Chapter 21: Hellion Hunting
They properly disposed of the body, or rather they burned it, then went looking around for hellhounds. They found about fifteen hellhounds scattered throughout the city and with Rose knocking out each one as they went. Malevolence slowly let up as they went. However while checking for hellhounds they heard a roar causing them to look up. To see a draconic hellion flying above them.
"A dragon?" Rose exclaimed.
"No, look around." Said Mikleo. The people that were outside were going about their days trying to avoid getting sick in whatever way the can. "If it was a dragon normal people would see it."
"Meaning that it would be a drake." Said Edna.
"The difference being?" Rose asked.
"Drakes are just young dragons, not fully manifested so you can still purify it." Said Edna.
"Ah! It's heading towards where the great tree is!" Sergei exclaimed.
"Well then, lead the way!" Said Rose. The two ran through Marlind's streets until they got close to the tree and Rose stopped and grabbed Sergei. "Maybe you should stay here while I sneak ahead."
"What?"
"You're loud as hell. I'm pretty sure the drake heard you while it was flying." Said Rose. "And I really don't want another Oroboros incident."
"… Fine … Don't die." Grumbled Sergei. Rose went on ahead and hid in the bushes the other seraphim came out beside her. They observed the red drake as it rested by the tree and absorbed the malevolence around it.
"Looks like the city's malevolence is energizing it somehow." Whispered Edna.
"Should we go in and knock it out?" Rose asked.
"Are you high?" Dezel asked.
"Hell no it's too dangerous!" Said Mikleo simultaneously.
"It's not a full-fledged dragon yet so we can still whack it over the head and purify it." Said Rose.
"You need wings to do that or at the minimum a power boost to Mikleo's arrows." Said Dezel.
"I think that's manage able I mean me and Mikleo knocked out an aboleth." Said Rose.
"Not armatized." Said Mikleo. "And I don't think aboleths are so close to being dragons."
"No … I think I heard from Lailah that aboleths are just a powerful type of slime. Though slimes are usually very squishy and easy to deal with." Said Dezel. "Well maybe except of man eaters which are-"
"All right, great, we know the difference between an aboleth and a drake can we please figure out something to take care of it because the best we got is shooting it down!" snapped Rose.
"You know the drake can hear us." Said Edna. Everyone else turned to see an approaching drake looking right at them.
"Shit! Run!" Rose shouted. Mikleo and Edna went back into her body while she and Dezel scrambled out of the bush and ran from the Drake. They approached Sergei who saw the drake flying after them then started running.
"Goddammit Rose! How the hell do you manage to keep getting into trouble?" Sergei shouted.
"I think it's part of the job." Said Edna.
"This way!" Sergei shouted as they ran straight into the closest house with Sergei slamming the door. They heard the drake roar and silence, Sergei looked out the window next to the door to see the Drake flying away.
"That was close." Sergei sighed.
"Sergei?" They heard a faint frail voice say. "Sergei? Is that you?"
"Where are we Sergei?" Rose asked.
"Yes it's me father!" Sergei called. He then put his hand on Rose's shoulder. "This is something personal I need to take care of. Whatever you do I'll meet up with you later." He then left the room. Rose nearly walked after him.
"Leave him be." Said Dezel.
"… Edna you said that city's malevolence is fueling it right? You think that if we quelled some of the city's malevolence the drake would be weakened?" Rose asked.
"Worth a shot." Said Edna. "But it is a hassel."
"Though even if we quell most of the malevolence how are we gonna take down the drake?" Mikleo asked.
"We'll get to that when we get to that." Said Rose.
"More of a hassle." Edna muttered.
"Better than doing everything all at once otherwise you get a half done job." Said Dezel.
"Right. Let's get to Mary Jane first to see if purifying her would help any." Said Rose. The seraphim went back into her body and she left the house. She approached the city's gate when one of the guards stopped her. "I'm leaving for a bit but I plan to be back."
"That's fine but we need to make sure that you haven't succumbed to the plague." Said a soldier. "Have you experienced fever, chills, weakness, coughing, or strange lumps around some of your joints?"
"No." Replied Rose.
"Have you been in contact with rodents within the last few days?" The soldier asked.
"No."
"Do you have any open wounds or sores?"
"No."
"Have you sinned within the last few days?" The soldier asked.
"No." Said Rose.
