the stone and burst into a fierce defiant flame that burned as bright as the warrior’s own spirit. With the orichalcum axe in his left hand and the beidhander in his right he turned back to Skorne. He remembered the advice of his fighting instructor, to always hold your weapons with both hands. But strangely enough, he was not feeling off-balance or fatigued even though the weapon weighted almost twice as much the Highlander’s Pride did.

His right hand held the blade firmly without a single tremble, it’s weight easily supported by his arm muscles and the righteous anger of those whose lives were cut short and whose essence was now a part of him.

Cutting the whip in half was only a temporary solution however. It quickly grew back, like a hydra’s head and lashed out against him. The warrior did not dodge this time either and with a deadly precise strike, the whip was cut before it could hit him again.

The daemon roared in frustration at her attacks’ infectivity and the warrior began to walk toward her with both weapons at the ready. His walk forward was calm and even, as if he was completely obvious to the scorching fires rising everywhere and the ground around him collapsing in chunks while huge columns of molten stone erupted below every few seconds with deafening roars. And yet, his steps were precise, never careless, never making him stumble or lose his balance despite the vicious earthquakes that were starting to tear the underground dwarven city apart as the adamantium pipes that ran through its length slowly but surely started to expand as the pressure in them grew.

Skorne forgo using her whip and instead pointed at the warrior with her glowing and hissing white-hot cannon. It started to glow even brighter at that moment and made a loud whistling noise as it rapidly sucked the air around it to superheat its particles and send it forward in a blast of pure energy.

The warrior stopped his walk and instead ran back and sideways along his rapidly shrinking available space. The plasma cannon roared and released a beam that only formed itself into existence for the briefest of moments. No one would be able to avoid something that traveled at such speeds, this was why Bernsen leaped into the air a split second before it was fired.

The plasma beam passed through the empty spot where he was supposed to be and instead smashed into one of the adamantium pipes that ran down from the ceiling. His plan ended up in failure however, the pipes forged in the earths utmost depths with the heat of creation from the remains of its most vile and evil inhabitants withstood the attack. The white scorching beam of energy merely split and passed around the pipe, striking a distant cave wall that caused another earthquake and a series of eruptions.

Skorne pulled the hissing weapon back in anger as she watched the warrior safely land back on the ground with a roll and then recover from it while dropping down an empty bottle that shattered against the ground with melodical crash.

The warrior felt the world around him rapidly slow down. He could see the individual shards of the broken bottle that held the Zoom potion. They were slowly passing through the air, reflecting the infernal red light that permeated the caves, shaping and bending it into a colorful shimmer and shine akin to a rainbow.

He moved forward, his body responding as quickly as always, despite the world around him slowing down to a near stop. He quickly crossed the dangerous terrain between him and the balrog unopposed and swung the blade in his right hand diagonally across the monster’s glowing, molten body.

At that moment, the Zoom potion wore off. He felt ready for the withdrawal effect that the magic shop owner in Derrick warned him about, but nothing came from it. His resistance to poison extended to all harmful toxins.

Skorne could only blink and screech in pain as Discord cut over her chest and scratched the protective red obsidian shell that housed her internal organs. Droplets of glowing molten stone rained down at the warrior, landing on his exposed skin with loud hissing noises and burning through his flesh. Not even his fire resistance could protect against heat of this magnitude but it could resist it and that would do.

Merely standing near the daemon would kill most lesser folk and the warrior’s vision flickered as the delicate optics in his artificial eye began to warp and break from the heat, a warning message in his vision pointing out that he needed to recalibrate it until it went completely dark.

But he was in melee range now and this limited what Skorne could do. She swung down with her whip in front of her but the warrior rolled behind her and the whip harmlessly lashed against the ground, leaving a burning deep gash. He then drove his orichalcum axe in her exposed back

Skorne roared again and stumbled forward, down on her knee before pointing her magitek cannon behind her and firing it wildly. The warrior rolled again, now truly understanding what Pappas meant about the armor’s weight providing the necessary initial speed boost that gave the roll added momentum and velocity.

The beam of energy struck another cave wall which collapsed down into the sea of fire below, creating another deafening eruption. Skorne stood back up, molten stone running down her back, her blood transformed and boiling as it leaked out of the gaping wound that the warrior’s axe had left.

Not bothering to fire with the cannon, she instead raised it overhead and brought it straight down on the warrior in an attempt to crush him with it. The man easily read her desperate attempt to make him move out of her comfort zone and stepped back.

And as he did so, he spun his body in a full circle while raising the beidhander, multiplying the weapon’s strength and momentum in a devastating arc that he then carried forward while simultaneously stepping back into melee range before Skorne could react.

The Arc of Eden passed over the short part of flesh that connected the magitek cannon to her body and cut it off.

Many a weapon would be destroyed by driving itself so deeply into the molten flesh of a monster born in the depths of this world, but Discord burned with the flames of humanity’s will of survival and defiance of death. That fire was stronger and brighter than the fire of pure hatred that Skorne’s body and soul were set ablaze with.

The daemon roared and reeled back in pain as her arm prosthetic was forcibly launched forward with a pressurized gush of her own boiling blood and sailed down into the abyss where it exploded in spectacular fashion with a flash of blue ethereal light as the mana stones set in it detonated.

The warrior was not done however. As Skorne backed away while clutching the gushing and bleeding stump of her forearm, he quickly closed in, pulling back the axe he held in his mechanical arm. The monster swung her whip at him in desperation but once more, the enchanted metal brought from the ocean’s innermost depths cut through the flames with little effort and the warrior knelt under the monster.

His mechanical finger weakened for a brief moment and the axe slipped out of them, landing on the ground. He then balled his power fist and delivered an uppercut to her midsection that carried all of his strength that, when multiplied by the prosthetic’s adamantium pressure plates, shattered the obsidian cover over her lower body.

Skorne screamed, no longer a roar of rage or screech of annoyance. The sharp shards of obsidian that were supposed to protect her most vulnerable spot now cut and dug deeply into her burning flesh, shredding her organs to bits and making her boiling blood pour out of the gaping wound in her abdomen.

She doubled over from the pain, the fiery whip dispersing from her grasp and the warrior rolled behind her one final time, bringing down the sword he held overhead. Instead of striking her exposed back however, the beidhander slashed at her mechanical leg and it was lopped off just like her arm.

The balrog, fell forward on her stomach, unable to hold her balance and desperately lashed out at the warrior, wildly swinging her remaining intact limbs while crawling away, using her one good hand. The blows were powerful and carried an incredible heat on them that cooked the warrior’s face and the rest of his flesh underneath his armor.

It was painful, it was excruciating. Skorne’s mere presence hurt him more than anyone else had managed to do in this city. The fat under his skin boiled, making it bubble up and split in multiple spots with sickening hisses that filled his nostrils with the smell of his own burning flesh. But he had to prevail, the pain would pass but lost lives would not come back.

So he leapt forward, ducking under the balrog’s chaotic swings to grip one of her horns with his mechanical hand and pulling the head up forcefully to make the monster face him. Her eyes glowed with defiance and hate, even in her weakened state. She extended her arm at his face, trying to clutch it and crush his skill like a grape and he smashed the broad side of the sword at her wrist, knocking it down on the ground whereupon he then forcibly stomped on it, holding the arm in place.

He then raised his weapon again and bashed her exposed face with the pommel of the weapon. One hit. Skorne roared and reeled from the impact. Two hits, her skin had split, pouring down burning and hissing blood all around him and making toxic black fumes escape from it.

They choked the warrior, he could barely breathe and if it wasn’t for the essence of the hydra that he had consumed back in the Black Forest, he would have already succumbed to the poisonous vapors.

Three hits. He felt her skull crack and her body shuddered in response as it shook in convulsions from the concussion. Four hits. Skorne let out a pained whimper and the glowing red gem set in her forehead fell out.

The red integrity core, an ancient relic that held a portion of the dark goddesses Dollora’s power, a power that would allow one to control and change her creations fell on the glowing red ground with a clack, bounced once and then laid still.

Skorne’s body, separated from the incredible divine source of power began to rapidly cool down. Her molten flesh soon returned back to its regular texture and shape, the black smoke quickly dissipated and her broken and battered form laid limply on the ground.

The warrior let go of her horn and pulled his foot away and her head bashed against the ground with a meaty thwack. Her eyes were hollow, the fire in them extinguished.

The warrior turned away and grabbed the red glowing stone. It was warm to the touch and held some sort of mysterious power within it. He examined it briefly and then put it into his beard. “Here is your stuff Sahra. The crown melted though, sorry.”

The dwarf who was silently waiting prior to this nervously replied. “That’s…is that really the same stone? It feels so different. It is almost like it’s alive.”

“So that’s… how it ends…” Skorne’s form stirred and the warrior quickly turned around while picking up the axe that he dropped earlier in the fight.

“Holy shit, she is still alive!?” Sahra exclaimed and her head popped out of the warrior’s beard. “Wait, what’s wrong with your-“ The tiny humanoid examined the outside of the warrior’s facial hair which was badly burnt and then looked up at his face, her expression twisting into horror and disgust. “Oh gods, Bern, your face!”

The warrior’s visage had taken a harsh beating during the fight even though the Balrog never landed a hit on him. His tranquil fury empowered regeneration combined with the fire resistance that he had inherited from Ignacia prevented him from dying outright but that was the extent of its influence. His face and the rest of his body undertook countless loops of being set on fire and then healing, building up a massive amount of scar tissue that made it hard for him to even express emotions and made him feel a nagging aching pain every time he moved his body.

“I am fine.” He responded and tried to smile but it only came out as a twisted grimace with him unable to fully move his facial muscles. “I think it’s safe to come out now.”

He extended his armored gauntlet toward his chin and the dwarf nervously stepped out. Her form was no longer naked and instead held one of Kenzie’s dressed over it which were a little big for her.

“Oh gods, is everyone alright?” She looked around the ruined battlefield for signs of their allies.

“Yea, they are over there, near the central platform.” The warrior pointed at the collapsed forms of Webster, Zapp and Kenzie. Kred was likewise unconscious and leaning against a stalagmite near the edge of the rumbling island.

“We need to help them, I think I saw a few more healing potions down there!” The witch hastily turned around and addressed the warrior.

“They will be alright. There is something else we need to do first.” The warrior shook his head and instead turned it toward the collapsed form of the daemon.

Sahra swallowed hard and glanced at the monster and then at the warrior and nodded. “Right.”

Bernsen walked over to the horned woman again, looking down at her.

“I should have known.” The balrog spoke weakly. “My tribe was created to be fodder for someone else. A plaything for Sveth’s dwarves. It was our destiny from the beginning to be nothing more than that. I thought…” The monster choked.

“I believed that we were more than that. That we could forge our own destiny. That there was a purpose to us gaining the ability to feel, to love when Dollora’s transformation gave us intelligence while weakening the dwarves. But it’s all for naught. Our rebellion was an empty victory that left no one to celebrate. And even after we won, all that I accomplished as the sole survivor was trading one master for another. Even with the help of the god of death itself, I failed to exact my revenge.” The balrog’s body twitched as she shakily took a few breaths before turning her eyes at Sahra.

“Rejoyce dwarf. You win. You get to live and continue your tribe’s legacy while the fire of mine will burn out and extinguish.” The balrog closed her eyes while breathing heavily. “Make it quick. I have had enough of this world. Whatever lies beyond, even if I won’t see my family, is a better alternative to this existence.” She requested from the warrior.

Bernsen looked down upon the monster. Her expression was calm and held a twisted serene smile and her body laid still as she awaited the sweet release of death without a single shred of fear. For her it was not the end of her happiness but the end of her suffering.

“No.” The warrior’s raspy voice replied as he dug out two items out of his beard. He then knelt before the balrog and set them down in front of her. It was a healing potion and a silver dagger.

“If you wish to end your life, then do it yourself. I will not make it easy for you. Not after everything you’ve done.”

Skorne’s eyes slowly turned to the bottle of crimson liquid. “What is the healing potion for?”

“In case you change your mind and decide that you want to live. You are bleeding out really badly.” The warrior noted as he looked at the rapidly growing puddle of blood under the balrog that leaked from her shredded internal organs. “You have a few minutes at best until you lose your consciousness and a few more after that until your heart stops beating.”

“I see, so all I need is just to wait a little more and it will finally be over.” The balrog smiled wistfully again. The warrior quietly examined her for another moment before continuing.

“You are strong. Possibly the strongest opponent that I had to face yet. If you had fought me with the same skill and calculated approach that you had before Kred interrupted us, then you would have probably won. When you stopped wielding your sword, you started to act as nothing more than a rabid animal. And if there is one thing I know, then it’s how to put rabid animals down. Those who seek only death and destruction, to exploit the people around them like parasites for their own wicked gain.”

“Then why won’t you put me down then Big Bear? Do you pity me? Oh, I see.” Her face suddenly cracked with a mocking grin. “You want to me stop what’s happening to this city. You couldn’t find a way to damage the pipes so you are trying to manipulate me into preventing its destruction.”

“No. The reason why I can’t put you down is because you are not an animal.” The warrior calmly responded and the balrog’s wicked expression suddenly froze and he could see how her mask cracked slightly.

He then slowly knelt down toward her, to get on the same eye level with the monster.

“I cannot say truthfully that I understand you completely. I had suffered plenty in my life and I know many who did as well but not one of them could compare to what you must have went through. In my homeland, there is a saying that goes like this: If you repeat a lie a thousand times people will think it’s the truth. You think you are an animal because that’s what you were called and threated as since the day you were born. And so, you try to act accordingly, even as you don’t realize it. You lash out, you growl, trying to play a role you were given because you don’t know any better. Even as you proclaim your desire to be free, you still act like one. But you are not an animal.” The warrior shook his head and then looked the balrog in the eyes again.

“I know this because I fought you. You had an ample opportunity early on to strike against my weakened and downed comrades, use their incapacitated state to gain an advantage, a leverage over me. That is something an animal would do. But you didn’t, because on an instinctual level you understand that such an act is despicable and it disgusts you. Just as it’s despicable to kill an unarmed person.” The warrior glanced at Kred’s unconscious form.

“Interrupt me if I am wrong but that man there…you couldn’t bring yourself to kill him last year, didn’t you? Even though you were ordered to, you instead defied your explicit order, putting yourself at risk of getting hurt or getting killed just so you could spare him, even if you would have to cripple him to do so? And you did it again, holding back considerably against him.”

“Shut up.” Skorne bit on her lip as her body shook slightly.

“Animals don’t act this way. They never prioritize someone else over their own safety and gain.” The warrior shook his head again. “You said you had a family and it sounded like you miss them. That means they must have been kind to you, right?”

“What the hells does it matter! Why the fuck do you care!?” The monster snarled and face twitched in agony, but not physical.

“If you remember then you have the undeniable proof that it exists. Kindness that is. And if it existed at some point even once, then it exists or will exist somewhere else. You asked me if I want to stop you from destroying this city?” As the warrior said this one of the pipes made a loud metallic groan and some stone dust rained down from the ceiling.

