"Well, there we have it.", Lyra whispered as we laid prone, overlooking a road from the crest of a hill, careful not to silhouette ourselves against the morning sun. "It's just like we thought. They are watching the roads for convoys."
We had gotten up rather early and finished the rest of our trek through enemy territory in silence, careful not to give ourselves away to any potential lookouts. We had made very good time, much better than we had initially thought we would, and after checking a couple smaller passes, we finally made it to the main road leading south and towards the Guild. Just on the other side of said road was a hidden encampment full of zombies, as well as a few living wyverns and wurms.
"Seems like your predictions were right on the money, Anastasia.", I said, looking through the scope of Christine's BOS Sniper Rifle, my IFF vision active and tracking distant pings. "It's hard to tell from here, but I count at least 30 hostiles. 11 zombies, 2 wurms, 3 wyverns, and 14 unknowns."
"That, and they seem to be focused north, likely expecting to ambush a VIP transport.", Ender added, focusing intently on something. "They also seem to be rather bored, not really expecting anything to come anytime soon."
"Woah, you can hear them from all the way over here?", Lyra asked, to which Ender nodded without explaining more. Most likely more of her ninja secrets.
"What else are they talking about?", Anastasia asked curiously.
"...They seem to be talking about how they want to get back to their husbands, but some of them are planning on taking a few they saw while...at the mountain?", Ender replied confused, to which we turned to Lyra.
"...When this whole conflict started, we had a number of girls defect and betray us. Many of whom were dear friends.", Lyra responded in an angry, yet sad tone. As if disappointed in how things turned out. Can't say I blame her. "But...No use crying over it now. They made their choice; threw their lot in with the usurper. They'll get no mercy from me."
"Sorry things had to turn out this way.", Anastasia responded, patting Lyra on the back before adding. "I know what it's like to have your friends and colleagues treat you poorly." To the side, Ender seemed to adopt a sad, longing look as Anastasia said that. Is she alright?
"Other than that, they seem to be leery of the zombies with them.", Ender continued as she listened intently from our hiding spot. As she did, I spotted something to the south in my scope. Looking intently, I saw that it was a light dust cloud being kicked up by what looked like a small caravan of merchants. They were driving around five horse-drawn wagons north up the main road...right to where the ambush party was waiting. "They seem to think they'll try to take their husba-"
"Hold that thought, we've got a situation.", I interrupted, pointing down the road to the caravan I spotted. Once they all saw what I saw, their eyes widened as they realized what was about to happen.
"Shit, merchants from the Guild.", Lyra deducted quickly upon seeing the insignia emblazoned on the wagons. "They'll be intercepted at this rate. We need to take them out before they're captured."
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea.", I responded, to which the three girls looked to me in surprise. "We need to keep a low profile, remember? If they find out we know about their ambush routes, they'll most likely change up their strategies going forward."
"Then we'll predict those, too!", Lyra whispered harshly back to me, rather upset that I wanted to stay back and leave these people to their fates. "Anastasia is capable enough, I have faith that she can do it. Why would you-" She tried to finish, but was interrupted by the enemy ambush party rapidly mobilizing to meet the merchant caravan. Seems they just noticed them, too.
"Six, if we don't help, those people will be captured and raped.", Anastasia said before asking, "You said before that you were just trying to take as many innocents out of the crossfire as possible, did you not? What changed?"
"I…", I tried to make excuses, but trailed off. Shit, she's got me there. Normally, I'd use something like this as an opportunity to spy on or pick off the enemy silently, not caring about what happened to the bait, but now...It's just too risky. If they have a zombie dragon, things could get bad. Granted, we have a living dragon with us, but… "...Fine, get ready for a fight. Can you handle any zombie dragons if they show up, Lyra?"
"Sure thing.", Lyra responded, cheering back up as she prepped herself for the fight. "For a second there, I was a bit scared that you were gonna pussy out."
"I wouldn't say pussy out, more like take advantage of an opportunity.", I corrected before adding, "Which is kind of what we are still doing, just...you know, a lot bloodier." As I said that, I scoped the road with my rifle as the ambush party leapt out from their hiding spots to assault the caravan. Said caravan came to a screeching halt as the road was blocked and the enemy began to rush. With Anastasia taking a deep breath and Lyra getting pumped for a fight, I sighted a wyvern and squeezed the trigger right before she nabbed one of the lead drivers.