"Pff Yeah right." Said Dezel.
"Have you been in contact with the sick within the last week?" The soldier asked.
"No." Said Rose.
"Have you been in contact with any stray dogs?" The soldier asked.
"No." Said Rose
"Liar." Teased Dezel.
"They don't know that." Said Edna.
"All right, you can go." Said the Soldier letting her through. Rose then rushed to Mary Jane's tent.
"You're back." Said Mary Jane.
"Yeah and I think I may have lifted your curse and we found out where the blood Ingress needed came from." Said Rose. Mary Jane's eyes widened.
"Where?" She asked.
"She was stabbed, either by her own hands or by someone else's." Said Rose. Mary Jane put a hand over her mouth and gasped. "Mary Jane?"
"… I'm fine … it's just … I thought I could try to make things up to her." She said. "I mean I unintentionally ruined her life. I made her lose her job and likely had her go into prostitution."
"Mary Jane …" Rose began. "What did you think would have happen when you told the priest about Ingress?"
"I … I don't know. I was young and stupid back then I thought she would get off with a warning and try to improve her behavior not get her kicked out." She said. "Or maybe I could have done things differently."
"You know I don't know if going back in time would've changed anything but I have a hunch that she may have forgiven you or at least let go of her grudge over time." Said Rose.
"What makes you say that?" Mary Jane asked.
"Well we purified her. That has to count for something." Said Rose. Mary Jane laughed.
"I guess you have a point." She said. "Well are you gonna purify me or what?"
"Give me your hand." Said Rose. Rose held onto Mary Jane's hand and closed her eyes. "Edna can you help me with this?" She focused on taking all of the malevolence that built up over thirty years and let it flow into herself and directed it back to the earth using her and Edna's powers. It took a while but when it was over she felt no malevolence left over. She opened her eyes to see an elderly woman standing taller than her, with frazzled grey hair attempted to be held back in a braid, and piercing green eyes in a simple green dress and an apron on her. Rose smiled. "You know, this fits more than the hellion form." Mary Jane burst out laughing.
"Shepherd, don't flatter me. However I am in debt to you so if you need anything feel free to come to me." Said Mary Jane.
"Sure." Said Rose. "I'll keep in touch." They walked out of the tent. "See we didn't have to knock her out."
"Now are you gonna do that with every other hellion we meet?" Dezel asked.
"If they're living and human I think it'll work." Said Rose. "Otherwise we'll keep doing what we've been doing what we've been doing." When they got back to Marlind Rose was stopped and asked more questions before being let in. She and seraphim searched through the city to see if there were any remaining hell hounds and knock out other hellions lurking in the city. She then went in the direction Marlind's tree was and ran into Sergei.
"You got everything taken care of?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, what about you?"
"We took care of Mary Jane and remaining hellhounds so we're checking near the tree." Said Rose.
"You know I think the abandoned museum is around there." Said Sergei.
"Well there's still a lot of malevolence here, let's see if it's related." Said Rose. They went to the area around the great tree with thankfully no drake occupying it. The group then approached a musty, boarded up, yet ornate building. Rose got a shiver up her spine as she sensed malevolence around her. "Is this the place?"
"Yep." Said Sergei.
"Goddamit." She muttered under her breath.
"Why? I though you needed to go here." Said Sergei.
"She's scared of ghosts." Said the seraphim simultaneously.
"Okay how the hell do you two know?" Dezel asked.
"It all has to do with why I'm able to armatize with Rose." Said Mikleo. "See we went to the Galahand Ruins to find a divine artifact and-"
"Save it for later Mikleo." Rose growled. The front doors of the museum opened on its own. "You saw that right?"
"Yep." Said Edna. "Looks like it's inviting us in." Rose grimaced at the place.
"Do we have to?" She asked.
"Yes." Said everyone else simultaneously.
"… Crap … let's go." Said Rose. The inside of the museum looked just as bad as the outside, if not worse. There were spider webs everywhere and everything was covered by a layer of dust. Statues were smashed, ceramics lay on the ground shattered and paintings were wither defaced or were out of their frames. "This place has clearly seen better days." Said Rose.
"Yeah." Sighed Sergei. He spaced out.
"You all right?" Rose asked. Sergei then snapped back to reality.