“No. I do not. I had not been here for long but I agree wholeheartedly that this city is the worst place that I have ever been in. I have seen people openly abused by their leaders but this kind of low treachery and complete disregard for the lives of their subjects and even allies makes me sick. Even though I am a stranger in this land and have no right to interfere in its affairs… If I had the ability to, I would gladly personally kill every single one of these vile individuals without a shred of remorse because it would not be killing people or monsters, it would be killing animals. Although no…using the word animal is an insult to the wild life that abides the rules of nature.” The warrior scowled, his expression twisted in anger but then softened.

“But the thing is, you are wrong if you think that only animals live in this city. They might be few, they might try to hide their presence to avoid retribution from their neighbors but people live in this city too. “

“People like an innkeeper who would take in a hungry orphan and offer her a room and a job despite not being able to afford extra workers and barely scrapping by even though the orphan might not be best behaved and frequently runs her mouth off.”

Sahra slightly shrunk in his hand at the remark and turned away.

“People like a queen that would go to great lengths to make her subjects happy and return them the home that was taken from them, even though she had never even laid eyes upon it and no longer has any real titles or obligations.”

“People like the two arena participants with vastly different world views and yet who laid their lives together to protect some strangers that they had never met just because I asked them to do it.”

“People like an old man, well past his prime helping innocent bystanders to get to safety even as the streets fill with vicious animals who seek to destroy everything in their path.”

“People like the general from a foreign country that wanted to free his cruelly oppressed neighbors, even if he was to blind to realize that it was animals oppressing other animals for the most part.”

The warrior closed his eyes and took a deep breath before glancing down at Skorne again. “And these are just a few that I had met personally and can speak off. There are many more that I am not aware off but I know that they exist. And when the pressure in these pipes overloads, they will die along with the animals at which your righteous and justified hatred is directed at.

Perhaps I am wrong but I firmly believe that that preserving kindness is much more important than destroying wickedness. When you kill an animal, a person does not take its place but when you kill a person, they are gone forever.” The warrior noted bitterly. “I had to kill a few people in my life and each one of these acts I regret with utmost depth every day because it can’t be undone.”

The man then addressed the woman again. “So tell me Skorne, what is it that you really want? If you truly desire nothing more than to kill everyone and die yourself, then why haven’t you slit your own throat yet while I talk? Why do you continue to suffer through this excruciating pain and bleed out?”

“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up and kill me you son a bitch! Why are you so set on tormenting me, do you get some sick pleasur-“

“That is the animal speaking. I am not asking the animal. I am asking you Skorne. What. Do. You. Want.” The warrior repeated the questions and extended both of his arms to firmly grab the balrog’s head under her horns before leaning closely to look into her eyes.

The woman’s scarred face twitched and grimaced a she struggled to look away from him but his grip on her head was firm and gentle. Her eyes darted repeatedly, seeking salvation from the pain that tore inside her heart worse than any physical wound could. The powerful sting of truth.

“I…I….” She suddenly sobbed and tears began to stream down her face. “I want to be be free, I want to love, to have a family again, I want to…I Want to….”

She choked and shuddered as the words finally escaped her mouth.

“I want to live!” Her remaining hand trembled as it reached toward the healing potion in desperation that only a man dying from thirst would match when he crawled toward a distant oasis in the desert.

It tightly gripped the bottle and she brought it to her face, her hand trembling so much that she nearly dropped it but the warrior placed his own hand over it and helped her raise the bottle to her lips. She drank the whole bottle’s contents quickly while sobbing and choking and then limply laid on the ground. Her bleeding began to slow down. Her breathing would have evened out too, the warrior thought, if she wasn’t crying so hard. A single potion wasn’t really enough to bring her up to her feet but it should last her until help arrived.

“Skorne.” The warrior addressed the woman again and gestured behind him at the massive set of pipes. “How do we turn it off?”

The monster hesitated for a moment but finally replied after a shuddering breath. “The emergency pressure vent function is activated by twisting the large red circular knob on the left side of the control panel. After that, the system will reset to its default flow rate and will no longer be at risk of overloading. Only the dwarf can manipulate it though.”

“Thank you.” The warrior bowed his head respectfully and begun to turn around when Skorne suddenly called him out.

“Big Bear…what will happen to me?” The monster asked with tear-filled eyes. “I have killed so many people and hurt more. Who will judge me? Where do I go? Will I get put to trial and executed?”

Bernsen considered this for a moment. “I don’t know. But I know some good people who will help if I ask. Considering the circumstances behind everything that happened here…I can’t say you will get away. But you won’t be executed.”

Satisfied with the answer, the balrog sighed and laid down on the ground before finally blacking out from stress.

“Well, I guess there is only one thing left to do.” The dwarf swallowed hard and the warrior walked up to the center of the rocky formation, ascending the long steps that lead to the large square adamantium table that housed many curious little devices on it like levers and buttons.

“Big red knob on left side…that’s the one, right?” The shrunken dwarf stepped down from the warrior’s hand and walked along the many dials that covered the red metal plate.

“Stop.” A deep powerful feminine voice ordered from behind and the warrior turned around, startled.

“Oh shit, she is still alive!?” Sahra yelled as she looked upon the person that called them out.

Even though the reaper’s body was completely destroyed in every way, her head somehow survived and now laid on the staircase, tucked away in a shady spot under a stone that the warrior didn’t notice as he ascended it.

“You must not defy the will of Nerg, the lord of the dead.” Delilah spoke again, more calmly and evenly now which was disturbing, considering the state she was in. Even though her unliving existence still persisted, her flesh had been burned, torn and stripped. One of her eye socket laid empty while the other glowed with menacing red light as her current state was little more than a scorched skull covered with a layer of cooked gore.

The warrior narrowed his eyes. He was not feeling any danger from the head and it was apparent that it was no longer able to move in its current state but he still kept his guard up as he addressed it.

“And why is that?”

“Because if you will, this land will suffer terrible consequences. Perhaps, you misunderstood me. Do you know of father and his goals?” Delilah inquired.

“Nurg, the god of death and disease. Yes, I know him well. In my homeland, it is forbidden to utter his name in fear of summoning his attention and being brought into his realm early.” Bernsen answered.

“Then you are a fool and know nothing. Father is not a malicious entity and neither am I or his other servants. His goal and purpose is to maintain balance in this world, to ensure that no side in any conflict gets too much of an upper hand. He sees and knows many things that mortals can’t or won’t admit. The disaster that is supposed to ravage this city is a gift, a divine blessing that I was sent to deliver to the people of this world.” The burned head explained.

“A gift?” Sahra narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “What the fuck kind of gift is genocide of an entire city? I know they say that you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth but in this case, I think I will take the “return to sender” option!” The girl then reached toward the knob but the warrior hastily raised his hand and shook his head.

“B-bern?” Sahra blinked in surprise at his reaction but obediently pulled her hands away.

“What are you talking about?” The warrior addressed the head again.

“This land is on the verge of war. War that will be more terrible than even the fiercest of the monster invasions from the north. A three side conflict, the struggle between which will run the rivers of this land red with blood and line it’s fields and roads with countless corpses. Father has foreseen this. Even he is horrified of the things that are about to unfold. He had much time to prepare but his divine will was defied twenty years ago, when I first tried to save Cair from its people. Because of this, it’s rampant corruption was allowed to grow and its people forgot the value of human life completely and its leaders allowed Galmathorians to execute their plot. They even joined the cult of Al-Sabbath in their mad chase for more land and profit and allowed its agents to operate freely in their city.

The second attempt was only two months ago, when one of my sisters was tasked to help a growing army of monsters in the west whose competitive friction would force the Monster nation and Deleor to move their attention away from Galmathoria and allow that country some breathing room they could use to went the pressure that they were constantly put under by their neighbors. Perhaps, even offer aid against this comparatively small threat that would finally bring the three nations to the negotiating table again.

But fathers will was defied again then. A traveling illusionist had assassinated the leader of that movement and his meddling caused my sister to be erased from existence. The disheartened beheaded army was then manipulated into joining Galmathoria which allowed its numbers to grow ever further. But with it’s now massive army, they are at an impasse. Their only choice now is to either expand or die from mass starvation and basic supply deficit.

And here we are again, someone defying father’s will because they think they know better than the gods do.” The head closed it’s one remaining eye briefly in an expression that felt like pity rather than anger.

“I got that but that still doesn’t explain why are you here right now.” Bernsen slightly cocked his head.

“As I said. To save this land and its people from the horrors of the over encompassing war that is on the verge of breaking out. If everything was to go as planned, the destruction of this city would be a terrible tragedy that would befall everyone and unite them in their sorrow. If you hadn’t evacuated the nobles of Deleor, their deaths would leave their houses without leaders or goals. They would have no interest in supporting warmongering and would instead look up to their king for guidance who would suggest an end to the conflict.

The death of the bellowed and charismatic general Stahlherz and his loyal men would destroy the Galmathorian’s morale and the seismic activity caused by the explosion would make the nearby river expand and flood many of Galmathorian’s towns, culling their population and leaving them far too busy to wage war.

The vile third parties like Caroline and her associates who profit from the conflict would be erased. Removing the friction even further. The destruction of the leyway train system leading north would stop any Deleorean attempts to move their troops quickly as well.

The Order Heroes, The Galmathorian forces, Deleorean nobles, Al-Sabbath agents, the citizens of Cair. All of these deaths would be a noble sacrifice to stop far more terrible atrocities from happening. You have managed to lead one of these groups to safety but it’s not too late. The impact of the disaster will not be as powerful and all-encompassing but with luck, it will still be enough to work. With all sides weakened, their delusions of expansionism and strengthening of their positions would crumble. Listen to me futureless child of the void.” Delilah’s eyes flared up even brighter.

“If you twist this red knob you will save the people of Cair temporarily. But once everyone recovers from the sudden shock of Richter’s act, Cair will become the center point of the bloodiest conflict in this land’s history and its people will die all the same in the battles that will take place here.” Her gaze then traveled to the opposite end of the metal panel.

“But if you pull this blue switch instead. The pumping system will reset to its initial state and then repeat its previously input command. The timer will reset and you will have two hours to escape the city and take everyone who you deem worthy to safety. I would ask Skorne, but unfortunately, she has failed as Nerg’s champion. You have bested her both physically and mentally. No longer is she guided by melancholy and acceptance of her fate.

For the first time in her life, her heart is filled with the light of hope. False hope that is. She will not obey fathers will no longer but you? You say that you will not destroy wickedness if it means destroying kindness as well but what about destroying a little bit of kindness to ensure that most of it will remain?” Delilah gave him a quizzical look and the warrior tensed up.

“If you perform this great task, you will win father’s favor. Though you had defied his will at first, you can make up for it. Become his new champion. One that is not afraid of making hard decisions to ensure the peaceful future of this land. You will become an instrument of his divine will, a virtuous death guard and be granted many boons for your loyal service.” Delilah concluded.

“Yea, right. As if Bern is going to believe this load of shit, if things were that easy then…Bern?” Sahra stopped midsentence and worryingly glanced at the warrior. “W-wait, you are not seriously considering this are you!?”

But the warrior did. He thought deeply about the dullahan’s suggestion and as much as he thought, he could not contest or disprove it on a practical level. The plan was simple and brutal in its execution. Weaken every side of the conflict simultaneously and stop it before it escalates by giving everyone a common ground in the form of mourning for their dead ones that will bring them together.

“I… I can’t” The warrior shook his head and pulled out his scrying bowl. “I am being spied on everywhere. Anderson will know.”

“Will he? Have you looked into this magical device of yours?” Delilah inquired with an audible smirk.

The warrior did as asked and to his surprise, found that there was no connection.

“These mines were built long before the days of wizards, before the days of the great transformation, their depths conceal secrets that neither side knows. If you cast this item into the flames below no one will know the truth of what happened here besides yourself and those who you deem worthy of passing this knowledge. Do not think of it as killing. What you are doing is saving people that are yet to be born. Giving them a future to live in. That is the will of Nerg.” The reaper whispered.

“Bern, come on, this is not funny. We are talking about wiping out hundreds of thousands of people!” The dwarf looked at him horrified. “How can you even contemplate such a thing? She is obviously trying to trick you or something! There is no way that her insane genocidal plan will work! You’ll just be killing even more people in the long run!” The dwarf protested with an expression of sheer disbelief.

The warrior looked at the head, the dwarf and then at the panel. Two hours would be enough if he were to move quickly, he would probably be able to even warn a handful of people like Bellatrix and Baha. But could he do something like this? To kill few to save more? Had he even the right to make such a decision?

“The choice is yours.” The Dullahan muttered.

>What do you do?

>>283796

well thats one though decision I dunno, one side Bernsen could end up sparing everyone of a helluva war and he could end up killing so many inocents it won't even be funny. Before we do anything lets heal our conrades tell them what the dullahan told him, and get everyone input on what to do, sacrifice a few and possibly spare Deleor from a huge war or save Cair and prepare for whatever comes next ?

>Destroy Cair, delay the war, and become Champion of Nerg

or

>Save Cair, refuse Nerg's blessings, and possible doom the world to be consumed by war

This is a tough choice, but I say save Cair. Mostly because I don't like the idea of Bearson working for a god, Nerg obviously isn't a shitheel like the fake mushroom goddess but I cant imagine him accepting the will of a god as absolute after everything that happened in the Black Forest, nor trusting what one tells him just because they're a god. Either way he officially becomes Big Bear, the weight of all the souls he sacrifices in either scenario is going to weigh heavily on him like never before.

So in addition to the save Cair option, lets add "Create MSF+Mother Base". Bearson knows war is coming, and with the three political powers left alone it will devastate everything and everyone. So if Nerg was trying to create an army to distract them, why not just do that himself? If the people need a villain to save it from the hell of a world war then he'll become that villain. And this way he'll be in control of how the new army operates, insure they never take innocent lives and what not. Of course this still wont be perfect, as the leader he'd be responsible for his soldiers mistakes and any atrocities they commit, but I'm sure he'd being willing to shoulder that burden if it was to help save good people. Face it we're going to make him become Big Boss one way or another this is probably the best way to do it.

>>283813

Oh and we should obviously try and recruit our friends for this. Kenzie is a sure thing, I doubt it will take much to convince Sahra. Dont know about Webster though. Also should try to get Skorne in on this. Bellatrix too, her kobolds could serve as the foundation for our army.

>>283822

oh yea and throw away the matrix bowl, we are solo from this point on and the less anderson will learn of this the better.

>>283796

Ask Bernsen companions for ideas. Personally, I say let the city burn. Throw Agent W's scrying bowl as well. Bernsen needs to get Skorne and Sahra out of the city.

I hate to say it, but destroying Cair will kill many birds with one stone.

>>283795

>The death of the bellowed and charismatic general Stahlherz and his loyal men would destroy the Galmathorian’s morale and the seismic activity caused by the explosion would make the nearby river expand and flood many of Galmathorian’s towns, culling their population and leaving them far too busy to wage war.

The vile third parties like Caroline and her associates who profit from the conflict would be erased. Removing the friction even further. The destruction of the leyway train system leading north would stop any Deleorean attempts to move their troops quickly as well.

>>283813

>Mostly because I don't like the idea of Bearson working for a god

Then simply reject becoming Nerg's Blessing, don't become his Champion. Bernsen is no one's pawn.