A single suppressed sniper round left the barrel and tore a hole through the wyvern's head, spraying viscera all over the lead driver, who looked absolutely terrified. Lyra sprang into action with Ender in tow as the ambush party stopped, confused by the fact that one of their comrades had seemingly just dropped dead. After a couple of seconds, I sighted a wurm and pulled the trigger again, causing yet another enemy to fall to the ground bleeding from their skull.
"We're under attack!", I heard one of the remaining wurms yell before the ambush party began to scatter, all frantically looking for us. Fortunately, they wouldn't have to look long.
"OPEN WIDE!", I heard Lyra yell as she dive bombed a zombie wyvern out of nowhere, crushing it's jaw and throat against the dry dirt before she performed a spinning roundhouse kick to a human zombie behind her, taking her head clean off. "Chew on that, maggot sacks!" With that, most of the zombie's attention was on her, but that was short lived as I unloaded another round into a zombie wurm as Ender snuck up behind a living wurm and slit her throat with her Demon Silver blade, causing the wurm to go slack, but still alive, as Ender ran to strike a couple human zombies.
I managed to pump a couple more rounds into the zombies, Anastasia beside me the whole time using her illusion magic on the caravan horses to keep them confused so that they wouldn't move, before two things happened. First, a wyvern and a group of zombies next to her spotted me, making a beeline for me. Second, just as I thought, a zombie dragon tore through the horde Lyra and Ender was fighting to take them on.
"Shit, they're onto us!", I said, swapping my sniper rifle for another one, This Machine, which I immediately sighted onto the approaching monsters as Anastasia began to float to a safe distance, still using her magic on the horses. I was able to pull the trigger a few times, taking out all but one of the zombie pursuers before the living wyvern reached us, leading with a strike with her talons to where my face would have been. Before it connected, though, I ducked out of the way and rolled forward before spinning around with the butt of the rifle extended. I managed to catch her off guard as the butt of This Machine connected with her face, sending her recoiling into the ground as she became dazed from the strike.
With her temporarily out of the way, I turned back to the remaining zombie that had me in it's sights, which happened to be a much slower wyvern, and let three rounds fly. The first two had hit her chest and throat, but the last one got her right in the forehead, causing it to explode into a [Bloody Mess]. I also noted that Ender and Lyra had cleared out a good portion of the zombies and living monsters, but Lyra was struggling against the Zombie Dragon as Ender kept the other monsters off of her.
"You son of a bitch!", I heard the wyvern yell behind me as she recovered and kicked me in the back of the head. Immediately, I fell to the ground in pain as my ears began to ring. It's a good thing I was wearing a helmet; otherwise, that could have knocked me out cold. Still hurts like a motherfucker, though. Definitely concussed, probably gonna fuck up my accuracy for now. Before she could take advantage of my downed state, I rolled around with my legs rapidly extended into the air thanks to my [Kinetic Implants], allowing me to kick the wyvern in the face as I got back up. She saw it coming, unfortunately, and was able to block most of the damage with her wings before lunging at me again.
I grabbed her shoulders as her wings extended around me, her talons trying desperately to scratch at me, which she was successful at multiple times as I began to grow weary, though her main tactic seemed to be to keep me pinned with her legs and tire me out. Using her weight, she managed to down me again and attempted to pin me so that I couldn't get away, but I managed to get my legs out from under her more powerful ones and roll backwards, kicking her off of me as I did so, allowing her own force to throw her a good distance away from me. Getting back up, I swapped This Machine for my Combat Shotgun before quickly whipping around and shakily taking aim, and not a second too late either, for she had already recovered and was lunging yet again with incredible speed befitting of a wyvern.
Using VATS, I took aim at her head and executed. Just as her right talons reached my duster, buckshot leapt from the barrel of the shotgun and missed her head by just an inch thanks to my concussion, instead burying into her wings and chest. She instantly flew back with tremendous force, her breathing ragged as she let out a cry of pain with blood soaking her now broken body. Not wanting to prolong her demise, I quickly stepped up onto her chest to hold her down and fired at her head yet again. Her cries were immediately silenced as the buckshot completely destroyed her head, rendering it nothing more than an unrecognizable collection of meat chunks with bits of skull and brain mixed in. Motioning for Anastasia to follow, I took some Med-X to dull my painful concussion and immediately ran to where Ender and Lyra were at, only to see that Ender had just finished the last of the lesser zombies and Lyra now had the zombie dragon on the ropes.