"Yeah, let's keep going." Said Sergei. They continued further into the abandoned museum and as they kept going it became more trashed with the exception of a few rooms that remained relatively unscathed but windows were broken and the wood on the walls and floor boards started to splinter. The only thing that remained unscathed was a green, gold, and white dagger on display covered in a layer of dust.
"Hey, this is a divine artifact isn't it?" Said Rose.
"Looks like it." Said Edna "It's even wind elemental."
"So … are we gonna steal this thing or take care of the hellion scaring Rose then steal this thing?" Mikleo asked.
"What?" Said Sergei and Dezel.
"How else do you think we got that bow?" Said Mikleo.
"Well nobody's guarding it." Said Edna.
"We'll steal this thing later! Let's just take care of this hellion that's apparently running around here!" Dezel snapped.
"Boo! Boo!" They heard.
"GAAAAAAAAH!" Rose screamed. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"… Let's go." Sighed Sergei grabbing Rose by hood of her shepherd's cloak and dragging her.
"But there's something here!" She complained. They continued into museum however progress kept getting halted by some laughing or booing out of nowhere and Rose screaming and eventually jumping onto Sergei until they got to a room with a single painting in it. Then suddenly the doors shut behind them. "Oh god we're trapped! We're gonna die!"
"Rose get a hold of yourself we're not gonna die!" Dezel shouted while grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a bit.
"Don't go saying that, it means you'll die first." Said Edna.
"Okay how the hell does that make sense?" Dezel shouted. They head the laugh once more and a giant golden suit of armor holding a lance dropped from the ceiling.
"This is where the disembodied laughs are coming from?" Asked Rose.
"…A … apparently." Said Dezel gesturing to the hellion but the hellion lunged at Dezel. "Whoa!" He dodged out of the way. The hellion stopped just short of crashing into the wall. It turned around and took great care in not hurting the painting, or the rest of the building, with its physique and weapon. Rose and Sergei ran forward to attack it but the suit pushed them back. Rose quickly recovered and tried to jump onto the hellion but it swatted her aside making her break through a wall.
"I'LL PURIFY THE SHIT OUT OF YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She screamed as she fell right into a tree. Dezel ran over and poked his head out of the Rose shaped hole.
"Rose! Are you okay?" He asked. There was a pause he heard a groan. "Yeah she's fine."
"I imagine so, second story falls normally aren't lethal." Said Mikleo.
"Really, that's good." Said Dezel. "Can't tell with stairs."
"… we really only went up one flight of stair-" Said Mikleo before he got pinned against a wall by the suit of armor "Ugh!"
"Great we all know that Rose didn't fall to her death can everybody shut up and focus on making this thing pass out?" Sergei shouted. They attacked the armor while it had Mikleo up against a wall causing it to drop the seraph so he could slip away and cast freeze lancer on it however it blocked the attack as well as any other attack from Sergei and Dezel. It then thrusted its lance at the two but they ducked out of the way. It then did a similar charge forward in an attempt to pin down Edna like it did Mikleo but being much smaller she slipped out of the way and it stopped short of crashing into the wall and carefully turned around. They heard muffled footsteps running towards the door.
"Rose if you have the dagger put it back!" Dezel shouted. The footsteps then ran away. And the hellion swung at him twice and he jumped out of the way both times the hellion backed up and charged at him. Dezel jumped out of the way and it stopped short of the wall. Sergei swung his sword at it while it was turning around but the blade didn't even make a dent in the armor. That's when they figured out an attack pattern for the hellion. Being precarious about the mostly undamaged room left it vulnerable to be wailed on by a sword or seraphic artes. However the hellion became aware of this and started blocking attacks that went to it. However Mikleo and Edna managed to find a weak point in the armor when they jammed their weapons into the back of the armor's knees causing them to buckle and the armor to fall making it vulnerable to a stab in the back from a Rock lance courtesy of Edna. Though it didn't pierced through the armor just launched it back to its feet. Mikleo got close to Dezel and Sergei.
"Go for the knees." He said in a quiet voice then backing up to distract the hellion with a twin flow to the face. While Dezel also distracted it with a wind lance in the same general area leaving Sergei to run to the back and stab the armor's knees causing it to stumble backwards. Just then they heard a banging on the door that startled everyone including the hellion.