>If the people need a villain to save it from the hell of a world war then he'll become that villain.

Why? Bernsen is not responible for a million decisions that are not his own! People who believe this are doomed to failure. This isn't some simple cliche game your a fan of, kid. Shit happens! Bernsen is his own man. More importantly how is he doing to dodge the DSS? Sorry mate, your little army led by 'Big Boss' is a fallacy. Besides, Bernsen needs to destroy Al-Sabbath, unless he can fake his death…

>>283814

>are we really going to trust the god of death is somehow merciful and isn't just trying to gain more power from the rapid amount of souls he's going to acquire?

Have you read Ace's WizardsQuest?

All souls go to Nerg anyways, he's the guardian, not Overlord of the Underworld. He gains no power from the sudden rush of souls entering his domain.

>>283796

Ah Shit!

I just remembered the Maxium Armour, she ain't going to let us destroy the city.

>>283824

>All souls go to Nerg anyways, he's the guardian, not Overlord of the Underworld. He gains no power from the sudden rush of souls entering his domain.

then why is he meddling in our world in the first place? I find it hard to believe the god of death is having a 100000 killed to prevent more dying, this just seems to be a ploy for him to become more powerful and gain an edge on the other gods

something is happening with the gods and it doesn't look pretty, let's leave their fights to themselves and not stick our heads in

What option best serves our goals?

Allowing monster-women to give birth to male children… Making Bearson fertile… Gaining godhood (why wasn't this one of our goals?).

In my opinion we should probably save the city AND cut ties with anderson, then begin our own designs. I think it is time for Bearson to step out of his own shadow and make Deleor great again!

>>283796

well if we think about this bearson has a very let's say savage and brutal background the idea of amputating a limb to save a body might appeal and seem to make sense to him but in the past he's been like save the weak but he's also been save as many as possible so this does seem to make sense i think he would agree with delilah

a literal servant of a god is telling us this shit too so yeah

tell her if we do this she will explain everything and that she and we will be working to stop the war to establish peace and that that is the true goal then we will do it only to preserve life things like assasinations and collateral damage are done to prevent wars this may seem evil but to prevent a war it may be worth it but she need's to prove that she's not lying somehow like sharing the vision with us or swearing an oath on her life or ya know unlife that if she is lying we will obliterate her because doing this puts our absolute faith in her and her god

also tell sahra that sometimes to save life life needs to be taken that were already killers and that if she disagree's with us she can leave us whenever she wants we wont stop her but she has to decide if she's going down our path we'll also have to consult with the others when their healed

also on the way out we take the bodies of Tenma and Ignacia and bury them properly also make skorne and delilah say a few words with us in their memory and apologize

IT BETTER BE A FUCKING GOOD APOLOGY

also some words for the people of cair and their sacrifice

put a fulton on the wall but destroy all the scrying bowl's our's and webster's here so anderson dosent know or thinks were dead

then we basically move on to war prevention by any means mode also were still gonna be anti al sabbath nerg and his followers better be onboard with this but i assume we'll be conducting other operations

also we may need to get our face changed to convince the dss were gone

but my decision is destroy cair and become champion of nerg if delilah swears an oath on her life/unlife that she is telling the truth and aims to establish peace and maybe shows us this vision if she does not swear the oath we save cair

delilah seem's way to determined to destroy cair there must be a reason for this she literally came back from death i dont think she's lying about the war or her goals

>>283824

no theres no reason to reject the blessing if were choosing nerg were putting enough faith in him to destroy a city but maybe get the details on what the blessing would do before we accept

also what does our amour think about this maybe we should quietly remove her?

if we destroy cair we should really apologize to our armour have delilah apologize for failling to protect the balance and offer to keep her until we find her a new home or rebuild cair for her

>>283829

maximus armour was awfully quiet when we where shit talking cair to skorne

decision contemplation music

>>283838

its not a bad idea actually, the wording is shit but writefag will use his own words anyway.

thing is though, the population has been killing each other for like hours now and im not sure if "the word of god" will make them stop.

but its one hell of an idea thats for damn sure.

lets see what writefag thinks of it.

>>283838

>83838

>838

http://www.rakovkachurch.com/Holy-Bible-EASY-TO-READ/files/assets/basic-html/page858.html

somehow relevant

also forgot to sage sorry m8's

one other and very important thing.

where the fuck is the boyim?

if we want to start outer heaven next adventure we need to be on good terms with the danuki and delivering that guy wich was our fucking mission is a surefire way of gaining that triad leaders gratetude.

so before we leave or do whatever we need to find clues on wheir in the everloving fuck that guy is.

>>283796

I don't know how all this is gonna play out but if we go the whole Mother Base route we're gonna need more party members. With potential members being

Skorne- since Bearson saved her and gave her his speech I'm sure she wouldn't be opposed. She needs limb replacements though.

Delilah- If we go with the destroy the city plan or if we somehow persuade her that this would only buy more time. She also needs a new body.

Bellatrix- Bearson gave her a lot of money and it helping to rebuild her empire so I'm positive she would join him.

Kred- He may be tough to recruit, especially if we recruit Skorne too. He needs new arms but if we can persuade him he would be a great fighter.

Blackbeard- No clue about him besides he seems to lead the sea, but I'm sure he would want to prevent war too.

Emiliya- If Bearson can find her and prove to her who he really is and maybe regain her memories through DM FIAT then she's sure to join.

Maxi- Technically armor but also still technically a party member, and if we destroy Cair I highly doubt she would join us. If we don't I'm sure she would be easy to persuade.

Franklin- If we can get him and the union on our side then it would be a massive boon to have the order of most powerful shitposters individuals on the planet our team.

List some more I may have forgotten or some ways we can get above members on our team.

Shot in the dark: Slavson and Ace team up to make a story, and we get party members like the Grand Wizard, the Illusionist, or the Geomancer to join us

>red ending

>blue ending

>no green ending

Bioware would be dissapoint

How about going with BOTH KNOBS

Destroying Cairn will most likely only delay the inevitable. Al Sabbath will still be around and plotting the surviving nobles will want revenge for their fallen the heroes order might be radicalized if one of their biggest garrisons suddenly vanishes the Galmathorians won't forget what happened to Richter and if a good chunk of their population won't die in the flood it will only make their food and land shortage worse.

These are just a few reasons why destroying Cairn won't do much. I also don't believe that it would eradicate the third parties that would benefit from the war. It's hard to believe the Cairn jewnukis don't have any allies in Danusreal or other places with big danuki syndicates. Plus there are the dangers from the east lurking.

And even if by some miracle all of these problem will be solved by the explosion the fact remains that the world is undergoing a massive technological revolution including great leaps in war machinery and weaponry. Sooner or later someone will want to use these new weapons. That's just how the game works and as long as the explosion doesn't nuke the whole continent back into the stone age this is a fact we cannot change.

Stop the catastrophe but leave the iPad down there. That thing is only for casuals and faggots anyway.

I also kinda want to kick Delilahs head into the lava. Nerg can sent her back into this realm anytime he wants anyway and we won't have to deal with all the nagging

We fucked up didn't we?

No matter what decision is chosen, I say we look at Minerva's picture set and reminisce of home.

Kinda sad we didn't get to recruit Emiliya, or talk to her again. If only the tournament wasn't interrupted then we would have fought her at the finals. I wonder if we can find Emiliya again in Bearson's third quest and maybe even find a way to get everyone back in the black forest their memories back?

>>283870

before we toss it, write down the tech's wizards contact info

along with a few other vital contacts

>>283822

working with bellatrix sounds nice maybe we could be like her general or some shit i think she'd at least consider us since were serious biz

>>283873

>>283873

get everyone back in the black forest their memories back?

it was made vary clear that, that was impossible

There is so much Autism at the moment.

>>283827

Lad, by the sounds of it. You ain't read any of Ace's Lore on HIS WORLD! Don't make an assumption that maybe wrong on it's most basic level.

>>283822

>>283879

This not Metal Gear Solid or anything like it.

Please stop thinking it will be, because it won't!

Bernsen doesn't have any pull anywhere other then:

DDS (who he's going to have to cut ties with if you want to play your "Big Boss".

A Princess in Exile (She's rich, but that's it… she has no land and not even 100 retainers).

Two women, whom are the last of their kind.

And a few other hangers on.

>>283873

>maybe even find a way to get everyone back in the black forest their memories back?

Slavsan has said it's impossible to do this. Emiliya only remembers because she's "in love with Bernsen". Slavsen pointed this out at the ending of his last Saga.

>>283842

>good terms with the danuki and delivering that guy wich was our fucking mission

Yeah, we fucked up there!

>>283828

>Allowing monster-women to give birth to male children… Making Bearson fertile…

Human boys or you'll just have more fragmation and war. But yeah. I agree with these two goals.

>>283890

>wizard quest 1 Dollara helps reverse the great transformation

>illusion quest Phallia helps create new plant based species, which is out of her domain

both of these events show the gods are overstepping their bounds, which will probably lead to some sort of strife, and now the god of death is trying to kill a large amount of people, and none of this rings any bells for you?

Had some time to think and I believe its better to not destroy Cair. Lots of anons made a very valid point, if the explosion happens everyone gonna mourn for a while them everyone gonna start to point fingers, Destroying Cair just gonna delay the the shitstorm. Also lets not throw away our job at DDS, we basically get a free pass to go to all Deleor by working as a agent sure we still tied to them, but if war is coming working for people who have the resources to send to us to the right places to stop both the war and Al-Sabbath sounds like a better deal than going solo, try to work a deal with DDS and see if we can get Skorne fixed and on our party of agents.

>>283893

>wizard quest 1 Dollara helps reverse the great transformation

When? The Dragon? She did that herself!

>illusion quest Phallia helps create new plant based species, which is out of her domain

Umm… that was done by the Queen of the Cradle I believe. Isn't Phallia the Goddess of Plants anyways? Her job was to create plant life.

>>283895

Ok, spare the city.

But, take Skorne to the Union. If anyone can remove that damn collar and the thunderclay it's them. They're neutral and would be willing to show mercy. And nothing makes Nerds goof out more then coming across something unique. Especially if they hear her enslaved background story.

Anderson may try to use the collar and clay to force her to work for DSS.

>>283899

You got a point with Anderson, we contact him after talking with Horace see if he can take out the collar and give a skorne a replacement for the members, also didn't Skorne said that collar was put on by Dwarfs, it could be a bit of a stretch especially with the Thundeclay but see if Sahra is able to disarm the collar since she is a Dwarf and all.

>>283899

>When? The Dragon? She did that herself!

she summoned an avatar of dollora to aid her while she was doing that

>Umm… that was done by the Queen of the Cradle I believe. Isn't Phallia the Goddess of Plants anyways? Her job was to create plant life.

the head parasites that happened during illusion quest were from her power

>"This smacks of something far before the time of Dollora’s Great Transformation, however, which means it must have been granted by Phallia herself."

the gods have been fighting a proxy war for a while now, and nerg seems to be trying to get an advantage here,

>>283792

>rules of nature

>>283907

Yes, Valinthia manipulated the High Priestess toward her goals. Whether or not Dollora actually knew what Valinthia had in mind was sort of moot because clearly she didn't give a shit for the Gods beyond how to use them.

As far as the Cradle and Phallia thing, well. Read into that how you will.

The majority of the Gods, as far as people know anyway, aren't fighting some kind of war. That's silly. Sveth, Hevensferth, and Fillos have been fairly quiet, but they always have been. Jackor, well, no one knows what he's doing, but everyone sort of writes him off anyway. Rumors say though that the seas have been turbulent lately…

Honestly, who knows? All I can say for certain is that Nerg has never gotten on Solos's bad side. He actually loves the children of Solos, and the children of Dollora. Death and suffering are just… necessary, in the end.

YAY TYPING CRAZY STUFF

WHATCHA GUNNA DO SLAVMAN WHATCHA GUNNA DO HUH?

YA GUNNA BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GWOUND?!

>>283965

>Cairn

Fuck.

>>283796

It is obvious we don't have a choice here. We will be stopped by Sahra, we will be stopped by Maximum, or we will just be stopped by consistency between story lines, i.e. removing Cair from the map will probably mess with Ace too much. So in this case we should not have much hesitation as we only really have one choice, and the amount of hesitation will just determine the amount of damage as a result of trying to make that choice. No good has ever come from being a champion for the gods anyway, fake or real, and everything Delilah said can very easily be bullshit.

Safe route: Kick Delilah into magma, stop Cair's destruction, save friends, waifu Sahra. If war comes we just fuck off and go to the east.

Lets save Cair, Deliah said it herself we aren't bound by the threads of fate, we can change the future from the intended path. Pull the red knob and lets see how far the rabbit hole goes. Lets bring Deliah with us too, it'd be a shame for her to be left inside those mines helpless.

>>283983

This she clearly need to be reminded of what it means to be human

We will show her what someone unbound by the strings of fair can do

Also we need a new face

Find a knife or something and cut our face off completely save the beard area… obviously

>>283985

I don't know if that will save our face tho

>>283985

>>283987

bearson is nearly 2 meters tall guy with the body even schwarzenegger would be envious of, the face wont make a difference, we will need to buy or create some kind of obfuscation cloak that makes bearson look like a normal thin dude.

but the thing about taking delila with us is a good idea, she is already used to being just a head that gives advice, and info given by her could be worth its weight in gold in the following conflict.

though ace might want to use her in his story so we might not want to hog her.

>>283904

Won't he know we contacted Horace if we do it via the Bowl? We should put her into Websters vault for the time being or if there's a way from the vault to the rest of El Dorito just make the hike to the dick tower there. That way Anderson will never find out what happened to her. We can just tell him she fell into the lava pit and be done with it.

And with the fucked up face we are sporting now it's a good thing we are friends with one of the top make up wizards in the realm. That should suffice until/if we can fix that.

>>283990

If I not wrong Franklin messed with Anderson bug on our scrying bowl, acordind to him if you hold the second to last crystal on the left and it will send out idle silence so when we contact Horace it will alright as long as do as instructed.

>>283985

We'll have to peel the scar tissue off or something.

>>283985

Just imagining bearson cutting/ripping his own face off is the most metal thing ever

Kill a city to save millions. Or save a city and kill millions. Seems like an obvious choice to me, reset the timer and get the hell out, it is by far the lesser of the two evils.

>>283994

If it naturally heals back into his normal face again I'm all for it, but his healing factor seems nerfed compared to barbarian quest.

>>284018

Aye, didn't he heal up from being digested in the three head snek's stomach?

It took me a while but Delilah and Nergs plan reminds me of how the super mantango had the forest tribes fight against each other to keep the population down. It was also a rule that Bearson mentioned he hated to many people back in his home land before the invasion arc in the first three threads.

The ground shook once more, even more violently this time, causing part of the ceiling to collapse and land into the boiling magma. Despite the great heat and severe lack of fresh air here, Bernsen felt strangely cold and his mind was sharp and more lucid than it had been in a long time. The series of life threatening fights and the pressure of responsibility weighing down on his conscience was making him feel incredibly alive.

He slowly reached into his beard and cracked open his box of cigars. Looks like he had only one of them left. He pulled the tight bundle of tobacco out and tossed the empty box over the edge of the cliff before gesturing the dwarf to give him a light.