Lyra and the zombie dragon were stuck in a grapple, but it was clear by the wear and tear on the zombie that Lyra had already gotten some good hits in and that the zombie wasn't going to last much longer in a test of strength like this. In a desperate attempt, the zombie dragon tried to summon it's rotten breath to stun Lyra, but Lyra was able to stop it dead in it's tracks. Thinking fast, Lyra kicked the zombie right in the crotch before yanking the zombie in close with her left hand and punching her in the throat with her right. Letting go, the zombie dragon recoiled in pain before stumbling backwards and falling on her ass. She was quick to recover and get up, but not quick enough. Lyra had already used her superior speed to race behind the zombie dragon and get her in a headlock. The zombie dragon became frantic as she seemed to realized what was coming and began to scratch at Lyra's arms around her neck, clearly infecting her with Zombie Rot if she wasn't already, as the pressure began to build further and further until…
CRACK!
Lyra's arms snapped to the sides as she broke the zombie dragon's neck, quickly releasing her and letting her fall to the ground dead.
"Nighty night, Zombitch!", Lyra yelled, clearly in pain as she held her now bleeding arms. With Ender making sure there weren't anymore stragglers, Anastasia, Lyra and I approached the caravan, who had now retreated behind their stupefied beasts of burden in fear of the fight taking place before them.
"It's alright, we mean you no harm.", I spoke out with a placating gesture, my weapons long since put up, only for the people to recoil as I spoke. That's weird, I just saved them, why would they be scared of...oh. I answered my own question as I looked down at my clothes. I was absolutely caked in the blood and brains of that wyvern I killed, likely creating a terrifying visage in conjunction with my Gas Mask. Damn you, [Terrifying Presence]!
"Please don't be scared, I promise that we are here to help.", Anastasia tried what I had just done. I thought it would be a repeat of what just happened, but to my surprise, the lead driver calmed just a bit and began to speak to her.
"I...I thank y-you for saving us.", he spoke with fear and fatigue evident in his voice. "We were heading North to escape the fighting, but didn't think we'd run into bandits on the main road. Especially not so close to the city." Wait, what? How come they aren't scared of her? She's a monster, so I would think they would be...wait a minute. Looking amongst them, I saw that many of the people in the caravan...weren't human. Far from it, in fact, since a good amount of the women seemed to be monsters either hiding or holding onto their husbands.
"Hold on, hold on.", Lyra spoke up, causing the man to shrink yet again in the shadow of such an imposing monster. "There's a lot to unpack in what you just said, and I need to get my wounds treated. Do you mind if we recuperate before discussing this? We may have bad news." The man looked incredulous at first, but after surveying his caravan again, he nodded.
We had moved to a shaded area as the caravan got ready to move again on a moments notice, and any living monsters from our scuffle had been tied up and set to the side. Namely, two had survived. A wyvern, and a wurm that Lyra seemed to recognize based on the looks she was sending her. Lyra, Ender, Anastasia and I were now talking to the lead driver and what looked to be a dwarf acting as a bodyguard. All the while, I was tending to Lyra's wounds, neutralizing the Rot and healing the gashes on her body.
"Well I'll be damned, I never thought I would see a dragon with my own two eyes…", the dwarf said as he beheld Lyra. "My name is Olgierd, I'm the muscle of this convoy, and this here is our lead driver, Brendon." Brendon simply nodded, still a little rattled from the fight from earlier.
"Glad I don't disappoi- Ow!", Lyra responded, grunting in pain as I injected her with more antibiotics.
"It's nice to meet you as well, though I believe we have something to discuss first.", Anastasia responded as well before asking. "Where exactly were you all headed?"
"Why, to Dragonia, of course.", Brendon responded, to which we all winced.
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen, bud.", I told him, not taking my eyes off of Lyra as I worked on injecting stimpaks into her arms. Brendon and Olgierd gave looks of confusion before Lyra spoke up.
"We're in the middle of a Civil War right now.", Lyra told them bluntly, causing them to go wide eyed. "Those monsters from before weren't bandits, they were our enemy. You're better off turning around and going back to where you came from."
"B-But, we came all this way, and we can't just go back now…", Brendon began to stammer as he adopted a look of worry on his face.
"Which begs the question.", I interjected, finishing up with Lyra before turning to them and asking. "Just what are you trying to get away from? I'm assuming y'all came from the Guild, and if that's the case, what fighting are you referring to?"
"That's, well…", Brendon trailed off as he turned his gaze to the ground with a bit of...sadness? Olgierd seemed to do the same, but spoke on Brendon's behalf.
