"Komugi!' a surprised voice exclaimed as Komugi and Kyosuke emerged from the temple the next morning. She turned with large eyes to find Ryonai and Shizuka approaching them. Ryonai had the cocky grin she always remembered on his face, and she smiled in return.
"Hey! Where have you been?" she asked, giving him a friendly hug. "This is Kyosuke by the way." She introduced quickly, knowing that once Ryonai launched into a story to answer her first question, she wouldn't get a chance to.
"Pleasure." He said good-naturedly, shaking Kyosuke's hand. Shizuka waved at Komugi enthusiastically, but the girl returned it with an unamused stare. "Anyway, you wouldn't be-LIEVE what Shizuka and I saw over in the Ketra Orc Outpost." Ryonai began, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
"What were you doing over there?" Komugi asked in disbelief. The Ketra Orcs were strong, much too strong for even a Paladin like Ryonai.
"We were at the Hot Springs, it was so romantic! Ryonai is such fun to bathe with…" Shizuka chimed in. Ryonai's ears turned pink and he cleared his throat to stop her from continuing.
"Anyway, we got a guide to help us pass through so we wouldn't get slaughtered, and you'll never guess what we saw them toting to the Pilgrim's Temple." He began again, the grin returning.
"Tell me already!" Komugi exclaimed, hating how he took forever to get a story out.
"A zombie with the BIGGEST Corsair hat you would ever see. It was like he was compensating for something!" Ryonai burst out into laughter in memory, and Shizuka giggled with him. His mirth ended abruptly at the look on Komugi and Kyosuke's faces. "You don't think that's funny?" he asked curiously. "I guess you had to be there to see it, ah well." His face fell in disappointment, and he kicked his toe into the ground. "I'll be right back though, I need to see if the Warrior guild here has anything for me to learn. Be right back!" he and Shizuka jogged towards the temple then, leaving Komugi and Kyosuke to stare silently into the air.
"I take it we've found our next destination?" Kyosuke asked, looking at her. Komugi sighed heavily and let her shoulders droop.
"If I were a meaner person I'd say leave him…but I'm not, so yes." She said bitterly, dragging her feet towards the stairway leading to the lower level. "Here's hoping it's as easy to get him out as it was for him to get in." she said grimly.
Komugi and Kyosuke crouched outside of the wooden log fence that marked the entrance into the Ketra Outpost, staring into it. A few two-headed birds known as Kookaburra's milled about inside, rooting around the grass for insects, and a couple of bow-carrying Orcs stood on rocks, looking out for intruders. They didn't seem to notice the human pair staring inside of the Outpost, however.
"So how will we go about this?" Kyosuke whispered. Komugi chewed the inside of her lip thoughtfully. She had never been much of a tactician, her training extending only to be enough to survive following idiot tanks, not be a tank herself. She sighed heavily and stood, rolling her head on her shoulders to crack her neck.
"Follow my lead." She murmured, and then strolled bravely into the Outpost. Kyosuke's eyes bugged out of his head as she held up her arms and flapped them, cawing like the Kookaburras. Seeing this enraged the birds, and they flew towards her. "I'M STEALING YOUR BIRDS!" she shouted as she ran past the bewildered Ketra archers. They roared in shock as she ran past Kyosuke and down the path leading back to Goddard. He ran as fast as he could to catch up with her, arrows raining down around them.
"What good will this do again, other than get us killed by angry Kookaburras?" he shouted to her above the squawking birds.
"Wait for it!" Komugi answered breathlessly. A large Ketra commander suddenly leapt down from the mountainside they ran next to with a roar, and covered the both of them with a black sack in one movement.
Komugi and Kyosuke clung to each other inside the dark sack for what felt like days, only allowed out to relieve themselves or eat stale bread and water. They felt like they were being taken somewhere, but their guard would not tell them.
Their guard was a tall Orc who was more of a High Orc in physical appearance than a Ketra, and had dark brown hair cut in a short, youthful style. He seemed young and eager to please the rest of the Ketra, and treated both Komugi and Kyosuke roughly.
"Can you tell us where we're going at least?" Komugi called through the bag on what felt like to her to be the third day since capture.