{You have been awfully quiet. You seemed to be very adamant about defending your home earlier. Don’t you have anything to say?} He asked internally while Sahra lit his cigar.

{It is not my place as a tool to speak when not asked to.} Maxie quietly replied. {And besides, I already know what your decision will be. When attached to your body like this, I can see deep into your heart. It was not clear at first, but I understand why Zapp chose you to be his new master now.}

The man closed his eyes and inhaled the smoke deeply before exhaling it back in a small cloud that quickly dispersed as it traveled up. He then let go of the cigar, letting it rest in the corner of his mouth and opened his eyes before looking down at the miniaturized dwarf.

“Turn the red knob Sahra.”

The little witch sighed with a shudder that showed immense relief and somehow, he thought the armor on his back shared the sentiment as it became even lighter on his shoulders.

“So that is your choice then?” Delilah inquired with a chill in her voice. “You will doom this land and its inhabitants just to let a few of them live a few more precious moments? It was a mistake to ask you, I understand that now. You know not the glory of Nerg, you refuse to accept fate. The vile defiant scorching light you and your pet wield is a testament to your stubbornness.”

“No Delilah. I chose neither.” The warrior shook his head and puffed out another cloud of smoke before addressing the burned head at the steps.

“…Oh?” The answer seemed to intrigue her.

“When you go back to your god, tell him this.” The warrior walked down the steps and picked the scorched skull up gently before raising it up to his face.

“The living will sort their problems themselves. We neither need, nor want his help. There are times when death is a necessity but this is not that time. If what you say is true about your god foreseeing this great war then your plan to prevent it has failed thrice, which means that fate can’t be avoided. Or perhaps the fact that it did is the proof that fate does not exist because your god did not foresee my arrival as you said. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter and frankly, I don’t care. I like the few people that I met in this town and that’s a good enough reason for me to spare them from your plan.”

“Yes. I suppose a husk like you can only exist in the present.” The dullahan answered. “Your motivation is understandable. But I still fail to realize how it means that you choose neither.”

“Because I am going to one up your god and stop this war without wiping out Cair.” Bernsen smirked.

The head in his hand blinked slowly as its lone eye studied his expression. “What a foolish and pointlessly brash comment, spoken while wearing such a disgustingly mocking expression. Had I still my body, I would have cut off your head for wasting my time. And yet what annoys me the most is that your confidence is genuine. Very well child of the void. Let’s see you prevent what the god of death itself and his agents working in tandem over the course of thirty years were not able to. It will be the most amusing, if futile, struggle to watch. Good bye.”

As Delilah said this, her head suddenly began to warp and break apart into a shadowy blurry shape and then vanished out of his hand completely. Unlike her previous displays of [Shadow Step], her remains did not reappear however. The head was gone, possibly returned to her master in the realm of the dead.

With her presence gone, the dry hot air in the ruins seemed to become easier to breathe now that the stench of death that permeated it was gone. The control panel let out a deep series of mechanical noises and the pipes shook once as the lava stopped flowing upwards and instead began to flow back down into the sea of molten rock. The rumblings of earth stopped completely and the sea of fire looked much calmer, almost serene.

“Okay, I think it worked.” Sahra swallowed hard and wiped some sweat off her brow.

“Good job. Let’s go help the others now.” The warrior nodded in approval and extended his hand toward the control panel so the dwarf could hop into it with a smile.

~~~

With only two health potions left, Bernsen had to ration it carefully as he poured its contents into the mouths of his allies. The effect wasn’t apparent but after a few minutes they began to stir and cough while clutching her heads and chests, the Dullahan’s scream of death was interrupted by Sahra’s [Dragon’s Breath] but they still experienced a sensation that was akin to their bodies melting from inside out.

Poor Kenzie, got the worst of it and even after feeding her some healing potion, she remained unconscious. Her breathing was even at least but she would need to rest for a while so Sahra helped move her to her doll house inside the warrior’s beard of holding.

{What an embarrassing defeat. I cannot believe I missed this much, especially considering what you have discovered.} The lion’s eyes sparkled as he observed the red glowing stone.

{Is it really one of those things Jordan was looking for? An integrity core?} The warrior inquired.

{Indeed. And the one that had no historical references to it anywhere, to the point where some believed that there were only five. Makes sense why now though. It was hidden beneath the earth and guarded by a tribe of monsters whose culture predates the day of the great transformation. And yet it has been right under our noses all along, worn as a jewel in the crown of one of your companions.} The lion poked the stone with his claw, making it pulse with energy slightly as it rolled a little bit forward.

{How come you didn’t realize it sooner?} Bernsen asked Zapp curiously.

{The reason why I did not give your short friend’s tiara much attention was because it was an inhibitor to the integrity core’s strength. Perhaps build to limit or focus it initially but after it’s enchantment had faded or damaged, it simply sealed its power completely. And by doing so, ensuring that the dwarf and her treasure would be concealed from those who would seek the power of this relic. You are not magically talented but even you can sense it, right? The mystic power that lies within this stone, the essence of the goddess of beasts.} Zapp muttered in awe internally and the warrior had to agree.

The stone that laid on the floor between them shone with a certain arcane power that was unlike anything the warrior had ever experienced before. It was clearly magic but more than that, it was like the very essence of the world’s heat had been condensed and shaped into this item and merely touching it made the warrior feel that warmth and it’s potential for both destruction and good.

{Does it really house the power of the dark goddess Dollora? I do not sense any malice from it.} Bernsen noted.

{Power by itself is neither good nor bad Bernsen. It’s how you use it what determines that.} The lion shook his head. {But you must still be wary of its corrupting influence. This is what spirit energy manipulation training is for after all.}

{Can this stone really permanently change monsters?} The warrior picked the round gem back up and examined it closer.

{Not by itself no. But when united, all six pieces of Dollora’s essence can be used to temporarily become equal in her power and reach, that includes the power to control all monsters and shape their very essence and bodies into something new. As of right now, this stone can only be used as a magical implement. Mere possession of it would allow even the humblest of pyromancers to wield and control flames so hot that nothing in this world could withstand it. Fire is the ancient element that represents energy, and energy can be used to destroy the physical aspects of this world and turn them into energy as well. It represents strength but is also the power that is closest to light and life. It fuels it and its warmth protects and preserves it. Your friend will get a great deal of use out of it in the coming days I suspect, now that it’s power is unleashed. However, I would advise to limit its use. Now that it’s active, several parties will surely become interested in acquiring it, after they sense the sheer divine power contained within. Just like the yellow integrity core that was taken by the masked green-eyed witch that killed Jordan.} Zapp frowned at the last sentence and gave the warrior a meaningful look.

{Don’t worry. I know what I am doing.} The warrior nodded.

{He really does. You should have seen him fight earlier.} Maxie suddenly burst out, sounding excited. {He had everything under control from the start, ensuring that Skorne would not be able to retaliate and every single one of his motions was like a well-practiced routine! And he did not even kill her! It was amazing, it almost felt like…uh yea.}

{What happened about not talking unless asked?} Bernsen attempted to smirk but winced when his face refused to move properly.

{Hey! I am giving you a compliment! That’s a huge honor coming from me! I saw a lot of fights in my life and it’s not easy to impress me!} The armor replied, sounding defensive.

{My, my you sure sound flustered Maxie. But you are right. I have already taken a look at what you are planning to do Bernsen. I can’t say that I entirely approve because Jordan did not trust them but maybe it is time to get them involved after all. They are the only group of people that can make a difference, if they can be motivated enough to do so.}

“Okaaay, this should do!” Webster pulled his silver staff back and the dwarf examined herself.

“Are you sure? I kind of think that I used to be taller than that…” Sahra narrowed her eyes suspiciously and moved her hands around in her red traveling dress.

“Hey, you should be glad it worked at all! I am surprised that a divine spell that makes one defy the principles of conservation of mass is dispelled this easily!” The wizard pouted, sounding offended.

“Yea, yea you are right. It’s probably just my imagination anyway. Sorry.” The dwarf shook her hands in front of herself apologetically.

“Are you alright W?” The warrior walked up to the wizard after finishing his internal conversation with his familiar and armor.

“Yea, yea. Just a bit tired and got some smoke in my lungs boss.” The wizard coughed a bit for emphasis before looking at Bernsen’s disfigured face with worry. “Want me to, you know?” He made a dismissive gesture at his head.

“No, conserve your strength. We are going to need it soon.” The warrior shook his head.

“Huh? What do you mean, I thought we already, oh that’s right The Wall.” The wizard clicked his tongue and his expression turned grim. “I got the message on my bowl as well. We are supposed to assassinate him.”

“No. Bellatrix will take care of it.” Bernsen shook his head again.

“Didn’t you tell her and Baha to make sure to take him in alive?” Sahra asked, sounding surprised.

“I did and they will succeed in that I am sure. But as for us, we will have to go underground for a bit. There are a few things I have discovered and a few things that I need to confirm.” The warrior glanced behind him at the collapsed forms of Skorne and Kred who were lying next to each other.

“But…aren’t we already underground?” The wizard blinked in confusion.

“I don’t mean literally. We will have to forgo Anderson’s orders for a while.” The man pulled out his scrying bowl that still showed that there was no connection and then swung his arm out to cast it over the edge of the rocky island.

“Whoa! Whoa! Boss! That thing is expensive!” The wizard exclaimed, sounding shocked.

“We’ll get new ones soon. How much did you win from betting all your savings on me Sahra?” Bernsen asked the dwarf who seemed to turn slightly red. “Ah! How do you…? Err, I mean, a little over two hundred gold or so I guess?”

“That’ll do.” Bernsen nodded. “You need to throw away yours too W.”

“Boss, what’s going on? What are you planning to do that warrants crossing DSS?” The wizard asked with his eyes wide.

“I suspect that Anderson might be compromised. Not in a malicious way, but I feel like he is getting disinformation or bad advice. For that reason, we will be operating on our own from here on.” Bernsen explained.

“Bern! Do you realize how crazy this sounds!?” Sahra protested. “I thought you were just bluffing when you shit talked that dullahan skull!”

“I am not. Skorne and Delilah mentioned something interesting about Al-Sabbath. And if Skorne was always around the countess during her dealings as muscle then she must know a great deal about them. In the end, it turned out that it was Nerg playing everyone but we must take into consideration the plot that took place a step below it too. Richter said that Al-Sabbath is believed to be a Deleor funded terrorist organization and yet he unknowingly had worked with it during his uprising plans when he colluded with the count’s family of Cair. These things need to be thoroughly investigated in an environment that I know for sure is not being manipulated or is playing for their own gain.” Bernsen gave the wizard a meaningful look.”

“We’ll be giving The Union a visit.”

“B-boss! I-I can’t!” The wizard stuttered in shock at the proclamation. “I am not a member anymore, I am even forbidden from accessing El Dorito gateways technically! And besides, they will not listen to your pleas any more than they did to mine! You are severely underestimating their interest in being involved, they can only be motivated by old magical technology and artifacts!”

“How’s an entire dwarven city full of inactive automatons and other magical devices, like a system intended to pump and pressurize lava to forge adamantium sound? Or an essence of a goddess?” The warrior raised the gem in his hand.

“An essence of what?” The dwarf blanched after the warrior presented the gem.

“I’ll be the one talking with them, don’t worry. And don’t tell me that there is no secret exit leading out of your vault to the rest of El Dorito, you are far too resourceful to not include one.” Bernsen continued.

The wizard raised his hand in protest but no sound came from his mouth and he instead began to nervously chew on his nails.

“Things are getting out of hand.” He quietly muttered and then pulled out his scrying bowl that after some hesitation, he threw away as well.

“That’s why we need to work fast. Come on.” The warrior ordered and leaned down to pick up the unconscious balrog and the armless man to place them over his shoulders. “It’s time to go but before we do, you need to lock the elevator again Sahra. I don’t want anyone coming down here until we get in touch with Franklin.”

~~~

“Anderson?” A deep and slightly raspy voice announced his presence after entering the dimly lit room.

“Come in Nicholas.” The spectacled man replied without turning his head. His attention was focused on a dozen of glowing white orbs on his desk: communion matrices wired for different tasks that he was observing.

The green armored man obliged the tired looking leader of DSS, his plate mail letting out a series of subtle metallic rustles as he moved.

“The nobles that were attending the tournament have returned to the capital safely.” The former battlepriest explained. “My men have safely lead them away from the leyway station back to their respective abodes and those not living in Sanctiford received armed escorts. They will be leaving shortly.”

“I see. Good.” The black robed man made a barely noticeable nod while his eyes were still glued to the glowing spheres.

“The train carrying general Stahlherz is coming next, right?” The knight took a step forward and stood over the specialist’s shoulder to glance at the rows of glowing spheres his attention was directed to.

“Yes. It will arrive tomorrow however. The schedules were shifted around due to what happened.” Anderson replied to that question in the same tired monotone.

“It’s still not too late, you know? While he is on a train, we could stage a little accident. Say Al-Sabbath did it. Few would question it.” The priest suggested as he studied the news line in one of the spheres that announced that the general of the rival upstart nation had been captured alive by a member of some monster nobility.

“No. It’s too late. This damn upstart has made too much noise with her feat.” Anderson narrowed his eyes as he looked at the picture of the tarasque. “Some noble families and businesses even expressed interest in funding her poorly timed campaign at Blackfire Reach. As if we haven’t got enough problems. Now we’ll have to look out for a knife aimed at our backs from the east too. No, we’ll have to keep Richter as a political prisoner now. Had he died during his fool’s errand in Cair, we could write it off as an act of self-defense and display of our country’s military might. But if he dies now, no matter how hard we’ll try to suppress the flow information, people will figure out that it was a deliberate assassination and that will be the excuse Galmathoria needs to finally invade. With him as prisoner, they will attempt negotiations for a few weeks to make us let him go. We will be able to use this time to subtly amass the country’s resources to the north, near Cair and fortify that position.” Anderson explained.

“What about the western front? You know they won’t attack from one direction.” Nicholas raised his eyebrow while addressing the black robed man.

“Helmscrag will have to bottle up and wait until we can arm a counter assault along the river that runs between Cair and Fort Carlsbad, gods know at least their position allows for it.” The spectacled man finally sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“I am sure they can, now that the Order’s fort stationed there has collapsed down into a bottomless abyss thanks to your pet illusionist’s fuck up. And that’s providing the Cradle doesn’t suddenly open up and start pouring some plant abominations right across no man’s land.” Nicholas shook his head in annoyance. “I told you that you shouldn’t have put so much trust into that savage. Swinging a sword is the only thing he can do. It was only a matter of time before he would botch it. Tuchniy’s body was found in the Caroline trading house HQ and Kaoku is pulling all of her assets out of the country. Without Tuchniy’s food industry, we are definitely going to run into a supply deficit if we don’t pull extra resources from Loveura.”

“Tell me something that I don’t know.” Anderson sighed again.

