I sat in Charlottes office with Sol. "So our mission is to find this Barnabas Romne should we come across him?" I asked. I had heard about the capture of the the obese magic knight.
"Yes, ever since the warrant was put out for him, he has vanished. It was like he knew, all his money, belongings, and a large part of even Gueldre's money have vanished. His illusion magic making locating him next to impossible." Charlotte looked out the window. "What a disgusting pig of a man, I've only had the displeasure of being in the same room as his a few times. There have been rumors around him since he joined the Purple Orca's five years ago, he seemed to be respectable, but his greed and gluttonous nature soon reared their ugly heads in him. Extorting commoners for money, trafficking's illicit goods, but the numerous investigations turned up nothing. We now know why. His captain was covering for him as they were profiting from the crimes they were charged with ending."
Chapter 36: Hunting the Purple Traitor
"So, he hasn't left the city?" I asked Sol, I patted the new breast plate I wore, I could feel the enchanted metal hum under my hand, I had taken it from the armory so I wasn't able to spend the amount of time crafting the enchantment to imbue it with. Simple defensive spells to repel attacks, but given my increase in power, it far exceeded my previous set of armor.
"Barnabas' magic makes him difficult to track, but he is surprisingly strong in battle from what I understand. A iron marshmallow in a way." She said as we looked down the streets.
I had my grimoire in my hands, a leather pouch on my side and a slight hesitation to my step as my balance was off from my severed tail. 'It was never a curse... it was something I was born with.' I thought as I flicked through my grimoire. My spells were separated in chapters based around the element. When I had first received my grimoire I had noted that I still had room for more of these chapters.
Sol tapped me on my shoulder. "You can track people by the smell of their magic correct?" She asked me.
I looked up from my grimoire as I place it in the leather satchel. "Yes? What dose that have to do... we are going through his stuff aren't we?"
"Yes, we are." She smiled. "I wonder what a smelly man kept, sure to be gross." She grinned.
I rolled my eyes as I followed her through the city, and soon we came across a rather large house. It's exterior lacking windows. 'Weird... just like Luna's place. But that has to be...' The small city manor's doors were guarded by twin gargoyles. Lichen and moss clung to the stone creatures. Sol marched up to the door as twisted the handle, the well oiled hinges opening silently to a opulent open first floor. Or at least it would be opulent had the place hadn't been ransacked.
"Seems our friend was desperate to leave." Sol said as she looked at a number of busts knocked over. Two of which had been decapitated by their impact with the floor. "He took everything of value and ran." I looked over in the left corner, a large statue fountain sputtered water, it was clear someone had taken a knife to pry any and all gems out of the figure of the naked woman, she held a vase over her head letting the now disrupted water flow down her front, several tipped over sitting chairs strewn and ripped open. When I looked along the central area of the first floor, the stairs to the top floor split around a door, flung open and off their hinges, leading into a kitchen and pantry area, then as I looked the right side of the room, a large dining room was a mess. the table once had trim of some precious metal, but it has been hastily ripped from the wood.
"He has stripped the building of all valuable metals and gems." I said as I looked at Sol. "How greedy is this man?"
"Barnabas Romne. had heard rumors he would would under report his findings from dungeons. Seems he had gold stashed everywhere." Sol said as she kicked a torn up floor board revealing a hidden compartment. "Not even a fleck of gold left. Magic knights were sent in to see if he left anything, but there may be something they missed."
I nodded as I walked towards the stairs with her our grimoires floating by our sides as we readied our magic. The lack of sun light looming over us as we ascended to the second floor. I took a sniff of the air... "Sol... I smell blood." I said in a hushed tone as I lifted up my hand to stop her. Silently I moved towards a damaged door. it was on one hinge, I looked down as a crimson liquid seeped under the door. Silently as possible I pushed it open, there was a dull thud as I looked in the room. I registered three magic knight robes soaked in blood, three craters in the walls and floors and three headless bodies stacked in the corner.