"Ketra Orcs don't answer to pithy human females." The guard growled. They were on a wagon pulled by buffalo, and their guard snapped his whip to make the buffalo walk faster.
"Ok then, can you tell me where we're going?" Kyosuke asked instead, smoothing Komugi's hair from her face. He had held her protectively since being tossed into the bag, and Komugi was rather enjoying herself despite being cramped. Being a captive wasn't so bad when she had a companion with her. The guard was silent for a moment, and Komugi got the distinct feeling that he was rolling his eyes at them.
"Pilgrims Temple." The guard finally said in a low voice. "You both defiled our sacred birds, so you must be held there until the day of sacrifice so Ka'Toleth's anger will be satiated. Your act of sacrilege is too sinful for our standard jail in town, so you're being taken to the defiled place."
"Yes! Plan accomplished!" Komugi said happily.
"This was your plan?" Kyosuke asked in disbelief. Komugi didn't have to see him to know he was giving her a look of horror.
"Well, it got us in, didn't it? And now we're being taken directly to Kylon, so it's all good." She said, smiling.
"And then we're going to die." Kyosuke added flatly. Komugi stuck her tongue out at him and snuggled close.
"We won't die, we'll figure something out." She assured him. She wondered if it was the influence of the company she'd been keeping, but she was strangely unafraid at that moment. Her sixth sense told her that things would work out, and she put her faith in it.
They finally stopped rocking a few hours later, and Komugi heard their guard grunt as he hefted the bag from the cart. They were jostled as he carried them over his shoulder, and Komugi glared in annoyance as Kyosuke's hand conveniently landed on her breasts.
"Sorry." He said in a strained voice, her elbow pressed against his crotch.
"Yeah I'll bet." She said flatly. Both of them grunted as the bag was set down roughly. The top was untied, and Komugi found herself being plucked from the bag like a kitten. She blinked in bewilderment as the Orc put her on a broken piece of rock and bound her hands and feet with rough rope.
"Komugi?" she heard Kylon's voice come, surprised. She glanced over her shoulder to find the zombie sitting near a female Orc wearing an opaque veil over the lower half of her face.
"Hi!" she said brightly, grinning at him. "I'm here to rescue you."
"I see you've gotten off to a great start with that." Kylon said flatly, lowering his eyelids at her. Kyosuke was put on the slab of rock next, and winced as the Orc tied him up. He lifted them both by the backs of their jackets and carried them inside of the temple. They were placed roughly next to the Orc woman. The guard then took up a post near a pillar supporting the domed ceiling, and pulled a spear from where it was secured on his back. There was an uneasy silence for a moment as Kylon and the Orc woman watched their guard warily, and then the two turned towards the newcomers.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were eloping with your boyfriend." Kylon said bitterly.
"Gee, that's the thanks I get for coming all this way to rescue you?" Komugi responded, glaring at him. Kylon sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you're quite the heroine." He stated sarcastically. Komugi whipped her tied legs around quickly to smack his leg. The impact was harder than she intended, and his bony knee was knocked from its joint. "Oh great! Thanks a lot!" Kylon said angrily. He began to shift on his bottom, trying to put the bone back in its proper spot.
"Be quiet." The guard growled, glaring at them. The four prisoners silenced and glanced at him for a moment. He was definitely intimidating, Komugi would admit that, but at the same time there was a quality about him that prevented Komugi from disliking or fearing him.
"Are you to be sacrificed as well?" the Orc woman whispered, looking at them in pity.
"They'd like to think so…" Komugi grinned. She shifted slightly until her fingers found the knot binding her hands together. "Apparently I defiled their birds by taking them out of the Outpost, what are you in for?" She began to work at the knot, trying to undo it without being noticed. The woman was silent, and glanced down as if ashamed.
"She is a disgusting mix of Dark Elf and Orc, her existence is dishonorable to Ka'Toleth." The guard stated, overhearing them.
"And I suppose a High Orc being amongst the Ketra is just as honorable? Last I learned they hated High Orcs." Komugi retorted glancing over her shoulder at the guard. He growled and thrust his spear under Komugi's nose.
"I am Ketra!" he snarled, his lip curling like an angry wolf. Komugi stared at the point of his spear without interest until the guard grunted and returned to the pillar.
"Yeah whatever." She muttered, turning away from him. "So do you have a name?" she asked the Orc woman.