“Still no sign of him or that thief you decided to pardon?” The knight looked down at another matrix. “Figures, they probably used the ensued chaos during the uprising to escape. And since one of them is an aesthetician, chances are, we will never find them. They are probably halfway to the monster nation by now, fucking a bunch of monster whores and laughing at your gullible-“

“Nicholas. That’s enough.” Anderson spoke calmly but his voiced carried just the tiniest amount of tension that made the leader of the king’s guard turn quiet.

“Apologies. Do not take me wrong. I trust your judgement, but not even you are omniscient, no matter how many communications you bug and observe, there are some things that are out of your control.”

Anderson glanced at the matrix closest to him.

>Agent B: <CAN’T FIND>

>Agent W: <CAN’T FIND>

>Agent L: <Port Dorning>

>Agent K: <Galmathoria>

>Agent J: <Port Dorning>

.>…

“He had refused his direct order to rescue one of his comrades. The last recording that I received implied that he was moving underground somewhere.”

“Ah, the ruins. The Order has looked over everything there. No traces of your agents were found. Just a bunch of empty stone rooms and some old pipes. They probably ditched their scrying bowls there to cover their tracks and left. You should forget about them. There are far more important things that need to be discussed. The rest of the council is waiting. We need to figure out our next course of action.” The priest pulled out a gilded watch out of his pocket and tapped it.