"It's rather recent, so I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard.", Olgierd spoke clearly, pain heavy in his accented voice. "But...suffice to say, the Guild is being invaded." Oh boy, here we go.
"Let me guess, the Demon Realm?", I asked with a deadpan expression on my masked face.
"If only, but the truth is...much worse.", Brendon commented, causing us to go wide-eyed as the realization began to dawn on us.
"The Order has begun an aggressive ground invasion of our fair nation, and we're not really sure why.", Olgierd started before explaining, "Some say that it's because of something that the Demon Realm did, but we aren't too sure ourselves. All we know is that the Order has been forcefully occupying our cities. Humans and demi-humans are being put to work in camps, but the mamono...are being killed on sight, as are any who get in the way."
Well, I guess that settles it then. The Order knows about the occupation of Magicor, and has decided to get in on the action themselves. Although, while the Demon Realm's were able to take over Fenrim peacefully, the Order is going full Fascist Regime, war crimes included. We all seemed to be shocked as Anastasia covered her mouth and Lyra looked furious, yet worried at the same time?
"How heinous.", Ender spat in disgust, "I always knew they were scum, but to think they would resort to this…"
"Which is why we can't go back!", Brendon jumped back in, desperation clear in his voice. "They are indiscriminate with their searches, and I don't know if you've noticed, but we've got many mamono with us. If we're caught, we'll be-!"
"Enough, I understand your situation.", Lyra stopped him, her commanding voice booming with authority as she contemplated our next move. After a sigh and nod of her head, she spoke up again. "Alright, how about this. We need to get back to our base ASAP with a couple prisoners in tow, and while we've made good time, hauling them both back before the sun sets is unlikely. If you allow us to commandeer your caravan, we will lead you back to our mountain base. You'll be safe there."
"Hmm, that certainly sounds like the best option, but how do we know we can trust you?", Olgierd asked as Brendon went deep into thought.
"Besides the fact that we've already saved your asses once?", I asked with a bit of snark before adding, "Or how about the fact they allow a human like me to walk around?"
"I suppose you've got me...there…", Olgierd responded before trailing off as he looked me over. "Wait a bloody second, you're Red-Eyes Six, aren't you?" As he said that, Brendon seemed to adopt a look of recognition in his eyes as well.
"In the flesh, but please just call me Six. That nickname is stupid.", I answered with my arms out, to which Olgierd chuckled slightly.
"Heh, I'm just seeing all kinds of legends today, eh?", Olgierd commented before adding, "If only the others were here..."
"I think those terms are agreeable.", Brendon said to Lyra in a serious tone, clearly stiff as a board. Bit nervous, don't you think? Lyra seemed to think the same as she simply smiled in response and ruffled the man's hair.
"Don't be so tense, I'm not gonna hurt ya!", she joked, to which Brendon turned bright red and began to stammer yet again. I'm getting some serious Elt vibes from this guy.
"Alright, we'll get things loaded and ready. Just bring your, ahem, 'guests' on over when you're ready to depart.", Olgierd responded before he nudged Brendon away and back towards the caravan, leaving us alone with our prisoners.
"Now, what to do about these two?", Ender asked as we beheld them both. The wyvern looked to have blue hair and green-scaled appendages, while the wurm seemed to have golden scales with blonde hair and black vest with purple highlights. They were both tied up quite extensively so that they couldn't break free, and they were gagged with cloth as well.
"You think we'll even be able to get any important info out of them? They must not be that important if they were posted all the way out here in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.", I commented, causing Anastasia and Ender's cheeks to both redden.
"I don't know about the wyvern, but the wurm…", Lyra answered as she approached the wurm and took the gag off. The wurm coughed a bit before glaring daggers at us. "It's been too long, Sana. Too long since you betrayed us."
"Don't give me that, Lyra. It was you who betrayed us!", the wurm, now identified as Sana, responded with vitriol. "We've always remained friendly to and supported the Demon Lord, and yet you and your false Queen would abandon her now? In her greatest time of need?"
"She is STILL Queen, and you WILL respect her!", Lyra growled, her anger becoming apparent as her fists tightened and wisps of flame began to come out of her nose and mouth.
"Really? Would a true Queen abandon her allies in times of crisis? We are mamono, dammit, the superior species! Why should we allow humans or demi-humans any say in what is best for the future, our future?", Sana bit back, growing in anger as well as she wriggled in her bindings, Lyra careful to not let her slip out. "And look at you now! Siding with not only a human, but a mamono killer! One of the Demon Lord's worst enemies! Have you lost your mind!?"
