A/n: Hello Readers, Psychojack here with another chapter for your entertainment. Honda seeks escape from the dungeon belonging to the strange master named Mara Malga. Assassin has her own priorities and has attacked the aforementioned stranger. Now with her bleeding what will become of the duo.
--Malga Keep: Study--
Honda stared in shock as the sexy enigma of Mara Malga was ganked from behind by the expertly hidden Assassin. The shadowy being had made her move as Mara mentioned the possibility of an alliance with Honda as well as her interest in his role in the war. Whatever she had to say was interrupted with the spillage of blood on the study floor.
Assassin pulled the sharpened stone from Mara's side, releasing the female magus from her grip and enabling the target to fall and slowly wither into the cold silent embrace of death.
Mara was gasping for breath as she fell onto her knees, looking on at her blood pooling onto the floor. She choked as her lung was punctured, preventing her from breathing properly. The sound of blood clogging her mouth was prominent, gurgling into her mouth before she simply collapsed onto the floor, orange eyes wide and her face covered in blood.
Honda simply stared as the thick roots that had once bound him was released, enabling him to stand up to view the whole fiasco in front of him. He seemed shocked, the violence being so vivid and prominent in front of him that he had instinctually took a few steps back.
Mara remained stiff, the blood pooling as the seconds ticked by.
Honda cringed. "Woah, that was the most brutal death I have ever seen! Nasty! I mean god damn, Assassin you just went and shanked her with a rock!"
He looked to his right foot, his sneaker was coated in blood as he kicked off some blood to not further stain his beloved and only attire.
Assassin stood there, seeing how stiff Mara seemed before turning her attention to Honda. She seemed quiet for the moment. The magus was dead, and now technically they were free, however, Honda is a master as well. Assassin cannot deny her role any longer.
As a master of the war, Honda must die.
Assassin's hand fidgeted as it grasped the sharp rock in her right hand.
"Hey Assassin, you did a great job, looks like she's down for the count. Wonder if it was thanks to our plan, although I wish I knew more about what she had in mind for our alliance. Ah well, no use crying over spilled milk."
Honda walked over to Mara.
"Corn syrup and latex, classic!" Honda stuck a finger in Mara's back wound and tasted the blood.
Honda's face was filled with disgust at the taste of warm blood. His eyes were creasing in revulsion.
"Warm…blood flavored corn syrup" Honda justified the bad taste.
Assassin looked at Honda's exposed back. The alliance between them was finished, there was no need to continue holding up to her word. Assassin was not a knight or a being of honor, but a machination of deceit and obscurity. Honda should have known as anyone would, that one must never trust an Assassin, a cutthroat.
And yet still, the figure felt an abnormal sense of fidgeting nerves, of hesitation.
Of weakness.
Assassin took silent steps in Honda's direction. Her feet as silent as the room around them as she expertly shifted to and fro past the spilled books, past the abandoned papers and slowly past the edge of the spilled blood.
Honda navigated Mara's person. If this whole thing was as immersive as he thought, then there must be something on her person that he could use. Much like any dungeon crawler, a good enemy usually has good loot as well.
Honda began the process of checking her attire for any notable pockets or carrying bags. As he checked some blood went on his hand, causing him to let out a "Yuck" as he shook it off.
Assassin slowly stopped to notice the pool of blood surrounding her and Honda. She can't effectively sneak through to Honda with all this blood in the center that may alert Honda of her approach. When combined with the fact that he had tasted the blood of his enemy and his nonchalant demeanor of a dead enemy…
'Blood magic. He's a blood mage!' Assassin thought to herself. It wasn't entirely improbable that Hinda may be capable of blood magic. If that is the case, then it's no wonder he placed himself right in the middle of the blood pool without a blink. There's plenty of blood to both attack and defend himself. And with Assassin right here in the pool, whilst low on prana he had her cornered.
'Was he planning that far ahead?' Assassin thought to herself.
Honda pulled out a small book from Mara's person. An ebony small little notebook laced with silver etchings. He opened the book, and noticed that it was written in runic languages laced in blood red ink. In it were translations of English, something he could actually read. It was obvious that Mara was quite intelligent considering the simplistic translation of the runic spell incantations of whatever she was messing with.