“Ah, that’s why you are here?” Anderson shook his head slowly and with a movement of his hand all the devices powered down. “Time sure flies when you are having fun.” The spectacled man noted sarcastically and stood up from his chair to be escorted to the royal council meeting. There were indeed many things that needed to be discussed. The members that just returned from Cair would be crying out for blood after what they just went through. At least they were alive thanks to one of the missing agent’s intervention but perhaps, it would have been better if they weren’t, Anderson noted grimly to himself.

~~~

“Ah! What a beautiful sight!” A hooded man in plain blue robe noted as he messily bit down on some sort of pastry. He was sitting on a bench on one of the streets and observing the sun setting down over the river. It was a particularly nice sight, thanks to the thin cover of smoke that covered the descending crimson orb. Its source was coming from the Count’s mansion, which had apparently been caught on fire an hour ago.

Panicking heroes and remaining members of Cair’s guards were desperately trying to put it out but it was clear that the mansion was done for and the only things they could hope to achieve was to stop the fire from spreading.

The blue robed man finished his meal and licked his thin boney fingers that were almost reminiscent of a bird’s claws in their shape and stood up. As much as he enjoyed the sight of the sunset, he had other matters to attend to, so he put his hands in his pockets, flung his shoulder bag behind him and began to walk down the street. The city had recently been under attack and the signs of the damage were still fresh. But now it was contained. The streets were orderly and peaceful once more. Life went on as they say.

And in the same way life went on, so did the city’s business that had reopened only mere two days after the disaster that shook the city. The man knew this by the line of skimpy clothed monsters standing next to one of this city’s brothels.

The man was not particularly interested in the goods shown. He liked to consider himself a gourmet when it came to sex. He had a particular desire that few could meet his expectations for.

But somehow, today was his lucky day. As the man passed along the line, ignoring the cat calls of the prostitutes his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He stopped in his tracks and turned his head toward the line of eager collared whores: The indentured servants that this city was known for. Instead of wasting money on the criminals to house, feed and guard them, the clever countess of Cair found a way to make them work for the community instead, by making them perform various physical labor. Even allowing the town’s citizens to rent these servants to use their services to their discretion.

Among this group of monsters, he saw the one. She was smaller than the other monsters and younger, barely of age to breed. She looked inexperienced and nervous, if this wasn’t her first day then it was certainly her first week. She was looking down gloomily, unlike the eager well-broken meat toilets that surrounded her.

The man placed his hand over his chest. He was in love! His heart was beating so wild that he felt it would explode if he didn’t do anything about it!

He pushed his way through the crowd, shooing the other monsters away in disgust with a sneer until he reached the one. A lone young fox dressed in nothing but slave rags. She had yet to earn enough to wear something nicer.

“Ah, hello to you precious little thing!” The man smiled as he leaned down toward the fox girl.

“H-hello sir.” She replied stiffly and seemed to shrink as her neighbors glared daggers at her.

“Please sir! Surely you are not interested in that little thing? Look, she is as flat as a washboard and her buttocks are like those of a man!” A succubus tried to lean toward the man but his hand suddenly shot out.

“Ah!” The succubus cried out and reeled back while holding the cheek that the man had just struck with the back of his hand.

“Don’t touch me, you filthy degenerate!” The man snarled and then his expression softened as he addressed the fox girl again.

“Is your body for sale my little flower?”

“Y-yes sir.” The fox girl timidly replied and her tail slightly rose. This gesture made the man’s face twitch slightly as his right hand trembled.

“Good, good. I choose you then. Let’s go.” The man said eagerly and reached down with his greasy bony hand toward the fox girl’s back to escort her toward the brothel’s entrance. The rest of the girls looked at the duo in annoyance but then their attention shifted at another man walking down the street and they eagerly surrounded him, offering their services.

“You look nervous. You haven’t worked here for long, have you?” The man smiled as he sensually rubbed the palm of his hand over the girl’s back.

“N-no sir. It is only my fourth day. I was caught stealing food for my little sister” The fox replied and her tail twitched again, making the man’s nostrils widen.

“That’s fine. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle. I would me a crime to ruin that beautiful tail of yours.”

“Ah! I, see t-thank you! Are you a sorcerer?” The fox smiled and seemed to ease up a little, even making some small talk.

“Something like that.” The man replied with a wink.

The two then entered the brothel. The wonderful treasure that the man found ended up being incredibly cheap too! With the abundance of more bountiful monsters to choose from and her being new to this job, he really lucked out!

“Here you go sir. Please enjoy yourself.” An elderly looking racoon woman smiled warmly and handed him over a worn brass key. “Your room is on the second floor, number two o’one.”

They then ascended the stairs and the man unlocked the door of the room. It was rather plain but well maintained with a fresh set of bedsheets. This was only one of the second-rate brothels in this town and it lacked many of the luxuries richer people like him were used to. But he didn’t mind. It would not stop him from enjoying himself.

“Don’t be shy. Come on, show it to me.” The man breathed in and out hard as he loomed over the fox.

The girl swallowed hard and after some hesitation, began to pull down her rags but then the man frowned in confusion.

“What are you doing.?”

“I…am showing you my body…?” The kitsune blinked, not understanding what she was doing wrong.

“What? No! No, no, no! Who cares about your body? You don’t have anything to look at, I want to see…” The man licked his lips in anticipation. “That.” He then pointed toward the low hanging orange tail that was growing out of the monster’s back.

“M-my tail?” She blushed. “O-oh! I heard that there are some peo- my apologies! Of course!” She raised her tail then, allowing the man to truly grasp its magnificent radiance. His breathing began to turn short and he started to sweat from the sight.

“Can… I touch it?” He asked sweetly and the fox nodded with a blush, extending the fluffy appendage toward him, brushing it against his body.

The man shuddered, as if struck with a current of electricity from the sensation and then let his greasy fingers travel over its length, leaving a barely noticeable trail of fat over its perfect texture and shape.

The dirty state of his hands seemed to slightly bother the fox but she bit on her lip and took it. As far as weirdoes go, she got off easily enough.

“How wonderful.” The man sighed as he then raised the tail and rubbed his cheek against it, making his black goatee briefly touch it.

“Can you… do something else for me please?” He suddenly got down to his knees and addressed the fox with a pleading expression while holding her tail.

“Y-yes of course sir! I am here to serve you after all.” The kitsune answered immediately, surprised at how polite and sweet he sounded.

“Could you please touch me with your tail…down there?” He pulled on his belt and let his pants fall on the floor with a rustle, exposing the incredible boner that the man was spouting.

This made the fox blush even more.

“O-oh my!” She whispered as she felt her face turn red and her insides startedto heat up. Something about the man smelt incredibly nice, despite his poor hygiene. She could not quite describe it but it made her feel incredibly excited and now that his manhood was within her reach, her nethers were aching to take it. “Of course, but shouldn’t we get more comfortable?” She glanced at the bed and the man knowingly nodded and let go of her tail to lay on his back, letting his erect rod point to the ceiling.

“Would you like me to… touch you like this?” She licked her lips and used her tail to gently wrap it around the man’s penis.

“Oooohhh!” The man moaned in ecstasy. This was exactly what he needed, what he was missing with how much work he had to do lately. “Yes! Keep it up!”

The kitsune smiled and continued to stimulate the man. He might have a strange kink but he wasn’t rough and asked her to please him instead of forcing himself on her like some of the men she had to deal with in the last few days.

“Yea baby! Keep doing that!” The man gripped the bedsheets as he smiled in pleasure. Minutes passed and the fox continued to speed up her motions, looking incredibly excited as well and starting to pleasure herself using her fingers.

“Oooooh! I can’t take it anymore! I am gonna blow!” The man suddenly shouted and forcibly grabbed the tail with his hand and started to jerk himself off with it frantically. His orgasm came immediately, splattering the room and the ceiling with his payload. Some of it even got on the tail, which coupled with his last second rough handling, made the fur on it bristle and stick together.

A loud piercing noise suddenly came from his pocket and he frowned in annoyance.

“Sorry babe. I need to take this.” He casually spoke out without turning his head and reached into his robe’s pocket to pull out a glowing green scrying bowl. He pressed one of the crystals on its side and a chilly female voice began to speak from it.

“Green. You were supposed to report ten minutes ago.”

“Yea, yea I know. Forgive me lady but I just found the most wonderful treasure he-“ The man tried to explain himself but the voice cut him off.

“I don’t care what you were busy with. Report. Now.”

The man pulled down his hood and sighed. It was better not to piss off his employer. She was pretty creepy but she paid him well for his services and allowed him many opportunities to use his skills in the field which he greatly enjoyed.

“The mansion’s dust. The locals are trying to put out the fire but they won’t recover anything incriminating. I also killed all the people who knew a tad bit too much.”

“What about Skorne?” The voice inquired.

“I… couldn’t find her.” The man sheepishly answered.

There was a tense silence during which he nervously continued.

“Hey! I tried my best, you know I am good for it, unlike that creepy red eyed clown in black that got himself captured. I combed all the rooms in that ruin. No sign of Skorne, her pet Dullahan or the red integrity core she was supposed to recover. The elevators to the lower levels were still locked too, so she must have lied that she would find a way to get them open. I even looked around for her among the captured people that are supposed to be sent to Sanctiford along with general Stahlherz. She is fucking gone, no one saw her leave after she entered those ruins.

There was apparently another group of people that forced themselves into them though. Based on the description, one of them was that muscle headed bearded asshole that ruined Red’s operation in Somalot. He is apparently a member of the DSS now. They likewise haven’t been seen leaving the ruins. It’s like they fucking vanished out of thin air! I did all I can lady Dia! I swear!”

“I see.” The female voice replied tensely. “Yes, I know you are good for it Green. You did recover one of the integrity cores for us in Barstone after all. But our magic sensors detected the integrity core’s power being unleashed and for a brief moment, it’s location was pinpointing to Cair. It was gone shortly after that however. I will consult purple on this matter then. She knows the most about the cores and would know how to locate them in these circumstances.”

“Are you sure it didn’t like fall into lava and melt or something?” The man scratched his head.

“No. These relics cannot be destroyed by any means that exist in this world save for Dollora herself. It must have been smuggled out somehow and we will find out how soon. You may return to your regular activities. Good job on erasing the evidence like usual. I will contact you again when something clears up.” The light in his scrying bowl faded and it went silent.

The man then put it away and sighed before addressing his lover.

“Sorry you had to hear that babe. I know you must be scared, think I am some kind of assassin but don’t worry.” The man smiled and gently caressed the fox’es tail. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

He then stood up and put his pants back on. “Well, this was refreshing but I got to go now. What do you say we go together hmm? I know this is sudden, but I think I am in love with you!” He smiled again and rubbed his fingers over the tail sensually.

“Oh? You agree?! How wonderful! You and I will get along just fine.” The man pulled the tail up, caressed it again and then put it into his robe’s innermost pocket to hold it close to his heart and then left the room, leaving only a pile of ash on the floor that rapidly faded out of existence, leaving no trace of anyone being there.

“Have you enjoyed yourself? Huh? Wait, where is the girl you were with?” The elderly danuki inquired curiously.

“Oh, she was just a little burned out from our love making.” The man winked and pulled his hood back up as he left the building.

He continued along the street, occasionally caressing the tail in his pocket sensually until turning toward a shady alley at the end of which he reached toward his shoulder bag and opened it before vanishing in a flash of golden light that carried him to El Dorito.

<==To be continued==

>>284422

Got a new party member and unlocked the the secret path, we might be able to reach the true ending where Bersen becomes fertile and get a harem ending with the girls, the wizard goes back to the union and Zapp don't go Zeppeli

>>284422

> a chilly female voice

>>281310

im on to you

>>284457

i assume where with Bellatrix or we've disappeared somewhere else

also during this timeskip maybe we should complete our hamon training at the very least learn to hamon without the suns contact

also we need find a way to fight stands or get through them

>>284465

>also we need find a way to fight stands or get through them

Wasn't the harmon attack able to connect with the thing? The only problem was that we couldn't see her without the magesight googles which got destroyed during the fight. Now that we are going to the Union again maybe we should look into if someone wants to give us a more sturdy pair. Or maybe even a new magesight lens for our mechanical eye or something like that.

Since we kniw that the unions got some leaks we can use the oldest trick in the book to find and plug it

We spread known specific info to specific people then wait to see if that info is used by the enemy

“Well this is…nice?” The dwarf blinked to help her eyes adjust to the natural light coming from the three triangular golden shapes in the sky that acted as the source of light in the realm of the wizards.

“This pocket dimension is intended to be a safe haven for wizards, a place of rest and healing where their favored food and drinks are abundant.” Webster explained with a sigh and passed his hand over the opening in one of the grassy hills that covered the landscape. The passage that lead to his vault quickly shrunk and then became completely indistinguishable from rest of the terrain.

“I don’t see the Union HQ anywhere.” The warrior noted with his eyes narrowed as he scanned his surroundings with them.

“Well obviously not.” The wizard shrugged. “If I were to put my vault within a walking distance, it would be found immediately. The HQ is west from here, it’s about two days’ worth of travel, to reach it by foot. The terrain here is pretty easy to traverse and the climate is mild. There are sources of food and water everywhere so it won’t be a hard track.”

“As if I am going to walk anywhere ever again now that I have this.” The witch smugly noted and pulled out her broom before sitting down on it sideways and starting to hover a few feet over the ground.

“You know, you could use some exercise.” The wizard made a bemused facial expression. “It’s not like we are tracking in a dessert or mountains here, even someone as inexperienced like you could do it.”

“Nah, walking is for losers!” Kenzie giggled and floated up to the witch to sit down on her shoulder. She was feeling much better and was as chipper as ever, much to the warrior’s relief.

“I’ll have to agree with Webster here.” Bernsen shook his head. “Get down Sahra, we can’t have you going soft again.”

“Fine.” The witch rolled her eyes in annoyance but judging by the smile in the corner of her lips, she was mostly acting. She then landed back on the ground and put the broom away into her bag of holding.

“Do I have to walk too?” Kenzie inquired and cocked her head.

“Nah, you have special privileges.” The warrior smiled and booped her on the nose gently with his index finger, making the caith sith let out a giggle.

Just like the wizard said, traversing the golden realm of El Dorito could barely even be called a chore as whenever they went, it was all flat grounds. The grassy hills and groups of trees that had heated bread pouches growing on them never seemed to get in their way, almost like they moved aside, well in advance to their approach to not bother them with their presence.

But it was still a physical activity and his friends, despite gratuitous use of healing potions and [Spirit Overflow], were quite winded and hurt so after a couple hours, the warrior called for a break and everyone gratefully used the time to relax and sample many of the curious foods that could be found in this land.

Besides the heated bread pouches and the mountain elixir that Bernsen was familiar with already, the wizard showed several more curious plants, like little plant stems that resembled scirpus that could be found near the edge of pockets of mountain elixir. Their stems were made out of crunchy biscuitlike dough but their fruitlike tips were covered with a thick layer of chocolate. They were apparently known as “Prickeys”, and were a favored threat among the wizards that lives far east.

He also showed several bushes that the warrior did notice before but never had a chance to harvest from. Instead of berries, they had triangular crunchy chips covered with a layer of spice like pollen on them. They were actually really similar to the shape of the suns that hung overhead and shared the name of this realm.

Overall, it was quite a treat no matter where you looked and everyone sort of spread out during their break to seek various exotic things to taste. As the land also lacked any natural predators, there was no danger of getting attacked either.

“Oh this one’s good!” The wizard forced his way through several tall patches of licorice flavored tall grass and gestured the warrior to look up at where he was pointing. Bernsen obliged his request and what he saw was a short tree that had small peculiar fruits growing on it. They were actually dark brown cookies with a thick layer of white creamy substance between them.

“An Orion tree! Oh, these ones are a rarity, even here! Check it out.” The wizard reached with his hand up and plucked the fruit from its branch and then peeled one of the cooked dough pieces away to reveal the creamy filling that he then bit into with an expression of bliss before tossing the two cookie parts away.

“Huh? Aren’t you supposed to eat these too?” The warrior scratched his head in confusion and the wizard gave him a mocking look.

“Boss, these are just the peels. The real treat is the cream filling.”

Bernsen shrugged and plucked a handful of the fruits and put them in his mouth, enjoying the crunchy texture that greatly went together with the cream filling but the wizard made an expression of sheer disgust at him consuming the fruits with the peels intact and shook his head in disapproval.

“You know W. What exactly happened between you and the Union? I had a chat with one of the wizards there known as Franklin and he said that you stole something.” The warrior’s voice shifted into a more serious tone and the wizard frowned in response at that before sighing and turning away to look at a meadow of grass to the side.

“It’s been a while ago boss. Does it really matter?”

“You seemed to be very adamant about us not going there, as if you were afraid. Will you get punished if you show your face there again or something?” Bernsen sat down on the grass with his legs crossed and gestured at the wizard with his armored gauntlet.

“No. No, not exactly. I am forbidden from accessing Union facilities but all they will do is just throw me out if I am spotted. It’s just…” The short haired blonde man shook his head again.

“My departure has been a very loud and messy one. I broke one of the rules and brought a lot of the research my colleagues have worked on outside, without their approval. Mostly the ones involving the construction of streamlined portable communion matrices and several personal assistant automaton designs. I am sure you have already figured out but magitek engineering is not actually my strong suit. I know the basics as much as anyone else but I don’t really have the creativity and skill to make something new myself.”

“How did they let you get away with something like that? I was under the assumption that such things are a very big no no for your kind.” The warrior raised his brow in curiosity.

“Oh, I didn’t. Once my actions have become apparent I was brought in and The Union had to temporarily form a tribunal to figure out what to do with me. Normally, such an action would warrant a far greater punishment instead of expulsion. There were talks of stripping me of my magic or imprisoning me and even a few suggestions for an outright execution.” The wizard shrugged and sat down next to the warrior.

“Stripping you of your magic?” The warrior tensed up, these words stood out the most out of the wizard’s dismissive comment.

“Yea. It’s quite a painful process. It used to be that a wizard would permanently lose his power when he would copulate with a member of the opposite sex but after the grand wizard’s meddling twenty years ago, it’s no longer the case. Or at least it was assumed to be no longer a case. One of our members was curious about this subject and figured out that what happened was that an exception was set for that trigger, instead of removing it completely. So under certain circumstances, it is possible to execute it by abusing several loopholes in a person’s aethe-“ The wizard realized that he had lost the warrior and chuckled.

“Basically, yea. There is a way to strip a wizard of his power completely. It’s only something that we are aware off however, so there is no risk of someone attempting to use it on our kind.”

“Who is this grand wizard you mentioned? Is he like your tribe’s chieftain?” The warrior inquired.

“Well…no, not really. The Union does not really follow a traditional type of hierarchy, you must understand. We don’t have any leaders or a chain of command. For the most part, everyone just does whatever they want and if someone has a good idea that he needs support to execute, he presents it to his fellow wizards and if someone likes the idea, they join in on his project. The Grand Wizard’s title is mostly an honorary one. He is not even one of the founding members but because he was technically responsible for the Union’s creation and because of his accomplishments, he is referred to by that title. Nothing really grand about him though if you ask me. The few times that I had met him, all he did was make a bunch of bad jokes and talked about a few confusing and farfetched theses about monster fertility that he wrote that involved using the Arcane Nexūs physical matter reconstruction capabilities to alter their biological functions. He hardly even involves himself with the rest of the Union’s activities and prefers to stay south, near his personal magitek factory in Havenforth.” Webster explained.

“I see. So how did you avoid getting a far worse punishment again?” The warrior continued his line on questions.

“Well, it was mostly because I was one of the founding members.” Webster noted sadly. “That earned me a certain amount of respect and a lot of the union members considered that my help during its initial startup phase in regards of gaining the river troll tribe’s cooperation should be taken into consideration. I also trained several volunteers in the art of glamour magic. So instead of getting a harsher punishment, I got my ID withdrawn and was forbidden from accessing El Dorito and Union HQ as well as their services in Deleor like the leyway trains.”

“Do you miss being a member?” The warrior asked a particularly bold question that made the wizard hesitate.

“It would be a very bad lie to say no.” The wizard slowly looked down. “I do not regret what I did and I still consider that the Union is too aloof and uninvolved in the common people’s affairs. They instead sneer at them, seeing themselves as superior and not understanding their hardships, despite being just like them for thirty years.

The power that a wizard is granted is great and allows for many wonderful things to be done but it is also very easy take it for granted, especially now that losing it is almost a nonissue. I always personally thought that the restriction was placed specifically to teach us humility and what it means to be powerless. It works to a certain instead, there are no outright malicious wizards in recorded history but it’s not enough. The lesson is quickly forgotten when you gain access to the power to shape reality itself at your fingertips. But even then…” The wizard clenched his glowed hand and frowned.

“I can’t deny that I miss their company. I never had much support for my passion in my life. I was frequently made fun of and hurt because I wanted to make the world just a little more beautiful. Be either through clothing, decoration, art or even just good deeds, as there are few things that are more beautiful than a smile of genuine gratitude. Even when I became a wizard, it was not until much, much later in life that I had stumbled upon this conversation on the matrix where I saw several wizards discussing this one lone troll’s misfortune and suggested that we help her out instead of laughing at her.

The idea was taken as a jest at first but when I arrived under the guise of a “Bridge troll union” worker to deliver some pretty clothes to her, a lot more support to it was suddenly shown and several more practioners showed up, bearing various gifts. It was all a part of an elaborate joke for them even as it rapidly grew to cover not just that one monster, but her relatives and friends too and before we knew it, we merged with the Grand Wizard’s first magitek forge group and became what is known today as The Union.

What was started in jest was in reality, just our group’s desire to help manifesting under so many layers of irony brought from a life of bitterness that it would be impossible to distinguish it from an actual jest. But nowadays, I feel like people forgot what we really started out about and instead think that The Union is just a gathering place to throw around ideas on the wall to see what sticks, instead of a place where we can figure out how to make the world a better place. But when they did try to do that, I truly felt at home there. I was surrounded by likeminded individuals who treated me with respect and love as a family would.” Webster spoke wistfully while looking ahead, his thoughts in a very distant place.