"That's funny, because from what I've seen, he has been more than willing to heal my fellow sisters-in-arms with any injury, minor or severe.", Lyra retorted before adding, "He's standing by us through this terrible war, which is more than I can say about you and your sister."
"Where he should be is BENEATH us!", Sana yelled in anger, a wide grin spreading across her face as she beheld me. "Chained to a bed and ravaged day in and day out by the countless mamono whose families he has ruined."
"Cute, but not happening.", I deadpanned before asking Lyra, "You really wanna waste time on her here? I don't think we'll be getting anywhere anytime soon." Lyra simply sighed before nodding.
"Agreed, we need to get a move on.", Lyra concurred before reapplying the gag on Sana and continuing, "We'll have plenty of time for this later." With that, we grabbed the prisoners and hefted them back towards the caravan, looking ready to depart. As we walked, I thought to myself about what we had just learned. Looks like the Order has finally crossed the line, and it's pretty damn clear that their trigger was the events of Magicor. That must mean they also know about Druella's demise, huh? That must play into why they would try something so bold. Invading a neutral nation in response to another neutral nation being invaded is one thing, but now that Druella is dead, they must recognize that this means her War Machine has been temporarily halted. They must be cashing in on this opportunity I gave them by finally going after the Guild.
The Order has hated the Guild for a long time now, but was hesitant to do anything because they would end up fighting a war on two fronts, in true Nazi fashion. That's why they cut off all imports with the Guild at first, but ended up canceling that as it led to a major food shortage, which is not a good thing when you've got an army to keep running. Now that the Demon Realm's army is still strong, but without a helmsman to steer the thing, the Order is going after the weaker of their rivals to get a better foothold to fight on in the future. Geez, things are really escalating now, huh?
The ride back was fairly silent, up until Olgierd began to pester me. I was sitting in the lead wagon with the prisoners, Ender, Anastasia, and Lyra while Olgierd and Brendon sat up front.
"Come on, tell me straight.", Olgierd asked like a kid meeting Grognak, "What was it like fighting Druella?"
"I told you already, a pain in the ass.", I reiterated for what seemed like the umpteenth time. "I just wanted to get the fuck out of there, and she wanted to lock me away in her sex dungeon. I kicked her ass and that was that."
"Yeah, I know that part, but I need details!", he pleaded before Lyra jumped in.
"Come on, Six, you've been dodging me about it ever since we met.", Lyra joined Olgierd in hounding me to regale them with my exploits.
"Y'all wanna know so badly? Ask them.", I responded, gesturing to Anastasia and Ender with my open hand. "They saw the whole thing, and can probably tell the story better than I can, too." Which wasn't a lie since I was kinda more focused on staying conscious rather than picking up on every little detail. The two turned towards Anastasia as Ender shook her head.
"Well...He was very fast, and seemed to focus on Druella's wings first since they were what made her so mobile…", Anastasia started, but seemed to trail off before stopping. "Sorry, I don't really know how to explain it. I'm more of a numbers girl, not really into the whole...one-on-one fighting thing."
"Man, I was really wanting to hear about it.", Lyra whimpered before looking down in playful defeat.
"Aye, me and my party members used to talk about you all the time when it came to scuffles with mamono.", Olgierd agreed before continuing, "Hell, even other mamono saw you as real capable warrior. After all, not everyone could take on a Lilim. Heh, I remember how Elizabeth would get all fired up when-" All of a sudden, Lyra sprang up all of a sudden and interrupted Olgierd mid-sentence.
"Did you just say Elizabeth!?", Lyra yelled, nearly scaring the shit out of Olgierd and Brendon. "She wouldn't happen to be a Salamander, would she?"
"Er, aye.", Olgierd answered, still rather shaken before asking, "Do you know her?" In response, Lyra simply sighed with a smile before responding.
"Yes, I trained her in the Mountain. One of the most gifted mamono I've ever had the privilege of tutoring. There were some that were stronger, faster, but none quite had her fire.", Lyra responded, earning a chuckle out of Olgierd from what I can only assume was the fire pun.
"Aye, that lass is as tough as they come.", he agreed as they almost forgot we were here. "When the Order first came to Lutemarch, she rebuked them every time with the Guard Captain, Roland. Then, when we had to leave, she covered our retreat, ensuring no one got left behind."
