Author note: the other 2 fallen maidens and your favorite monster girl bait shota appear at last *clap clap clap* dunno if i'll make the undead duo save Lescatie in the future, since other than respect for Sasha and Wil they had not a single good experience with the town, i for one despise the parasitic types like the Matangos and ropers, and Francesca is a roper queen that converted most of the women in town herself, but i don't know how to insert her in here... oh well that's a problem for future me...
Also last hour changes: "thoughts", "normal talk", and horizontal line for scenario shift.
Enjoy and please leave some reviews
Chapter 7: A lucky shota and the last 2 heroes, her nature and plans to level up.
"C'mon you bastards, put your spine into it! Swing those swords until you keel over then get back up and keep swinging it more, don't expect the monsters and heretics to show you any mercy in the battlefied!"
In the knight barracks a stern but caring captain screams orders to the greenhorns under her care, the beautiful tomboyish woman is Mersé Dascaros, one of the beautiful Heroes of Lescatie together with Sasha, Wilmarina and Primera and a beloved captain to her recruits.
"Damn heretics, if i ever meet them they will pay for what they did to my friends"
The woman was angry at herself when she heard of what Sieg and Beatrice did in the heart of their kingdom, she cursed the fact she was locked in here with her duties instead of helping her friends against him, even though she was not one to take her frustrations out on other people, she unconsciously did so and today's training was harsher than the usual as result.
"Have mercy on us captain please!"
"My muscles are screaming with pain!"
"Damn heretics why did they had to do that, today's training is hell"
"The beautiful picture of my brothers in arms giving their best and the sweat and smell of our burning passion uniting us, now this is what training is supposed to be GAHAHAHA!"
"Stop phrasing things like that John, you're giving me the chills you weirdo!"
Mersé smiled at her beloved ragtag of misfits, even at John, the strangely enthusiastic muscle head who always spouted something about sweaty passion with his brothers and calmed down as result.
"Ma'am, Elt has passed out!"
Mersé got out of her reverie when she saw her favorite recruit down in the floor, today's strain was too big for him and they didn't even spar yet.
"Hey Elt, Elt! You okay?"
She shaked him and gave him a slap to wake him up
"Ouch! Captain, why did you have to slap me?!" the small frame teenager complained
"It was the best way, the other option being a cold water bucket but there isn't one around hehe"
The tomboy hero smiled at Elt much to the jealousy of everyone there but John who smiled back at the duo for the beauty of a size different couple and wishing one day he also found his own Elt.
"Damn, why he's so lucky?"
"I wish cap'n smiled at me like that"
"Ah our beautiful captain has already fallen and she doesn't even know"
"Is it because he's a shota? i bet it's because he's a shota! I also saw him having fun with Sasha and Primera the other day lucky bastard"
The tanned beauty smile was strained at this point and Elt was scared for life looking at her warm expression going cold so close to him.
"You know i'm hearing all of it right you dogs? Since you can yap so much then get back to training until you pass out just like Elt!"
A collective "NO!" and a single joyful laugh was heard at the barracks that afternoon.
"Poor guys, once again they touched the reverse scale of the dragon" the relaxed patrolling knights commented when a childish voice spoke behind them.
"It seems i came at the right moment hehe"
"Welcome ma'am it's a honour to be visited by you today!" the knights saluted.
The owner of the voice was a cute little girl with pink fluffy hair and dress, a white ribbon that made her look like a bunny and a mischievous smile on her face, the last great hero of Lescatie's and one of the most powerful, a child prodigy who could cast advanced magic at age 12 Mimil Miltie was here.
"Hello onii-sans, i came to visit Mersé could you guide me to her please?"
"It would be our honour!" the knights were elated, it was not everyday she came to visit and she was a sight for sore eyes, making them remember the cute little sister they never had, suffice to say the knights were on cloud nine at this point and if anything ever happened to her they would kill everyone responsible then themselves.
After a short walk thought their happiness ended.
"Bye bye onii-sans i hope you have a good day and nothing bad happens" the little girl waved her hand to the knights before entering the barracks to meet Mersé and her favorite onii-san Elt.
"Something bad has already happened thought sobs" both were crestfallen looking at her figure disappearing inside the building, their little moment of happiness was no more and sadly they left back to patroling.
"Hello Mersé-san Hello Elt nii-chan i suppose the training is going well? Or was Elt-nii so weak and useless he failed at it again and you're both leaving now?" the smug loli stabbed Elt with her snark when seeing both were leaving while the other recruits and John gave their all.
"Why yes Mimil i'll make sure to turn him into a man worthy of respect even if i have to break some bones for it~" Mersé knew where Mimil was going and played along with her, cornering Elt in the process.
"Please don't do it cap'n i want to survive until adulthood!"