“But that time has passed.” The wizard shook his head. “I am not sure what exactly you hope to achieve from them. You will only get disappointed when they tell you that it’s none of their business and that it would be “too dangerous” or “setting a bad precedent” or “getting involved too much in politics”. But I will play along, because there is something that I want to ask them too, considering what we saw in Cair. The weapons that the Galmathorians were equipped with. There is no way they had designed them themselves.” The wizard spat to the side and turned quiet, finished with what he wanted to say on the matter.

The warrior looked after him and shook his head, wondering if he had put too much faith in them after all. Well, time would show he supposed.

“Bernie! Bernie!” Kenzie’s surprised voice suddenly cut through his thoughts.

“Kenzie?” The warrior blinked and raised the palm of his hand to let the fairy land on it. “What is it?”

“It’s the horned lady! She woke up!” The caith sith raised her hands overhead.

The warrior narrowed his eyes and exchanged a look with the wizard before nodding and hastily moving back to where they had set camp.

Skorne has indeed awoken. Thankfully, he didn’t feel any malice coming from her anymore. She was beaten thoroughly and had no desire to fight but Sahra was nervously standing as far away from her as she could while still keeping the monster in her line of sight and hugging Zapp who was giving the balrog a vary look as well.

“How do you feel?” The warrior inquired as he walked up to her.

“Weak. Tired. Where are we?” The woman answered in a quiet tone and moved her neck slightly to observe her surroundings.

“Somewhere safe. I know you are tired and hurt but I need to ask you a few things. Think you are up for it?” Bernsen asked with a gentle voice.

The horned woman nodded weakly and slightly readjusted her position with a wince of pain.

“Do you know anything about Al-Sabbath?” He decided he might as well start with the big one.

“Yes.” Skorne answered with a sight. “More than most.”

“Are you a member?” The warrior continued.

“Yes. I am one of their officers.” The balrog nodded weakly again.

Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise at that revelation and the dwarf even let go of the lion to exchange a tense look between the wizard and the warrior.

“Only for a short time however.” The monster continued. “The countess used to be in charge but with Delilah’s help, I was able to convince their leader that she was weak and unfit to lead. I was supposed to replace her after I would kill her during Richter’s uprising. I had other plans in mind of course but that’s the part that Al-Sabbath and Richter knew of.”

“Is Richter a member too?” Bernsen tensed up as he asked the question.

“No. He is not. He was unaware of the countess’s true affiliations. He came on his own accord, with the queen of Galmathoria’s blessing. But Al-Sabbath has agents there too. I am not entirely sure what the full extent of the plan was but it is likely that Richter was manipulated into doing what he did by another agent. He came to Cair to free the slaves from the start, he lied to the countess about his desire to lure in and kill all the nobles in Deleor. And Al-Sabbath concealed that part of the plan from her as well. Only I was aware of it. I was ordered to approach Richter and tell him that I was aware of his plan and would help him, as it was in my interest to be freed as well. My collar was all the convincing he needed.” Skorne explained.

“Damn, talk about a chain of backstabs.” Webster shook his head in disbelief at the complexity of the plot.

“But what was the real goal then?” Bernsen narrowed his eyes.

“To bait Deleor into invading Galmathoria.” The balrog explained plainly.

“The hells? What for?” The dwarf exclaimed.

“Because one of the requirements for the ritual that will bring Dollora back into this world is a mass blood sacrifice.” Skorne uttered.

The clearing was then filled with tense silence that lasted for what felt like an eternity.

“H-hold the fuck up, could you repeat that please?” The dwarf stuttered. “I thought you were terrorists!”

“That is only what the public is aware of. The true face of Al-Sabbath is a religious cult whose ultimate goal is monster supremacy under the leadership of the goddess of the monsters who they wish to bring back into this world.” The horned woman explained.

“T-that is…holy shit.” The wizard began to nervously sweat.

“You said one of the requirements.” Bernsen repeated quietly. “What are the others?”

“Collecting all six pieces of her essence that are sealed into the integrity cores. Items that she had passed down to six different tribes of monsters shortly before departing from this world during the day of the great transformation. The prophesy that they follow says that when united and fed with a great sacrifice that a total war between Deleor, The Monster nation and Galmathoria would bring, a perfect vessel, a true avatar of Dollora would be created that the great goddess would then inhabit and join their children to help them retake their rightful places as the rulers of this world.” While Skorne spoke, the warrior pulled out the red gem he had recovered from his beard and looked at it again.

“Yes. That is the one. The countess was tasked with retrieving it from the ancient city of the dwarves below Cair. But after years and years of excavation, nothing came up. And no one could access the lower floors without a blood of a dwarf. This was one of the reasons why the command was passed to me, as I have convinced their leader that I knew where I could find a dwarf with Delilah’s help and that I would retrieve what they sought. It is quite ironic that what they we relooking for was outside of it all along.” Skorne glanced at Sahra and the dwarf swallowed hard.

“Their leader…” The warrior took a deep breath hard before asking his last major question. “Who is she?”

“The leader of Al-Sabbath.” Skorne closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. “Is a very powerful and charismatic woman. I do not know her face, for I have never seen her but I know her voice and it carries great power and a desire to dominate within it that makes one wish to become her servant and please her.”

Skorne’s eyes suddenly shot wide open.

“A woman named Dia!”

“Dia!?” The dwarf exclaimed.

“Dia!?” The wizard shouted.

“Dia!” Kenzie yelled as well and then laughed. “That sounds funny!”

{Dia?} Maxie whispered in confusion.

{Dia? Hmm.} Zapp contemplated internally.

“Dia.” The warrior muttered. “I do not know that name. Anything else? What about other members?”

“No.” Skorne shook her head. “I know not of anyone else who serves Dia, for I never spoke to them directly. The agents of Al-Sabbath communicate exclusively through its leader who assigns them their tasks. And I know naught more of her than what I already have said.”

There was nothing more that came to the warrior’s mind and he nodded in gratitude to Skorne before addressing the wizard.

“Still think The Union won’t get motivated to act?”

Webster had nothing to say to that and just clutched his head while muttering a series of curses under his breath.

With the break concluded, the group kept moving. Skorne said little more and in fact soon drifted away into sleep again. Kred had yet to wake up and the warrior kept carrying them both as they traversed the landscape.

{Bernsen.} The lion suddenly addressed the warrior. {What we had just discovered is most worrying. I believe that the masked witch that killed Jordan might have been a member of this Al-Sabbath. And their plan has a very good chance to succeed if what Jordan had discovered during his own travels is true.}

{What do you propose?} The warrior asked.

{In near future, there might come a time when you will have to interact with and combat the overwhelming power of darkness that is contained within these relics. To do that, you must finish your Spirit energy manipulation training as quickly as you can. These triangular suns can act as a conduit just as well as the regular one does. Your body is ready to train once more, as I have seen that you can now use both [Spirit Overdrive] and [Spirit Overflow] with ease.

Now you may either learn [Spirit Climbing], that you had skipped earlier or further your mastery of the overflow and gain the ability to sense the spirit energy of all living things in the form of [Spirit Sense]. It will give you the power equal to a true [Mage Sight] and more.

While we have the chance, I shall also explain to you the rest of what you will need to learn. There are two more techniques that you can use with spirit energy manipulation. It is [Spirit Shield] which is an advanced form of spirit climbing where you use your outward projected spirit energy to instead cover your body with an impenetrable shield of magic that will repel most spells as long as you maintain it.

And [Spirit Overload], the final technique that requires the knowledge and mastery of the previous five. A risky but powerful maneuver that speeds up and redirects the flow of your spirit energy back into your body, multiplying your speed and strength to levels beyond human as well as empowering all the other spirit energy manipulation techniques. This final power is the one that will allow you to resist the encroaching touch of darkness that Dollora possess and protect your mind from its dark influence completely.}

The warrior contemplated on this. What would give him a better fighting chance in near future? The ability to traverse most terrain with ease or the ability to see with his mind’s eye, to reveal things only those well trained in magic can see?

And what should he do then? He had a bit of free time until they would arrive to the Union HQ and he had a lot to think about it. Be it either his friends who had been forced through a lot or how else he could prepare.

>What do you do?

I FUCKING TOLD YOU THE GODS WERE DOING SHADY SHIT

one thing we should keep in mind is when kred wakes up, he'll want to kill skorne in an act of revenge, we have to intervene since we will need her as a witness to this plot, try to explain that skorne was just a pawn of al sabbath and they are to blame for what has happened to him

as for the next step in our training, spirit sense would let us see richter's stand, whether he's somehow manipulated into fighting us again or not, I doubt he would be the only person to have this power, so we should work on countering it as soon as possible

>>284593

>only to let the war start prematurely

Ignacia snitched on you bro. That's where you guys fucked up. No one would have figured out who you are as long as you kept your disguise up and kept your true identity and goals secret and as such, would have no reason to kickstart the uprising early on. Richter was spooked when he thought that the DSS was hot on his heels.

>>284596

> Richter was spooked when he thought that the DSS was hot on his heels.

dude the ushi whos name i have forgotten tolt richter to his face that bearson works for the dss remember?

that was the reasone why i dident suspect him even with all the wierd thing about him.

but it dosent matter anyway whats done is done.

other question does 8chan act wierdly for anyone else?

the site seems not to load properly and threads arent showing all posts untill you post something yourself.

did codemonkey fuck with the server netbook again?

>>284598

He only learned his real name and that didn't really mean anything to him. He only approached within hearing distance after Bernsen told Midori to keep quiet. I should probably have made that more clear. I will try to be more specific if a situation like that arises again.

As a bonus for you pointing out my fuckups here is a hint. There are enough clues that were set up to decisively figure out Dia's identity already.

>>284600

yea im not falling for that this time, wrecking by brain to the point of mental exaustion and it making no difference once was enough for me.

>>284591

>I FUCKING TOLD YOU THE GODS WERE DOING SHADY SHIT

Oh will you shut up! Just because they have a old story saying that Dollora will do that doen't mean she actually wants to do that! From what I can gather from Ace's sidestories. Dollora maybe a more warm heart goddess then is widely believed! Think about it would a vengeful goddess give her creations the ability to love?

>>284600

Personally mate. I'm still mourning Ignacia and Tenma.

HOW COULD YOU KILL THEM OFF, OFF SCREEN!!

>>284654

>Al-sabbath plans to kill the people in cair to spark a war and summon dollora to aid them

>nerg wants this plan to succeed, but says it'll somehow create peace and doesn't mention dollora at all

>"gods dindu nuffin"

face it, nerg tried to play us, and the gods are trying to build up strength for a civil war between themselves

when that happens humanity and monsters are gonna get dragged into it, not to sure what we can do about it though

>>284600

>As a bonus for you pointing out my fuckups here is a hint. There are enough clues that were set up to decisively figure out Dia's identity already.

my only guess would be a pharaoh because of

>“The leader of Al-Sabbath.” Skorne closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. “Is a very powerful and charismatic woman. I do not know her face, for I have never seen her but I know her voice and it carries great power and a desire to dominate within it that makes one wish to become her servant and please her.”

>>284654

>>284591

There are some secrets I haven't told slavman. I leave hints and clues and maybe it's obvious or maybe it's not, but well. Well, guess we'll see.

>>284600

Shes…shes that one chick from the forest that killed that other monster and then said it was an accident/she didnt make it right

You know the one yeah….

the one from the after story train ride

>>284696

meant to say addition instead of edition

>>284670

You mean the gazer that's still in need of some ripping and tearing? Didn't she meet up with her superior in that epilogue?

On what to learn get the spirit shield or sight.

>>284723

Alright just went back to the Barbarian Quest epilogue. This is what we know about what I assume is the leader of Al-Sabbath:

>Meanwhile thousands of miles away a woman sat in front of a fire place on a large, richly decorated red armchair that was almost reminiscent of a throne. Her skin was as pale as a snow and she was clutching a glass of wine which she lazily moved around while looking at the glowing crystal orb set in front of her on a small stone pedestal next to the fireplace.

>The pale skinned woman frowned and set the glass of wine down, next to the device and leaned forward, revealing her blood red eyes and stunningly beautiful regal face.

>The regal looking woman in the black dress asked.

>The blonde woman stopped just before taking a drink.

>"Among other things. Our gremlin engineers have already made progress in magitek weapon research beyond what the Union would even consider thanks to their ethical… inflexibility.” The pale faced woman smiled.

>“Mmm, yes. Blake’s boys and the wizards are always so reliable.” The smooth silken voice hummed

>“The order? A miserable group of bull headed idiots lead by a soft-hearted weakling!”

So that's the woman on the other end of the crystal. She resides in a place that is thousands of miles away from the leyway train on it's way to Sanctiford that the gazer is in during that conversation. She's pale blond and beautiful with blood red eyes. She also seems to either personally know Blake or at least has some strong opinions on him. Even if the Union is compromised it doesn't mean Al-Sabbath stole their magiteck designs since they seem to have considerable resources themselves. We also know that they are in the possession of at least two of the essence orbs. But since they were already moving on starting the blood sacrifice I think we have to assume that Bernsen is now protecting the last one that is still not in Al-Sabbaths hand.

Guys… how did the monstergirl transformation work? Were all the monsterbeasts turned in to monstergirls, or was it just the girls and the guys died or went sterile?

Please don't tell me all the modern monsters are descendants of tranny monsters

>>284739

Ace never specified but in the case of dwarves and balrogs, the female ones transformed while the male ones just eventually died from old age, no longer compatible with female members of their own race.Alps are not canon.

>>284739

>>284742

It's best not to think of the implications of it this way, or in the MGE

Also, there's a reason men were gifted with unstable power, sadly when the plan failed, the instability destroyed them

>>284744

thats what they get,also reminder we are fighting against the extinction of the human race and subsequently the monster races,

>>284768

>[Spirit Overload], the final technique that requires the knowledge and mastery of the previous five.

>>284768

we are going to learn all the forms of hamon with time anyway if their isent some kind of bullshit slot system or something, so right now its just about the order in wich we lean the new forms.

and after sight we should do the climb and shield.

kind of sucks actually we need the sight when we fight that blue wizard but we could also very much need the shield against his super fire and fuck knows what else.

>>284780

also heal skorne with hamon keep walking and taking breaks to heal the others but have zapp keep an eye on us so we dont go over our limit

I am really sorry for the delays people. I had some issues with my internet connection lately. The next update is almost done and will be posted early tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

no problem man, shit happens and all of us know that isp's are scum.

>>285285

I'm guessing it's too late to ask zapp if we can power our adamantine hand canon with our hamon right? Alright then, looking forward to tomorrow.

After contemplating on these things some more during his track, the warrior eventually settled down with asking Zapp to teach him the [Spirit Sense] technique.

{As you wish.} The lion nodded and sat down across from him, near a pond of fizzling emerald liquid that smelled faintly of lime and sugar.

{Spirit Sense is the natural progression of Spirit Overflow. Do you remember what I taught you before, about being in synch with the person who you feed your spirit energy to?}

The warrior nodded with a determined look on his face. The severe burn scars that covered it had been patched up thanks to the efforts of the wizard and gave him a normal, if somewhat grizzly appearance but they were strictly cosmetic in nature and did little to actually help him emote. Unless he would try to see if ripping off his whole face would make it grow back, he would either have to live like this or seek more in-depth medical attention.

>Bonus Feat obtained: [Poker face]: Your future bluffing attempts are more likely to succeed.

{Good. Good.} The lion nodded in response as well and closed his eyes, thinking. {Spirit sense has a relatively similar requirement. It involves letting your spirit energy flow out into the world around you. However, instead of passing a large amount of it to a single target to stimulate their body’s healing capabilities, you will have to let out just a tiny, almost miniscule amount of it into everything around you at once.}

{Whoa. That sounds pretty complicated.} The warrior swallowed hard in anxiety.

{Indeed. This is considered to be one of the two advanced techniques along with [Spirit Shield]. But do not fret. You have already shown a certain… hmm? Shall we say affinity for spirit energy manipulation? It may appear complicated but just follow my advice. First, let the light of the sun shining above warm you up and awaken the latent reserves of your body through the spirit breathing technique.}

The warrior did as he was asked, inhaling and exhaling deeply in rhythmic fashion until he could feel the familiar tingle of the golden glow that he could now move around with relative ease along his body.

{Yes. Just like that. Now, remember the motions for the spirit overflow. Close your eyes and breathe. What do you feel?} The lion asked.

{I feel. Hmm, Maxie I guess?} The warrior shrugged.

{Hey there!} The armor greeted him with a giggle.

{Yes, the metal enhancing your body to protect it. What else?} The lion continued.

{The ground too, I guess? It’s soft and full of life and the grass is spongy and comfortable to sit on.} The warrior continued after some contemplation. He remembered his grandmother making him do a similar exercise back in the day when she was teaching him how to control his anger.

{Of course. Anything else?} The lion responded with approval before repeating his inquiry.

{The wind. The breeze her is gentle and playful. It’s tickling my scalp a little.} Bernsen concluded.

{That is enough for now. If you can feel all these things, then you must reach toward them with your spirit energy as one would with a hand. But limit the amount of energy that flows out. It must be kept minimal, barely enough to exist, a single thread as wide as a hair. Start simple, try to reach into Maxie.} The lion suggested.

The warrior kept breathing rhythmically and tried to do so. He had good control now and could freely move his spirit energy without even needing to move his body. The glowing essence that surrounded him morphed as he struggled to shape it into a single thin line but after some effort, he managed to do so and it pierced the exterior shell of metal that he wore.

{Whoa! I think I did it?} The warrior shuddered in surprise as he suddenly felt the armor on his back. But not like before. It was odd, the sensation reminded him of the mage sight effect that the enchanted shades provided him with until Gnome smashed them. Except it was not visual. He experienced something similar whenever he would heal a person with spirit Overflow. Feeling their own spirit energy as he interacted with their bodies. And now he could feel the same with the armor.

{Are you sure? I don’t feel anything weird.} The armor sounded confused.

{You shouldn’t. This tiny amount of synchronized energy would require a skilled magical expert to notice. However as tiny as it may be, it opens a way for you to sense whatever you touch with it. Giving you an insight of it deeper than any of your physical senses could give.} The lion explained.

The warrior sort of understood what he meant. He could visualize the armor he wore perfectly like this in his brain. Every tiny curve, every little scratch. He could see it so clearly it was a little weird.

{Now. Reaching into a single thing is easy. You must form another thread now. But do so without destroying the one that you have already shaped.} The lion commanded.

{You mean like multiple connections?} The warrior frowned. It sounded complicated but he decided to give it a go and to his surprise, realized that it actually was not that hard. The spirit energy was not just a single limb as Zapp had said before. It was like its own separate organ of his body and could be quite malleable when it needed to be. Another string was willed into existence by him and moved downward, past the armor to touch one of the blades of grass.

Bernsen felt a similar sensory overload come over him as he suddenly perceived the existence of that grass blade along with its roots growing deeply into the earth.

{This feels so weird.} The warrior admitted.

{Now we will make things even harder. You need to extend the string of spirit energy from the blade of grass and into the one next to it. Push a little bit more spirit energy into it to let it grow longer and then extend its reach beyond that single blade of grass.} Zapp instructed him further.

“Do you think this will take a while?” The dwarf turned to the wizard. The two of them were observing the silently meditating warrior and the lion sitting across from each other.

“He looks like he is concentrating a lot. Last couple times he seemed more relaxed.” Webster scratched his chin in contemplation.

“Are you sure? He looks the same as before he sat down if you ask me.” She narrowed her eyes and then her expression turned sour as she turned her head to the wizard. “Do you think he in unhappy about something maybe?”

“Ah, no, nothing of the sort. It’s just that his facial mimicry muscles were severely damaged in the last fight.” The wizard mentioned offhandedly but by the look of terrible horror followed by guilt that the dwarf showed immediately afterward, he realized he fucked up really badly.

“Err, I mean. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault or anything!” He quickly raised his hand in front of him and shook his head repeatedly.

“You are right. It’s not my fault.” The witch then glared over her shoulder at the resting form of Skorne.

“Hey now! She is an important witness. Don’t get any funny ideas.” Webster then stopped his frantic gesticulating to decisively cross his arms over his chest.

“I am not.” Sahra sighed and looked away with a bit of bitterness in her voice. “Honestly, there is nothing I can do to her that would be worse than what she has already been through. And I am not exactly too high on a moral pedestal above her to judge anyway.”

“You mentioned something like that before. A gang or something?” The wizard carefully asked.

The dwarf seemed to hesitate for a bit before nodding. “Yea. I used to act as a muscle for a group of really terrible people for a while. I did a lot of things that I regret there.”

“Want to talk about it?” Webster suggested in the same gentle tone of voice.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Sahra nodded in agreement and proceeded to tell the wizard her tale.

Skorne listened to the conversation absentmindedly while keeping her eyes closed. Whatever strange magic that the lion and the warrior had cast on her body, dulled the pain inside her abdomen and limbs and even seemed to revitalize her but she felt weak. It was not true healing, at least not entirely but rather prevention from death if she could describe what she was feeling. The cold grip of the reaper was distant but it was there. Looming over her body. But she was no longer seeking it and was now afraid of its presence.

She wondered what would happen to her now as she laid there on her back. For some reason the DSS agent was not hauling her off to the capital for questioning to his superior but was instead asking members of the Union for advice and support? She never left Cair but she was pretty sure that the Union was some sort of transportation company that maintained and operated the leyway tracks and trains. What could they possibly help a secret government agent with?

And this place they were in that had food so plentiful that it was literally growing on trees. Had she died after all and went to heaven? No. No. The pearly gates that the priests of Solos promised to those who would lead honorable and honest lives would not open for someone like her. She was still alive and in pain.

A powerful and sharp sensation of more pain on her face suddenly awoke her from her thoughts as she gasped. Her eyes fluttered open to see the form of a burnt, armless man looming over her with an expression of righteous fury on his face as he repeatedly drove his foot into her face and exposed abdomen.

Skorne gasped and raised her one remaining limb to cover her face as she cried out in fear and curled into a fetal position to protect her guts from getting decimated by the fighter. It was strange. Before, she would have withstood the pain and would rise, regardless of the damage she might have took to keep fighting but now her mind was filled with fear. Fear over losing her life, a life that she suddenly found value in again.

“Holy shit! Kred stop!” The wizard yelled as he heard the commotion and the balrog’s cries of fear and pain and rushed over to the armless man who was mercilessly beating down on her.

“No! No please! I don’t want to die!” Skorne voice cried out much louder before turning into a terrified wail.

Both Webster and Sahra were only halfway towards him, with the warrior awakening form his meditation in surprise and likewise rushing forward. But the fighter seemed to hesitate after the monster’s cry in desperation.

The fury on his face seemed to be replaced with confusion as his boot hovered over her exposed head. He frowned in annoyance then, before slowly withdrawing his foot and after some hesitation turning away from the monster’s crumpled and weak form and examining his surroundings.

“Wo bin-Where am I?” He began in a weird accent before correcting himself and addressing the wizard.