The last page contained a little entry. There was an intricate design of a rock like being, a design for what Honda could guess was the golem in this room.
"Hey, would you look at that…" Honda spoke to himself.
Assassin saw Honda rise steadily. His front was in the direction of the purple tower of fire containing the golem in front of him.
Honda turned around to Assassin's direction. He was smiling casually but from Assassin's viewpoint with blood staining his face and the ominous ghost-like purple lighting of the room, Honda looked insane. His excited expression unnerved Assassin who leaned in a defensive position at what she believed was Honda's readiness for a strike from behind.
Honda stuck out the book in front of him showing the last page. He spoke calmly, but in Assassin's view he sounded ominous with how nonchalant he seemed while caked in blood. Combined with his voice echoing in this room, his voice sounded booming.
"Couldn't have done it without you Assassin. As far as truces go, you kept to your word, am I right?" Honda said showing the blood-written incantation of the golem.
Assassin was shaking under her mask.
'He is a blood mage! That little grimoire is his spell book! And that last page…!'
Assassin had not seen Honda pull the book from Mara's corpse, and considering the blood like ink on the book, with the blood surrounding the two still standing, Assassin surmised that Honda wrote using the blood within the pool.
Honda read the incantation in English translation. He was reading it normally, mostly out of curiosity. To Assassin's mentally paranoid state however, Honda's expression was that of a calm tactical killer.
"Sediment and bedrock arise, shift and turn the tide, under my guiding hand I release you from your chain so that you may serve my will. I invoke your strength!" Honda read aloud.
Assassin looked at the logbook from earlier. She had thought that the log Honda read earlier mentioned that the golem was out of commission. That was until she saw the wind blow the pages to future entries as far as Log 127, revealing the content within.
'Log 127
The golem is ready for release. What I need now is a willing host to serve as the core for the golem. I would do so myself but my body as it is lacks the right composition for the spell. I need an alliance in order to secure the host I require. A powerful magus has been sited at the Velune Residence by my servant, he appears to be held as a slave for the Velune Residence. He will do nicely.
I will send my servant to collect him.
An enslavement seal will be necessary to keep him grounded to my will. All I need is his body and a drop of my blood to serve as a base for the spell. and in his current circumstances he is liable to accept any proposal.'
The purple like flames wrapped around the golem like a second skin before the once old sickly looking titan began looking much akin to a marble like masterwork of ebony. Purple like runes began etching themselves all over the golems ebony biceps and torso. It's eyes glew an ominous indigo as well as it shuffled before standing, stomping its feet near Honda's person.
"Woah! The damn animatronic moves! This is awesome!" Honda almost tripped as the golem looked in his direction, awaiting orders with its sleek ebony frame, purple runes aflame on its arms and chest.
Honda extended his arm in a fist bump motion.
"Put her there, big guy!" Honda requested.
The golem mimicked Honda, lightly tapping its gargantuan black fist against his.
Honda then looked at Assassin with a grin on his face as the servant shook in apparent horror at the power he currently wielded.
"So Assassin, what do you think? Pretty cool huh?" He asked Assassin.
Assassin assessed the situation, she was cornered, there was no way with Hondas control of the golem that she could fight him. Combined that with his blood magic grimoire at his arsenal, and the fact that she lacked much of her prana reserves meant that fighting Honda was a pointless endeavor. He had beat her with sheer intelligence and improvisation alone. The man is a tactical genius.
Assassin dropped her sharp rock. She looked downwards.
"I surrender...to you Honda…" Assassin said, as at this point without energy, without a notable way of it with the giant golem here, she was beaten in every way. Resistance was futile here.
Honda looked at her like she grew a second head.
"Surrender, what do you mean? You act like we didn't make a truce earlier." Honda scratched his head.
He looked at the golem. He just had to see how much production value the Holy Nail War was willing to dish out.
"Hey big guy! Mind finding a way out. I'm kinda lost here!" Honda commanded.
The golem took its fist and smashed a giant hole through the ground on top of them from underneath. It had shielded Honda and Assassin from the debris with its other free hand.
Once the sun was prominent from the outside, the titan flipped its gigantic ebony hand palm facing upwards, beckoning it's master.