"Also Mimil stop giving the cap'n strange ideas about my training it is as harsh as it can be already!"
Elt took a step back, his denseness didn't let him catch the joke much to the pleasure of both girls who loved his cornered fearful reaction to their teasing.
"Rest in peace you lucky bastard, this is the price of making a harem" The recruits offered a prayer for their lucky friend who just left, it was common for the boy to come back completely spent the next day after Mimil visited, they didn't know where the trio used to go to make Elt look like he was one step from death, but they were jealous of it even so.
"Where are we going today Mimil?" Mersé asked, whenever they spent time together it was something fun to have fond memories of.
"I wanted to reunite everyone and make plans just in case we end up meeting the couple and fight them" Mimil was direct to the point and her adorable smile became a serious expression.
"Aha, a chance of making them pay for hurting my friends, i would love to participate" Mersé blood was pumping, a chance to avenge Wilmarina and Primera was at hands reach.
"Mersé-san, how much did they say to you about what truly happened?" Mimil was concerned about her friend, she wouldn't let her go and waste her life for nothing battling the two.
"That they were heretics who humiliated our the King and confronted him about our ways then attacked him and his guards with strong fire magic and holy magic even though Wilmarina tried to protect them, ending up hurting Primera in the process".
Mimil rubbed her temples and let out a sigh, yup it was as she feared, the people who reported the happenings of today to her friend painted them as heretical rebels who wanted nothing more than to create chaos within Lescatie.
"I don't know who reported that to you but they did a shitty job in doing so"
"Language!" Elt who was with both gave a flick to the little girl's forehead.
"Ouch! Why did you that nii-chan!" The loli teared up with his unexpected aggression and looked like a puppy while rubbing her forehead.
"Little children shouldn't be speaking bad words like that!" the boy was resolute in not letting her get grow up with strange influences.
"Pfft HAHAHAHAH" Mersé lost her sides at the moment, the strongest mage of Lescatie and maybe humanity as a whole, who either was feared as a monster or revered like a saint by the people was being lectured by one of their weakest recruits, because children shouldn't be speaking swear words.
"Ahh i love when this happens, thank you for the show you both" Mersé swiped a tear from her working eye, it was not the first time Mimil's facade of a cute innocent girl has fallen and she let out a curse word in front of Elt before being promptly flicked and lectured, and every time it happened Mersé got VIP seats to a private comedy show only for her.
"You meanie! I don't want to talk with you anymore!" the loli mage pouted and made an angry expression before turning her back to both and faking going away, now Elt was pleading for her forgiveness while pampering her.
"So easy to manipulate, Mimil has you completely at her fingertips Elt..." Mersé was jealous of the wiles of the little girl, she wished Elt pampered her like that, but as a knight captain she should always be an example to everyone.
"You've played around enough, tell me then what really happened earlier today" Mersé wanted to know the truth of the matter since Mimil said the report omitted information.
"Well... Wilmarina was the first to find Sieg when she was visiting Sasha during the morning and he answered the door"
"He what?!" Mersé and Elt both exclaimed "did he do anything to her!?"
"No, not at all, in fact Sasha pleaded them not to fight, and according to what i heard it wasn't out of fear for his wellbeing but for Wil-chan, the tensions between him and her rose up at that moment but didn't escalate further and they left in a peaceful way" Mimil calmed down the duo.
"So you're saying Sasha had so little faith in her friends, she would plead for a stranger to not hurt us instead of the other way...?" Mersé clenched her fist, never would she think Sasha saw them like that.
"No just wait until i finish it, and you know why she did what she did" Mimil kept telling the story.
"Then the couple acted as if they were nobles in a date through the city while being escorted like VIPs by our knights much to their chagrin before reaching the inner walls of the noble district" Mersé chuckled imagining the scene, one thing she was certain of, they had a backbone.
"That's when all hell broke loose, when the knights felt a sense of superiority at looking Sieg's silence when he saw the ostentatiousness of the noble district and would began jeering him for being a nobody from the boonies feigning importance like he did during the escort, he instead cursed the decadence of it all and blamed them for the suffering of the lower castes, angering everyone present at that moment for hurting their pride".
Elt could understand where Sieg was coming from in his criticism since he too was from the lower castes and was wronged by nobles in the past as well.
"Then one of the knights who was from a noble house took it personally and attacked him, the man promptly defended himself with a dark spell and drained his everything until he became a mummy almost dry of spirit energy and unlike the ways of the mamono, his attack meant to kill him not corrupt, and if it wasn't for Wilmarina intervening he would be dead, even now he's hanging by a thin thread".
"That heretic bastard can drain people just like the monsters, is he actually a disguised monster?" Mersé was fearful of his ability, her being a melee fighter would be susceptible to his drain attack if she wasn't careful.