"...If you don't mind me asking, what happened to her?", Lyra asked, a slight tinge of worry in her voice. "I didn't see her amongst your caravan, otherwise I would have rushed to embrace her." Olgierd quieted in response, pain clear in his eyes as he seemed to recount what had happened recently.
"Truthfully, I don't know.", he answered in a somber voice. "We were able to escape Lutemarch without many casualties, but they chased us down...and rained fire from all around. We weren't a threat. Just collections of refugees, but they didn't care. They chased us down and butchered us like animals. My...friends they…" Brendon put a comforting hand on his shoulder as he almost began to tear up. With a sniffle, he quickly pulled himself together before continuing.
"Sorry, not very manly, eh?", he said with a light chuckle, though pain still weighed on his face. "Anyway...point is not many of us survived. My boy Maverick and his missus, Tsubaki, were overwhelmed by soldiers and cut down while Sally was lynched, the poor girl. After that, seeing the faces of our dead friends, Elizabeth lost it. Anything she saw died, simple as that. Roland sent us away to get the civilians to safety and tried to get ahold of Elizabeth, but as far as I'm aware, he wasn't able to. Last I saw, she was hunting down any and all Order soldiers that dared step within her line of sight."
"...I see.", Lyra responded, quiet as she contemplated what she had just heard. "That's a dangerous path she's taking, and it's very easy to fall into that...awful bloodlust. Foolish girl…" As Lyra said that, she almost began to weep, but was stopped by Anastasia putting a hand on her shoulder, comforting her as she worried for her lost apprentice.
I'm not too keen on it, but from what I understand, Bloodlust is a rare, but very dangerous prospect for any monster. Basically, it's a state of mind left over from the time before the Demon Lord transformed all monsters, and they can fall into it if they get too bloodthristy, as the name would suggest. In this state, monsters lose almost all rational thought and go on a killing spree. I say "almost", because they are typically able to lightly distinguish between allies and enemies, though not always. However, this condition is so rare because, a, monsters typically revile killing, and b, it's not caused by killing itself, but rather a significant mental trauma like the death of a close friend or family member.
Monsters can kill people all the time and have no inclination towards Bloodlust if they maintain a good state of mind, though killing in and of itself can very rarely trigger the change. Bloodlust is most common in monsters whose husbands have recently been killed. Hell, if Leia's husband had been murdered rather than captured, then she likely would have stormed Dragonia and killed everything in sight until something stopped her. It's also why Fara couldn't be transformed back in Magicor. She was in a state of total and utter hatred, so transforming her then and there would likely just give her the means to make good on her threats.
With Lyra's questions answered, the wagon fell into silence again as we continued to make our way back towards the Mountain.
"I've tried being reasonable, Sana, but my patience is wearing thin.", Alto-Eris spoke with well-hidden anger in her voice as she questioned Sana, who sat in the middle of the room we were in silently, deep within the Mountain itself. It was clear this was where interrogations occurred judging by the various dried bloodstains surrounding the chairs Sana and her wyvern friend sat upon. Unsurprisingly, there were no torture implements other than what looked like potions used for drugging prisoners. I was standing there with Lyra, Leia, and Alto-Eris as we questioned the duo. Well, more like Alto-Eris and Leia questioned them in a sort of good cop, bad cop routine. Udephilis had stepped out, citing business as her reasoning, though it as clear as day that she really just didn't want to be here, as was true for the other dragons. Ender and Anastasia felt similarly when they saw the room, and excused themselves before the interrogation began. We had been at it for a good 40 minutes now, and had not come up with anything new. It was starting to look as if they had nothing to really tell us.
"You'll be wearing chains soon, bitch!", the wyvern, who we had not gotten anything out of either, spat out in Sana's stead. In response, Leia backhanded the wyvern hard before punching her in the gut, causing her to cough repeatedly.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll cut the bullshit and tell us what you know, traitor.", Leia growled, clearly holding back her intense furiosity.
"If you think we'll listen to anything you have to say, you're wrong.", Sana grunted to Alto-Eris, clearly beat up as Leia had already socked her several times. "You say we turned our backs on you, yet it was you who turned your backs on the Demon Lord first. You and your pathetic Queen." Leia began to approach Sana, looking like she was about to rip the girl's head off, though Alto-Eris stopped her.
"That's enough…", Alto-Eris put a hand up to stop Leia, putting a smile on both of the prisoners face, thinking that their good cop had caved to their jeers.