"Ugh! Open!" They heard Rose shout albeit muffled by the door she tried to bust it open. Until she stabbed a knife close to where the door handle was and carved around it while completely destroying her knife. The door swung open on its own with a Rose running in throwing away the knife and clubbing the hellion with the back of her good knife and spare over the head making a loud "Gong". The hellion turned to Rose.
"No! No!" It angrily shouted.
"Crap." Said Rose. She backed away slowly then she sprinted out of the room. She skidded before she turned to head down the stairs then she heard a crash. She turned and went back up the stairs to see a gaping hole in the wall. She looked out to see the hellion on the ground the others ran over and did the same thing. "We should purify it before it gets up." She said.
"Yeah…" Said Edna.
"Well let's go!" Said Rose.
"But…" Sergei started when Rose jumped out of the hole. "Rose!" They heard a "DONG!" followed by a "SON OF A-!"
"Welp. I guess that's my cue." Said Dezel then jumped out of the same hole. Everyone else peeked their heads out to see Dezel landing safely then going up to Rose. Then healing up her leg.
"He does realize that he could just dematerialize to go back to Rose." Said Mikleo.
"I think growing up with Rose had him pick up some of her habits." Said Edna.
"So … stairs?" Sergei asked. Edna gave him a blank stare and she and Mikleo dematerialized. "Well screw you too." He muttered under his breath then went for the stairs.
"Hey Edna can you-?"Rose started.
"Yes." Edna interrupted purifying the hellion as Dezel finished healing her leg. Just then the armored rattled, Rose jumped and grabbed Dezel.
"Oh god it's possessed! IT'S POSSESSED!" She shrieked.
"Hey! Who're ya callin' possessed?!" They heard a small voice shout. Everyone looked down to see a small black and white rodent looking thing wearing the armor's helmet.
"Oh… it's just a hamster." Said Rose.
"How rude I'm not a hamster I'm a Normin!" The creature exclaimed. Dezel's ears twitched when he heard 'Normin.'
"Would you know Lailah by any chance?" He asked.
"Y'all know about Lady Lailah? Man I haven't seen her in years! Are you friends of hers or somethin'?" The creature asked.
"Yeah … some of us more so than others." Said Dezel.
"Well hot dog! Any friend of Lailah's is a friend of mine, the name's Atakk." The Normin introduced itself. While Sergei just got to the scene.
"I'm Dezel." Said Dezel. "These are Rose, Edna, Mikleo, and Sergei."
"So what exactly is a Normin besides that doll thing on Edna's-?" Sergei started.
"They're a type of seraph." Edna answered. "Normin are able to boost another seraph's power in order to help make another seraph more powerful. They're basically little helpers."
"Yep a bit simplistic but that's what we- What happened to the museum?!" Said Atakk before he noticed the giant hole above them.
"Well that was the result of our fight … sorry about one of the walls … and the door." Said Rose.
"What did you do?" He asked frantically.
"Well …" Rose started. Edna sighed.
"You threw her though the wall, and then chased her down and destroyed that wall when she essentially broke a door open." She said.
"How could I…?" Atakk started.
"You turned into a hellion." Edna said bluntly. Atakk froze and put his paws on his head.
"… I remember, it was me." He said. "I got mad and couldn't control my rage, I tore my treasures and busted holes in my home. Now they're gone and it's destroyed and it's all my fault!" The normin started to sob and ran off. The group split up and looked for him until Rose found him inside the museum close to the entrance. She ran back out.
"Hey! He's in here!" She called. Dezel was the first one to meet up with Rose. They went inside before everyone else.
"Atakk, what drove you to become a hellion? If it isn't too painful to ask." Dezel asked. Atakk looked up one of the walls that had a torn painting on it.
"I…" He choked out followed by a sniff. "I always had a thing f-fer art." He sniffed again. "Y'know? Somethin' I had a real passion for. I-I-I…" His words then turned into incoherent mumbling mixed in with sobs. "Sorry … I meant I moved here a long while back. Whittled my days away people watchin,' lookin' at fine art and goin' through the archives. I wasn't worshipped or anythin' but I wasn't lonely neither." He started walking to the back of the museum. They followed and at that point Mikleo came in.
"Was it a good life?" Rose asked. Atakk sniffed.