"No, even though he looks exactly the same as his partner, he is 100% male and human so it was a new thing, anyways Wilmarina struck him to save the noble and before long both were fiercely battling, Wilmarina certainly gave her all, but her all wasn't enough and him being a fire user was a perfect counter to her ice specialty since his attacks were area of effects and she had to protect the those scummy nobles who instead of scattering, stayed to watched the show" Mimil facepalmed at the idiocy of those selfish nobles.
"Those bastards if it wasn't for them he wouldn't stand a chance!" Elt and Mersé exclaimed.
"Also he struck her with the same Dark spell he had used on the noble before, but she wasn't drained neither corrupted by the dark mana it had, i consider it a blessing to not have my friend monsterized or murdered".
"Wilmarina..." Elt longed for his childhood friend and was grateful that the worst didn't happen to her.
"By the end she couldn't resist the beating and lost the battle but instead of finishing her there and then, Sieg used his fire to heal her while congratulating for her resolution to protect, comparing her to Sasha nee-san at that"
"He's chivalrous, i give the heretic that" Mersé was grateful for the man to not have killed her friend and having a code of honour.
"Then Primera killed him with a sneaky arrow to the head" Mimil dropped the bomb.
"Wait, then how did he destroy the King's court later?" Elt was incredulous with how a dead man could raise hell after being killed.
"That's were i'm getting to! His body dispersed into ash and on his dying place was a mass of spirit energy so dense you could say it was divine, i think every priest, magician and even monsters in the areas around Lescatie could feel it strong it was, and try as they did no one in in the plaze could interact with it even Wil and Prim who are heroes couldn't, i can only imagine what wondrous things could be achieved if someone could hoard it and put to use".
"So he was a hero? Did Primera just kill a hero? Even though the Order prohibits the murdering of fallen heroes?!" Mersé knew that one of the biggest taboos was hero killing even if they had fallen.
"Not exactly, even now no one knows what his true nature is, but he is cunning and used the fanatism of the higher priests later for his benefit" Mimil rubbed her chin before continuing "his beloved then cried her soul out for him, each minute that passed making her look more and more like a Banshee and before long to the shock of everyone there, he reformed kneeling at her feet alive and healthy, as if he never had a arrow shot through his skull"
"I've heard stories of Banshees having the power to revive the dead, and the Order had a falling with them for such thing being considered vile, so she was one of them disguised as a human..." Mersé thought and Mimil catched it, also thinking it would be better to consider Beatrice a Banshee as well.
"According to the people who were there, he was absolutely raging at them for what happened, and coming back from the dead without a single drop of mana on his being, everyone felt like they were in the presence of the Demon Lord himself and both Wilmarina and Primera were the most affected by it, too fearful to raise a finger against him who slowly approached them like a beast ready to kill..." Mimil trembled thinking if she would feel the same fear both did if confronted with him at that moment.
"But he didn't do so, he had every reason to do it after being backstabbed but he didn't, instead he walked past them and touched the ball of spirit energy in the spot he died, absorbing it completely and the pressure everyone felt vanished without a trace to the confusion of everyone there, then demanded to be escorted again and meet the king to end the fiasco that was his morning".
Both Elt and Mersé were fearful with the composure Sieg demonstrated, the man was chivalrous enough to not kill their friends when he had the chance and every reason to do so, but above all is the fact not only he came back from the dead and the pressure he released made him feel like the Demon Lord, once he grabbed the mana he left when he died all the pressure vanished and he became a like normal human again.
"Then the same happened in the court, Wilmarina this time acted like Sasha like when they first meet and tried to defend them from him, he attacked the King and everyone present with arguments about the unfairness which Lescatie treats everyone who isn't a noble, they attacked him in retaliation for daring to speak against their traditions, then he blowned up the court with a storm of fire even i would find hard to compete against, and finished his "argument" with pillars of holy light which blasted part of the castle and silenced everyone present, who began treating him like a chosen of the Chief God and even the King himself feared him enough to let him go".
Elt and Mersé mouths were so agape they couldn't comment on anything, as expected since Mimil reaction was the same when Wilmarina told her the same story not long ago.
"Which brings me to the final point of wanting to reunite all of us to plan for countermeasures, he threatened to murder Primera if they ever crossed paths again, not only he didn't forgive her from what she did against him the first time, but she stubbornly tried to sneakily attack him again in the court and ended up hurting his wife in doing so when she tried to protect him against Primera's arrows, making him furious in the process then he put so much fear in her when she was already down for taking the brunt of the firestorm and light pillars, that now she's a shell of what she used to be and fearful of ever going out on the little chance she crosses paths with him and he decides to keep his promise to kill her".
"Then we need to do it fast! I won't let my friend develop a trauma from what happened and becoming a vegetable in fear of her shadow, for that would be as bad as dying!"