WHOOSH!
In the next instant, however, Alto-Eris' blade had leapt from it's sheath and sliced horizontally towards the bound wyvern. A second later, and the wyvern's head fell clean off her shoulders, blood spraying profusely from the stump and covering both the Dragon Knight Commander and Sana, who watched with newfound terror.
"Y-You...Why would you…!?", Sana screamed, at a loss for what had just happened to her fellow prisoner.
"I grow tired of this conversation.", Alto-Eris proclaimed, her sword still shimmering with blood in the torchlit room. "If you do not have anything to share with us, then I have no further reason to keep you alive."
"W-Wait! I swear, I d-don't know anything, but...but we're...we're friends, right? What about all those nights we spent together, drinking in merriment? Do they mean nothing to you!?", Sana began to grow desperate, wriggling in her bindings in an attempt to free herself from what was coming.
"You gave up the title of 'friend' the moment you betrayed your Queen and Country.", Alto-Eris spoke clearly and as neutrally as she could, though I could hear the heartbreak in her voice as Sana's face became filled with dread, the color draining from her. "As Commander of the Knights of Dragonia, I hereby sentence you, Sana, to death by beheading. Your life is now forfeit. Do you have any last words?"
"You...it's all your fault…", Sana spoke quietly as her faced morphed from one of panic to one of shock, and then to one of anger. All of a sudden, her face flushed red as she attempted to lunge through her bindings, struggling as hard as she could, as she looked to me in anger. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU GODDAMN MURDERER! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING! THE DEMON REALM WOULD STILL BE THRIVING, AND US WITH THEM, IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU! I WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN BORN, YOU FUCKING WASTE OF LIFE! MAYBE THEN, DRUELLA WOU-"
WHOOSH!
With another quick, almost unseen motion, Alto-Eris' sword decapitated Sana swiftly, causing her body to stop writhing and go limp, spurting blood from the now open arteries in her neck. And just in the nick of time, too, since it sounded like she was about to spill the beans about my latest exploit. Granted, I doubt they'd react too badly if they knew, but better safe than sorry. With a sigh, Alto-Eris grabbed a cloth off of the nearby table, the one with the potions, and began to wipe her blade clean.
"Leia, bag their heads for me, would you? I'll display them in the usual spot myself", Alto-Eris ordered with a pained look on her face, to which Leia sighed as well.
"Yes, Commander.", Leia complied, picking the heads up and walking them out of the room. A mix of anger and sadness present on her face.
"Lyra, dispose of the bodies.", Alto-Eris ordered again before adding, "This is your punishment for disobeying orders." Lyra quickly wiped a couple tears that were streaming down her face, nodding and quietly rolling the bodies up in cheap, blood-soaked linen before taking them outside.
"Six, I would like to speak to you.", Alto-Eris commanded without turning to look back at me. Obeying her request, I walked up to stand beside Alto-Eris as she stared at the now empty, yet bloody chairs in which our prisoners once sat.
"Am I in trouble, Commander?", I asked, worried that she may grill my ass about the fact that we didn't maintain a low profile. In response, she simply shook her head.
"No, Six, you are not in trouble.", Alto-Eris reassured me before explaining, "Lyra has already taken full responsibility for engaging the enemy against my orders. You all did well to take them out and come back unscathed."
"Thank you, but…", I trailed before crossing my arms and saying, "Now they know we're onto their plans. Our intel's likely expired now."
"Indeed, but we can always revise our strategies to match their new tactics.", she countered before adding, "Besides, those refugees you all brought back have been more than willing to aid us for the time being."
"Then...What did you want to speak about, Commander?", I asked, confused as to why she wanted to talk in the first place. In response, she simply sighed again, still not looking at me as she asked a question.
"You've killed a lot of people, right? At least, that's what the rumors say…", she started before coming straight out and asking, "Have you ever had to kill a friend before?" As she said that, memories flashed before my eyes. Memories that…I'd rather not revisit. Great, she just had to ask the tough questions, huh?
"...Yes.", I answered simply, hoping she wouldn't dig any further than that.
"...If you don't mind me asking, how did you feel afterwards?", she asked, making me cringe as I REALLY didn't wanna think about anything like that again. With a sigh, I tried to answer her question as best I could without going on a trip down memory lane. At least, not without a bottle of whiskey wetting my lips.
"Like shit.", I answered before elaborating, "Like a walking piece of garbage, not even deserving of the air I was breathing. That about sum things up?" Alto-Eris nodded in response.