~~~

“So that’s pretty much it.” The warrior finished retelling the summary of the events that had transpired and the man shook his head in disbelief while the lion patched him up with a spirit overflow and the wizard removed some of the uglier burn scars that were left from his too close for comfort encounter with the Balrog.

Finished with treating the fighter, the lion the proceeded to heal the shaking Balrog, his touch making her calm down somewhat and stop sobbing uncontrollably as the warm golden glow passed over and into her body.

“Damn Big Bear. If I knew what a mess you would tangle me into, I would have said no. All I wanted was a rematch and a chance for some payback and now here I am, bozh of my expensive magitek arms lost and nothing to show for it, besides a bunch of second degree burns.” Kred examined his body in annoyance before angrily glaring over his shoulder at Skorne who winced in response and tightly closed her eyes. This reaction seemed to annoy him further and he spat on the side with a frown.

“And what the hellz happened to Skorne? If I didn’t see zhat face myself, I would have doubts that it’s the same person.”

“Skorne is dead.” The warrior answered plainly. “I am sorry Kred, but the person you wanted to get your revenge on, I have killed her. That person over there is not Skorne. She may wear her face and have her memories but she is not. Not anymore. Skorne wished only for death for all things including herself but this person as you have heard from her own mouth, does not share that ambition.”

“Don’t feed me zhat spiritual crap Big Bear. Just because she suddenly realized what she was doing was wrong, does not justify everyzhing zhat she has done. She’s had a hard life, boo fucking hoo. A lot of people did and among zhem, only one had nearly wiped out an entire city.” The fighter angrily retorted.

“You are right.” The warrior agreed. “She will have her comeuppance eventually. As we all will. All our choices have consequences. But right now, there are far bigger issue at hand, so I ask that you stay your hand and withdraw your rightful claim to vengeance for a while longer. Although, I suspect you are not particularly interested in murdering a defenseless person in cold blood anyway, regardless of how much you hate them.”

The red-haired man narrowed his eyes in annoyance and sighed, allowing the warrior to add something else.

“I did not wish to bring you with us to be honest. But abandoning you in that ruin after all the help you’ve given to me would be unacceptable and since we couldn’t move you topside in a hurry, you will have to accompany us until we reach the Union HQ. The wizards who live there will surely help you go back and perhaps, with some suggestion from my side, will even help you get new arms, as a little thank you for your services. I can also pay you. You are a mercenary, if I am not mistaken?” The warrior asked. Kred nodded in response but did so hesitantly.

“I suppose, though I haven’t been doing zhose kinds of jobs lately. Very well. Not like I can go off and walk away on my own if what you say about zhis weird place we are in is true. I would shake your hand to seal the agreement but well, you know.” Kred made a wry smile.

“A verbal contract is good enough for me.” The warrior returned the smile, appreciating the fighter’s sentiment. Despite his unfortunate situation, he was quick to recover and took it in stride, much to the warrior’s relief.

With the commotion now concluded, the warrior sat down at the edge of the camp again and resumed the exercise. Breathing in deeply, he then closed his eyes and let the mass of spirit energy coil and shape into a bundle of wringing little threads that expanded around his body like a cloud or perhaps, a lotus spreading out it’s petals like how the lion described it.

The range was not particularly impressive. He could only sense objects in a twenty feet radius around him and keeping it up, especially while moving around, was quite taxing and he would not be able to maintain it for long, even under direct sunlight.

{Excellent. Now for the final part.} The lion’s voice spoke internally and suddenly the warrior tensed up as he felt Zapp’s presence flare with aggressiveness and then jump at him with his claws extended.

“Whoa! Zapp, what the hells!” His eyes shot open and he immediately began to roll to the side on instinct but…

“Huh?” Bernsen blinked in confusion. His eyes were looking at the lion who was still idly sitting across from him and yet, he just sensed him move toward him, ready to strike.

{As you can see, spirit sense has another useful feature to it. It allows you to read a person’s “intent”. I am sure you are familiar with this concept already to a certain extent, sensing someone’s blood lust or a desire to kill. Spirit Sense magnifies this ability to the point where by reading a person’s “intent”, you can anticipate exactly how, where and when they will attack you from, by observing the flow of their spirit energy.

I have faked you out just now. I send out a negative response and was about to jump at you but withheld the motion at the last moment. Most enemies will be unfamiliar with what this ability truly does, so your chance to dodge attacks while it’s active, will be increased considerably as along as the target is within your range.} The lion nodded in sage like fashion, very obviously proud of the warrior’s quick learning.

>Bonus feat obtained: [Spirit Sense] Conjure a net of spirit strings around you to get a deep insight toward everything contained within as well as read the intentions of living things standing in its range.

{It’s kind of small though. Is there any way to improve it?} The warrior asked.

{As your mastery over spirit energy manipulation improves, so will all of your techniques, spirit sense included. For now, however, you must remember to keep track of your reserves and limits of what you can do. Now then let’s continue.} The lion stood up and walked over to the pond of mountain elixir before dipping the tip of his paw into it.

{Wait, we are not done yet?} Bernsen blinked in surprise. {I thought you said that my body needs to adjust to these newfound abilities.}

{Indeed. But I am not going to teach you something new. But rather, how to utilize what you already have better.} The lion scooped a pawful of mountain elixir and lapped it with his tongue. Then his nostrils flared, as his body gloved with spirit energy until it rapidly condensed, but not in his claws, his mouth that held a small amount of liquid.

“Hrrrooooar!” The beast let out a snarl and straightened out while simultaneously spitting out the elixir.

The splash of green liquid suddenly began to rapidly spin in place without missing a single drop, before being launched forward, forming a glowing green disk as it traveled through the air at an incredible speed. It then struck one of the heated bread pouch trees, leaving a deep gash on it.

“Whoa!” The man exclaimed.

{The [Bestowal of Spirit] is a technique that combines the effects of spirit overdrive and spirit overflow.} The lion sat back down and started to talk again. {Just as you can expel your spirit energy to heal, you can use it to attack. To do so, you must repeat the same process of finding a suitable host and then pouring a large amount of spirit energy in it. But instead of an intention to heal, you must fill it with the aggressive energy of an overdrive. That allows you to make use of spirit overdrive in more elaborate and tactical ways, as opposed to merely physically striking your enemies with your fists.

You can form projectiles as I have shown. However, while the spirit energy is separated from your body, it will quickly burn out and fade. The farther your projectile travels, the weaker it will become. For that reason, it is more practical to bestow a portion of your spirit down into your weapon.} The lion glanced at the beidhander that the warrior had won in his battle against Skorne.

>Bernsen obtained [Beidhander of Discord].

{But there are a few nuances you must know first. For one thing, spirit energy can only exist within organic matter for any length of time. Liquids make for excellent conductors of it for that very reason. Wood and fabric likewise can contain it. Metal, stone and the like allow it to pass through them but they cannot hold it within itself for more than just a moment.

So, for example, you can send the spirit energy along the length of the blade you hold, but unless it is already deeply burrowed into the body of an enemy, the energy will quickly dissipate. To allow your weapon to hold it for longer, you would have to find a way to cover it with organic matter. The monks of the east, crafted specialized aromatic oils out of various organic compounds for that specific reason that they then covered their weapons with to allow them to extend their reach while using spirit overdrive to fend off invaders who would try to desecrate or rob their holy temples.} The lion explained.

{I don’t really have anything like that though.} The warrior scratched his head in annoyance.

{No. You do not. You will have to seek a proper alternative somewhere if you wish do enhance your weapons in such fashion. For now, let us practice with liquid, as it’s the easiest to manipulate.} Zapp suggested.

{Wait Zapp, you said you can flow your spirit energy into nonorganic things as well, right?} The warrior interrupted his teacher but he took it in stride and gave the warrior a quizzical look.

{Yes, of course. What about it?}

The warrior raised his mechanical hand and contemplated. {This thing, the person who fixed it up for me said that it housed a magic weapon of some sort. But that it required a very large amount of energy to power. He described it as “mana”, something that can only be obtained from special magical ores or produced by wizards naturally. Do you think spirit energy could be used as a substitute?}

The lion narrowed his eyes and studied the warrior’s adamantium power fist.

{I don’t see why not. Spirit energy is actually the same thing as mana. Different cultures around the world perceive and describe it in different ways. For magic practioners, it is the source of their power that they use to shape the reality around themselves. However, I would advise you against trying this out.}

{Why?} The warrior cocked his head.

{Perhaps my unfamiliarity with the topic and personal opinions cloud my judgement, but Jordan never trusted these machines much. This was one of the major reasons why he refused to become a member of the Union. He believed that by relying on these artificial creations too much, people would become too weak and complacent. A certain amount of conflict is necessary for life to expand and grow. And these automatons and weapons they carry minimize that risk of being hurt and die that drives humanity forward.

Even if you disregard the ethical questions, these machines are simply too complicated. You believe it to be as simple as letting your energy flow into it to make it work, but how do you know that it will? What if instead, the same thing that happened to that person’s arms will happen to yours when it overloads with spirit energy with no guidance or controlled flow? It could kill you just as easily as your enemies. If you want to practice it, I will not stand in your way but you should carefully consider the risks and perhaps ask someone who is more versed in this topic for advice first.} The lion suggested and the warrior nodded in agreement, shuddering at the memory of the overpowering explosion that stripped Skorne of the armor made out of crystalized remains of her ancestors.

>Bonus feat obtained [Bestowal of Spirit]: gain the ability to temporarily reinforce organic matter with a spirit overdrive to then use it as a weapon. Nonorganic matter can be used as a conductor.

The road toward the Union HQ had concluded faster than the warrior anticipated. With all the training with Zapp helping with passing the time, he now stood before the familiar building.

“Is that… really the Union HQ?” The dwarf narrowed her eyes in a disbelief.

“Hahaha! It’s a penis!” The fairy pointed her little finger at the golden phallic monument and began to hysterically laugh.

“Very keen observation Kenzie.” The wizard sighed and shook his head before covering his face in shame. “For the record, I was adamantly opposed to this architectural design. It is crude and completely inefficient.”

“It’s kind of funny though.” Kred snorted a little bit and tried to turn away to conceal a smirk on his face.

The warrior did not have a strong opinion on the matter either way and calmly scanned his surroundings. It didn’t look like the wizards were aware of their arrival yet.

“Well. I guess this is it.” The wizard took a deep breath before addressing Bernsen. “So, want me to lead here boss? I am not sure how they will react to my presence, but I doubt they will like, fire lighting at us on sight.”

The warrior looked at the looming tower again, it’s menacing and awe-inspiring presence was considerably curbed by it’s ridiculous design but even then, his stomach turned uncomfortably. For some reason, he was feeling anxious in anticipation of what he would face inside these walls despite him knowing that the wizards were a fair lot.

>What do you do?

well the sabbath wizard shouldent know that we are here so at least entry shouldent be a problem.

after that though, it depends how long it will take for him to find our group.

and im guessing the union will hold some kind of assembly to decide what to do with us.

and while the faggots are faging, the sabbath wizard will eather manipulate the discusion into the realms of executing our group or something else to that extend.

and just presenting our artefact is also a bad idea, it would be the talk of the tower right away and the sabbath wizard would very likely steal it together with the artefacts the union already has in one fell swoop.

honestly i dont really know how we can make the wizards belive is without the damn sabbath agent compleatly fucking us, especially because bearson dosent even know he exists.

damn.

for starters it is very likely that we will be datained just so that the wizards can figure out what the hell is going on.

while we are in whatever the faggots use as cells we could try asking to speak to one of the wizards.

franklin might not be in the tower right now and horace is a freak among freaks.

but we could try talking to the master of el dorito the santa looking dude that totaly isent solos and explain the whole damn situation to him.

he seems like a cool fellow and the wizards seem to both like him and trust his judgement.

yea i think that santa looking dude is our best chance of allying with the union without fucking everything up.

>>285485

oh yea and again we NEED to remove the explosives from skorns body, that fucking sabbat wizard could easyly silence her and maybe the whole group just by detonating her.

she already tolt us ((they)) put thunderclay into her body, so fucking remove it!

actually, we should hide the artefact so that none of the wizards just stumble uppon it while they frist us.

so put the artefact into jacktors brownie, its magical sygnature should hide it from the wizards true sight untill we can be certen that shit wont happen and present it to the wizards.

but for now we definatly should garantee that at least one of the artefacts is with us at all times so that the sabbath cant gather all of them.

>>285487

now that i think about it, i was freakishly lucky that we got the spirit sight, use it on skorn to find the bomb she tolt us about, and then find the other bomb she dident know about.

writefag you little bugger, you tried to pull a phantom pain with her but im not letting you.

ib4 the real reason webster left was because the union wanted to control the world's supply of wizard robe's and hat's so only union wizard's would have them forcing all wizard's into the union

>and get someone to examine our weird ass body we should probably find out why eating hearts gives us feats

I think we already know that since the last part of Barbarian Quest.

Talking to the Santa dude first seems like a good idea and since we have no way of connecting to the communion matrix on our own now we should ask Horace if he can sent him a message for us. Horace's workshop would also be a good place to get new arms for our Aryan friend. I'm not sure if we should show anyone except Franklin and Santa the artifact but I think we can probably trust Horace. Since everyone avoids him like the plague I'm at least confident that the news won't spread right away. We will have to confront the Union as a whole with the bad news sooner or later and preferably get them involved in stopping Al-Sabbath but for now it might be smarter to go in there alone with our visitor pass and avoid a big confrontation with Webster and the other wizards or having to explain why we brought females into the dick tower. Are there any female wizards btw? Would that be even possible?

>>285516

>I think we already know that since the last part of Barbarian Quest.

well yes and no, we know that the mutation made bearson what he is, what we dont know is what exactly makes him special.

is it a change in his genetic code, a new organ, some wierd parasitic property, and so on.

if we understand what it is then we can fix it.

granted we dont want to fix it, what we do want fix though is bearsons furtility issue, and im guessing it is connectet to the power absorbtion.

and if we ever want bearson to gain a family at the end then we need to become human.

>Are there any female wizards btw?

nope solos made it to be the ultimate boys club.

their are monster witches out their just as powerfull as wizard like the cat'o'nine tailes.