"Yeah. I was happy. Really really happy." He said then Enda found them. "But ever since humans took to fightin' they started to get real nasty." Edna scoffed and muttered something like 'humans' under her breath and it was at that point Sergei entered the room. "That country's bad! Their art is bad! They're inferior to us! If you have sentiments about them you're one of them! They'd all say." Sergei froze in his place and his breathing started to shake. "Slash it! Burn it! Burn them! So the soldiers busted in one day and took paintings and statues from other countries but the knife and threw them into a fire and they fueled it more with books and scientific journals." Sergei turned away and left the room Rose turned her head as she heard his armor.
"So they used art as fuel for war." Said Mikleo.
"And that ain't even the half of it!" Said Atakk. "When that happened people started stealin' art and sellin' it to the black market! And they grabbed their money in their grubby hands. Hooray war and profits! I got real mad I was so angry that I didn't care what happened. And that's when I turned into a hellion." He looked at the untouched artifact. "I need to be alone for a little while."
"C'mon." Said Rose. They started walking out.
"Who knew that the source of all that malevolence would be the love of art." Said Dezel.
"Well, I've turned for similar reasons." Said Mikleo.
"Wait, you turned into a hellion?" Dezel asked.
"Yeah, that's how I met Rose as a hellion and I tried to kill her." Said Mikleo rather nonchalantly.
"I turned into a hellion when Rose became the shepherd." Said Dezel.
"I know. Rose told me. She was pretty pissed for a while there because you kind of up and left." Said Mikleo.
"Really now? Anyway the dragon, back at Rayfalke you seemed to care about it, was that the reason why you turned?" Dezel asked.
"… Yeah." Said Mikleo. They met up with Sergei outside.
"Hey." Said Rose he turned to her. "I heard you leave the museum is anything wrong?"
"You know when Atakk started talking about soldiers burning art and books?" Sergei asked.
"What about it?"
"That happened a while ago. I was one of the soldiers that was ordered to collect artwork and throw it into the fires." Said Sergei.
"… What?" Said Rose.
"I burned artwork on an order, and gave no resistances even if there were people protesting our actions." Said Sergei. "Even though it was my superiors wanting it to be I still feel responsible for Atakk turning into a hellion."
"You know blaming yourself for carrying out orders will not get anywhere." Said Edna poking the ground with her umbrella. "You humans tend to forget that actions are very important especially if you want to remedy things to the people you harmed."
"Oh yeah." Said Dezel. "I remember Lailah saying that it's not just feelings that generate malevolence but it's also generated through actions and inaction that can cause those feelings to manifest into something terrible."
"Exactly." Said Edna. "If you really feel sorry for what you did to the museum you need to work to remedy it." Sergei's eyes widened and he froze for a second. He dug in his pockets and pulled out the purse that contained his gald.
"I'll be right back." Said Sergei. Running into the museum.
"That little lecture applies to you too Rose." Said Edna. "Your actions can potentially cause malevolence in others if you're not careful and you of all people getting into a self-pity party can be especially dangerous."
"Oh please have I done any of that?" Said Rose putting her hands behind her head.
"Then I guess we have nothing to worry about." Said Edna. Meanwhile Sergei ran to where Atakk was.
"Atakk!" He called out.
"… Yeah?" Said the normin turning to him.
"I was a soldier that burned some of the paintings and for that I'm sorry." He said. "I know a simple apology won't cut it but …" He pulled out his gald and tossed it on the floor. "Please use it for restoration." Atakk giggled.
"'Preciate the thought but it won't help if I can't tell people to fix those holes in the walls." Said Atakk.
"Then I'll convince the people to help restore this place." Sergei promised. "You have my word."
If you were hoping for the wind armatus don't worry that is coming very soon. Also if you were curious on what was going on with Sergei I'll be coming out with a related side drabble very soon.
PhantasmaXw- Well ... to be honest it's listed like that because they are the first four more or less major characters that show up. Plus Sorey is going to be more involved very soon.
stoke66- The main end game pairing is going to be Rose/Dezel, while pairings like Sorey/Mikleo or Lailah/[insert some other woman here] are not going to have much focus and will probably have their focus in side material or possible spinoffs. As Rose is the main character and Dezel is the companion that supports her through her journey and Rose may share a similar fate to canon!Sorey so sticking Rose with another woman, as much as I like it wouldn't make any sense as she would either not know Rose long enough for there to be a significant bond or will die eventually thus her not ending up with a woman. Also thank you and I'm glad that you found this pleasing. Don't worry there's more on the way.