"I've killed many before, but none have made me hate myself quite like this.", she spoke, looking into the reflection of her now clean blade.
"Good.", I responded with a grunt before turning to head towards the door. "That means you've still got a sense of morality. Empathy. Good people mean well, but they just don't always end up doing well. Can I go now?" With that, she sheathed her blade and nodded.
"Yes, that is all. Thank you for your time, Six.", she responded, to which I left the bloody room and it's only remaining occupant behind. As I left, I began to hear sobbing emanate from the now closed interrogation room, though I would never bring it up to anyone for my own safety. That sword of hers was sharp, after all.
I quickly made my way back to the lab to check up on my suspicion from yesterday in order to see if my idea held any actual water. I was pretty confident that it would, even though it was ridiculous as all get out.
As I entered, I saw that Malinda was no longer present, seemingly seeing herself to bed. Good, looks like her new sleep pattern is starting to catch on. Quickly making my way to the microscope, I whipped out all my work from before and began to look it over as I ran through the calculations in my head again. After clarifying that my math was still good, I took out the sample of Demonic Energy again to check and see if I was right. Not wasting any time, I began to examine it under the microscope yet again, just focusing on different aspects this time.
"Let's see, inexplicably dense, lower than expected temperature, and almost identical makeup to the iridium isotope from Spirit Energy…", I spoke aloud as I worked, possibilities racing through my mind as I went through the mental checklist I set up for myself to ensure that what I thought was correct. After about 10 minutes of checking, I had confirmation. The main tip off here was the "inexplicably dense" part since, for all intents and purposes, the sample looked identical to the Spirit Energy sample. There was no reason for it to be so much denser...unless there was something I wasn't seeing, and based on the criteria, there was only one possibility, even if it was absolutely bonkers.
"Well, I'll be damned, I'm looking at honest-to-God Dark Matter.", I said to myself in disbelief. To be perfectly honest, I thought this idea was crazy when I first thought it yesterday, but then I remembered a certain entry from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia. Apparently, there was a well-documented monster that seemed to be made entirely of hyper-condensed Dark Matter called, well, Dark Matter. See, normally Dark Matter is completely invisible because it is composed of particles which do not absorb, reflect or emit light, which is why we were never really able to figure out just what the fuck it was back on Earth. We only knew it was there thanks to observing electromagnetic radiation and shit.
Here, though, it's different. Here, it's somehow so abundant that it has heavily condensed into living beings documented as monsters in that encyclopedia Elt has such a hate boner for. Which begs the question, why? I mean, I need to figure this shit out forward and backward in order to make myself immune to it with my heart, but this...this is beyond me, even with my insane [Intelligence]. If I had the Think Tank here to work on this for me, then maybe they could come up with something, but me? I think I'd have better luck running naked through Quarry Junction then I would mapping Dark Matter by myself.
Wait, think Six, you can do this. I've gotten this far after all, haven't I? I just gotta think this through. Okay, so I can't do shit about Dark Matter itself, but why the Hell is it even here? Obviously, it's bonding with the Spirit Energy to infect it, but how is it doing that? Let's see...it has to be through the new iridium isotope, right? Yeah, that's the only thing that differentiates Spirit Energy with Adenosine Triphosphate after all, so that has to be what it's binding to.
If that's the case, then all I have to do is study and map that isotope, then make myself immune to it. Wait, no, that wouldn't work either since that would stop my own Spirit Energy production. Making myself immune to Spirit Energy like that would certainly keep me from getting infected by Demonic Energy, but I also need it for magic. No magic means no going home, and I can't just turn my heart filter on and off. That's a good way to break it, and I sure as shit don't have the necessary tools to fix something like that here. Hell, I'm lucky my nanobots were even able to repair my heart from that fight with Druella in Magicor.
Well...maybe temporary immunization could work, just without my [Artificial Heart]. If I can concoct some sort of solution that shuts off my Spirit Energy production for a short amount of time, then maybe…
"Yeah...Yeah, that could work!", I exclaimed with glee as I began to read over my notes again. All I needed to do was make this solution block that particular iridium isotope from being produced, and presto! Of course, these potions would only work for a limited amount of time, and may end up being expensive to make, but dammit, this is really the only choice I've got without those maniacs from the Think Tank with me, and God help this world if they somehow wind up here.
Thus, I spent the rest of my night in the laboratory. Here's hoping this shit won't be addictive, either.