My head snapped back to Sol. But I was met by a fist to the face. I crashed back, splintering the door as I hit the hall with a thunk. I grimaced as I looked up, a heavily bloodied man held Sol by the back of the head, his robes torn and eye swollen from a previous fight. "Damn it, at this rate I'll get caught before..." He looked back at me. "Wait, that should have killed you... oh, so it's her." His cold black eyes locked with mine as he lifted Sol up placing a hand on her back. "Stay still or a kill her right here and now."
"Damn you Barnabas." Sol said as I got to my feet "Earth creation magic:..."
"Illusion Magic: Vanishing Grimoire." Sol's grimoire vanished as his floated next to him. The symbol on it... that wasn't a Clover.
A two pronged spear head over twin horizontal lines with a spiked half circle encasing it. It was like mine but slightly different, akin to a three leaf clover grimoire to a four leaf. "What are you doing here? The Full Blooded were wiped out centuries ago." He growled as cyan energy glowed around his clenched fist.
"You know about..." I stopped talking as lightning roared around me. "Elemental Enchantment: Zeus's FURY!" I dashed forward. he blocked me with his free arm and dropped Sol to blast me with a bolt of... ki! I skidded backwards as my sleeve was blown off, a burn mark stinging on my arm. 'What the... hell...' I gritted my teeth as Sol stood up. "Sol, go get back up. I don't care who." I said as flames erupted in my hands. "He's too dangerous for you."
"That mana... Alright I'll go call Char." She summoned a blast of mana and blew a hole in the wall as Barnabas was focused on me.
He reached up and ripped off the magic knight rope, the purple fabric falling to the ground. He swiped his other hand over his grimoire. "Illusion Healing magic: Visual first aid." His wounds quickly vanished. "I'll crush you girl." he exploded forwards ki swirling around him, his rotund body not slowing him down. I blocked his fist before stepping inside his guard grabbing him by the face and slammed him down through the floor, dust flying around us as I jumped in with him.
"Illusion Magic: Loved Ones Culling!" When I landed in the kitchen I couldn't find him. I looked around, only to see...
"What the... fuck..." Hanging from meat hooks through their necks was Sister Lily, Father... Nash, Recca, Aruru, Hollo, Asta, Yuno... "YOU BASTARD!" I lashed out wind magic tearing apart the illusion. The was a crash behind me as smashed through the doors. I turned on my heel and flew after him.
"Shatter Sky!" A scattered ki blast hit me from all angles. "I know I'm not stronger then you. But I have what you lack, information and experience." His grimoire's pages fluttered as the smoke cleared. "Illusion Magic: Unending torment!" he cast a spell.
In a flash I wasn't in the manor anymore. Instead I was in a tent. A diamond grimoire in the corner. "How beautiful..." A man's voice coed from behind me as a hand touched me on the shoulder, moving aside my loose fitting dress as it wandered down my front... everything in my body screamed to run. His other hand came around to cup me under my chin and slightly forcefully turned me around. "No woman can deny me." Argentum Vulpine said as he pushed me towards the bed.
My breathing all but stopped, my heart in my throat as I wanted to vomit, panic raced through me.
"CLOCKWORK MAGIC: MAGIC DISPELLING BULLET!" There was a bang and as the Silver Fox vanished, I had just enough control to hit the ground as Barnabas blasted where my head had been with a ki attack. Sweat dripped down his brow, his breathing heavy.
I got my feet under me and kicked away over to the ruined fountain. "Damn it Abigail." He grunted as I looked over, standing in the doorway was a woman in a Green Praying Mantis Robe, her grimoire glowing a brass light as she held up a weapon consisting a wooden grip, steel barrel and brass gears, and a hammer drawn back with her thumb, a finger on a trigger like a crossbows'. She wore green tights tucked into leather boots that went up to her knees, as she stepped forwards her hard soles clicked on the ground. Her white blouse was buttoned down letting out a small amount of her bust but on her stomach she wore a short corset that was drawn tight. Her long dark green hair was tied back in a bun as her glasses glinted with the light at her back.
"Barnabas, we are taking you in." She glared as him. "Blue Rose knight, can you fight?"
"Yes." I said as let the pages in my grimoire shift.
"Good." She said, her calculating gaze fixed on Barnabas.
Hey, sorry. I hit some serious writers block on all of my fics.