"I-i say the same!"
Mersé and Elt were pumped up to help their friend in need and Mimil smiled at them, maybe with positive reinforcement, especially from her Elt nii-chan Primera would come back to them with her spunky atittude in no time.
By the evening Sieg and Beatrice were out of the noble district and walking through the market, where life continued as usual even thought "divine punishment" happened earlier on this day.
"Now that everything has calmed down and we are free to do whatever we want until they see through my ruse and send people to capture us again, do we take our time exploring this place or should we go?", Sieg looked at the stalls that were almost closing up for the day.
"Hmm i think it's better that we leave Sieg, but before that let's try to find Sasha and see if she was successful in evacuating the people from here", Beatrice reminded him of the gentle sister he promised to help.
"Ahh yes, i forgot about her, i hope the little show of ours didn't make it harder for her to achieve her goals after all security will be increased for now", Sieg looked at the increased number of patrolling guards passing by before remembering something he didn't had time to talk about with his beloved.
"Beatrice, remember when i reappeared before you after i died?", Not even a day after his first death in a long time he would be reopening his lover wounds once again.
"How could i not Sieg? For a moment i thought i had lost you forever", the girl trembled remembering his corpse dispersing to the winds and that hateful woman appearing from nowhere all smug about her cowardly victory.
"I too despaired for a moment when i found myself in a black void only wanting to go back for you", Sieg consoled his maiden "then i used the coiled sword fragment and the only connection i could feel was with you, i think you've became a bonfire or at least inherited part of their power".
"You mean that you'll always come back for me if we get ever sepparated?" Beatrice hugged tightly the man, this was a happy discovery for her now if they ever got separated from one another again, he would be able to come back instantly as she became his very own bonfire.
"I would come back for you even if this miracle didn't happen and i needed to run from there back to Lescatie my love" Sieg caressed his maiden and vowed to not let her cry for him again, maybe it's time for him to go tryhard and gear up with a better protective set.
"But the fact you became a bonfire increased the risk to our peaceful lives...", he finished their hug and looked at her beautiful eyes, not caring if once upon a time they were from another dead Firekeeper.
"In the small chance the Dark stirs once again and tries to snuff out your flame like it did with the First Flame i don't know what i could be capable of doing, there could be a real chance of me going hollow and trying to destroy this entire world" his eyes were empty looking at a possible future without her by his side.
"I would never let that happen, i would never let the Dark snuff out these flames that belong to you, if the First Flame survived so long i too will, so don't think of a future in which we aren't together Sieg!" She gazed at him with a firm conviction.
"That's reassuring Beatrice, sorry for making you worry and thank you for helping me back there, that green haired bitch arrows wouldn't stop me from doing the Divine Light Pillars even if they hit, but if they stopped me before completing the Chaos Storm it's possible we would've then locked away and tortured for life without ever dying, now that they know death can't stop us", being locked away from her would be a fate worse than death for the man "you are the best shield i would ever want, i understand Wilmarina's desire to protect when i look at you and how you put yourself at risk defending me".
Beatrice was happy with the praise, even though she did what they planned together, it was good being praised for her small victory.
"What do you say of enhancing your own power with sovereignless souls just like you always did to mine own?" Sieg took out the Soul of the Champion and gave it to her, the spike of spirit energy alerting some people and disguised mamono but not enough to consider it a threat bigger than a hero showing off somewhere.
"I have lots of souls stashed away from all of my adventures, it took me an eternity farming them but time and motivation was something i didn't lack in the least"
Sieg was a hoarder, and wouldn't stop farming an enemy before both his pockets and his storage were full of anything they dropped, with time he could proudly say he was richer than anyone who still lived, and had enough equipment to supply an army if necessary, not that he would ever part with his things for anyone except the woman in front of him.
"You can enhance whatever you wish with them, but if i could choose something for you to upgrade first, i wish you had enough strength to lift Havel's Shield even if two-handed, it would take a weight off from my chest knowing you had the means to defend yourself from things that otherwise are unescapable, and also having the physical strength to bash someone in when if you are too spent to cast pyromancy and..." Sieg whispered in her ear "destroy me completely during our intimate moments~"
"S-Sieg not here you pevert!" Beatrice was embarrassed with his sudden mood shift and also interested in the idea, it would be a good way to making him pay for making her worried after he died so easily.
Sieg knew that the desired build for a pyromancer was dexterity focused, and unless all the souls he gifted her made her reach his jack of all trades level, a focused build would be far better in the long run, he only hoped the souls he had on hand were enough for her.
"Well let's go to the orphanage and see if Sasha is home, it also would be a good place to use the souls i gifted you and strengthen yourself before we make our next step"
And with the sun setting at their back, both undeads began their last travel to the orphanage in the slums before parting from this town forever.