Honda looked at the extended hand and at the golems' face. He pointed at himself.
"Y-you want me to ride your hand. Oh shit! This is…this is nuts!" Honda then hesitatingly took a step onto the golem before landing another one and covering his head with both hands as sediment still spewed everywhere.
"Hey Assassin ya coming or not." Honda called out to Assassin.
The servant did not know what to say, as she thought Honda would have killed her by now. Perhaps he intended to keep her as a hostage for her real master whoever that was. She looked at her hand and noticed that surprisingly she had her command seal. It was a bluish color as opposed to the red that her knowledge as a servant expected.
'Somethings not right. I have yet to find my master…'
Honda took off his shirt as it had some sand on it. His back was exposed to Assassin.
"God damn sand always getting stuck on my clothes! Hey big guy mind watching where you smash things you're getting my clothes wrecked!"
A gust of wind shot out towards Honda from the golems face area. One could surmise it literally blew on Honda's face.
"Gee thanks…" Honda's eyes spun.
The shadowy figure of Assassin took a glance and noticed that a small sword insignia was on his back.
'He commands a Saber class servant!' Assassin observed internally.
What Assassin also noticed was that next to the sword insignia…
Was a dagger insignia of the same color.
Assassin gasped. Looking from her hand to Honda's back and over again. She couldn't believe it.
Honda was her labeled master. But when?
So many questions, so many answers that she needed. But considering that she actually enjoyed the time she spent earlier with Honda, one couldn't help but notice Assassin brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Assassin! Aren't we gonna escape! C'mon let's go for a ride!" Honda said enthusiastically.
Assassin wouldn't argue. She was looking for a master, she got a master. Mission accomplished as far as she was concerned.
Assassin swiftly jumped. She landed on top of Honda however. Honda blushed and hugged her to himself, as the golem began climbing its way out the gigantic hole in the ground.
Honda didn't get how this was happening, to him this was nothing but some elaborate ride on an animatronic. It felt like a ride, especially with present company cradled atop his person.
Assassin looked downwards towards Honda. Honda was admiring her features, and also the view as the two were held within the climbing golems hand.
"Do you have any orders for me, master?"
Honda looked at Assassin with an eyebrow raised. He thought she wasn't his servant at least according to the event so far. They were supposedly on a truce based alliance. Did something happen to change the script? Was there a prerequisite before one of the escorts deemed you their master for the Holy Nail War?
However hearing Assassin did make him think of other things.
-Honda Vision Start-
Assassin had Honda in a lap pillow-like position underneath the towering giant. The sun is alight in the background, highlighting the long purple ponytail of Assassin's hair. Her skull had two red shades on her face in a blush. Her two hands were placed on her mask nervously as if hesitant in revealing her face.
Assassin's voice could be heard in a shy bashful manner. Too cute in comparison to the silent whisper of her normal voice.
"Master I am under your command. Do you wish to see my face? Let us look upon each other as we exchange our dark vows."
[Assassin is ready for another mana exchange! Would you like to begin?]
-Honda Vision End-
Honda blushed. He pulled Assassin to kiss her. The Assassin kissed back with a lot more vigor than expected as she practically shoved her tongue past his throat. As he let go he asked Assassin something important.
"Ever did a mana exchange atop a golem before?" Honda huskily asked as he slipped off Assassin's mask.
She had an intense purple blush on her dark face. Her purple eyes reflected Honda's face like mirrors, holding the clear look of desire on this otherwise stoic being.
"Right here?" She asked.
--Below as the Golem climbs--
A pool of blood stood underneath the gleaming sunlight. Unlike the shade of dark red that was normal, the blood was black like a wellspring of oil from within the earth.
The lone body of Mara Malga laid with her bright orange eyes opened, the same as when she was killed by Assassin.
The blood that was spreading throughout the floor immediately stopped. It stood stiff surrounding Mara.
The blood then reversed.
Instead of pooling outward, the blood pooled inward. Towards its center origin it flowed, towards its owner it went. Bit by bit the blood pool that was once there shrunk as the black tar like blood went back into the area where Assassin made her otherwise fatal blow.
As the pool of blood was no more
A lone gasp for breath filled the void.
CHAPTER END