"Sprissa." The woman responded without hesitation. "I discovered a journal that my mother had written before I was born and it spoke of family on my father's side. I learned that I have a half-sibling that lives somewhere in this region, and I came here looking for them." She sighed, her shoulders drooping. "I came to the Ketra Orcs in peace, but they could see my lineage and imprisoned me immediately."
"Again Orcs prove to be stupid." Komugi grunted. She had managed to get one finger into the knot, and now worked to pull the rope free. "No offense." She said quickly, hoping she didn't offend the kind Orc woman in front of her.
"None taken." Sprissa said, her eyes shutting with what Komugi assumed was a smile underneath her veil. "I am only too fully aware that my kin is prone to act before thought. I only hope that I can at least touch a few of them and change that even a little before I die." She sighed. "My father, Oonugh, was told in my mother's journal to be a brave warrior who was both mighty and gentle. He only lifted his spear when peace could not be achieved otherwise. I can only hope to aspire to be like that some day." At the post, the guard stiffened, and stared at Sprissa with a hard gaze.
"Wow, I find that a little hard to believe. No Orc alive could ever be like that." Kylon commented.
"It's happened before." Kyosuke spoke up now, and Sprissa turned to look at him with her eyebrows raised in surprise. "I've heard many legends in the time I spent on ships. Every so often there will exist an Orc or two that totally go beyond the norm and are the most stable creatures in existence. They're usually killed in unfortunate ways before they can have offspring, so your father got lucky to pass his nature on."
Sprissa nodded her agreement and said, "Yes, but only if I could find my half-sibling. I'm sure they carry the same strength my father does."
"Speaking of strength…" Kylon began, looking pointedly at Komugi who was frowning as she struggled with the knot in her bonds. "Did you decide to return to searching for Zaken's past? Is that why you're in Elmore?" He didn't bother to mask the hope in his voice, and Komugi lifted her head to glare at him.
"No, I'm in Elmore because I was looking for one of my companions." She looked back down to the stone ground as she worked with the knot once more. "I'm through with Zaken, he didn't want anything more to do with me, and so I've moved on. I'm with Kyosuke now and let me tell you, he's much better of a choice than Zaken ever was." Kyosuke cleared his throat and blushed with Komugi's words, and Sprissa chuckled. Kylon watched her without expression for a moment and then looked away from her, frowning.
"Your mouth says that, but your eyes say differently." He said lightly. Komugi lifted her head quickly to glare at him, clenching her jaw shut as her temper flared. "If anything, I would be mad at the Ice Queen, not him." He continued, staring at the light that filtered through the domed ceiling. "She's been following you all this time you know, it's her fault that I got caught by the Ketra in the first place. Who knows what she's done with my crew by now."
"Wait, repeat that again?" Komugi asked, leaning close to him. Kylon glanced back at her with a skeptical look.
"You couldn't sense her? I saw her standing behind you when you first arrived at the bridge to find me. She disappeared after Zaken arrived, but then I saw her again inside Giran's Inn. She frequently disguises herself in her former Light Elf appearance to move about the mortal world unnoticed." He shook his head as Komugi stared at him in shock. "Always the jealous bitch, that Freya. She moves from lover to lover, but her true favorites she makes sure no one ever gets close to, even if she never comes to their side again. She believes Zaken is her property and should remain pining away for just her the rest of his undead life. So yeah, she's probably the one causing all of your trouble with Zaken, not Zaken at all."
Komugi's face darkened as everything became clear to her, and rage began to build within her. "Melissa." She growled, remembering the strange looks of hate that would pass the Elf's features randomly.
"Oh, she's going by that name again? How brave of her, going by her original name." Kylon rolled his eyes as if the Ice Queen were nothing more than a tantruming teen. "She probably thinks you're too uncultured to know that Melissa was her name while she was an Elven princess."
"That's it, I'm out of here." Komugi said, now openly struggling with her bonds.
"Hey!" their guard shouted, standing straight as he noticed her movement.
"You're going to see the Ice Queen then?" Kylon said hopefully, his eyes shining.
"You bet I am. I'm going to say 'hi, how are you?' and then I'm going to kill her and tell her off with all of the colorful words I can recall from my vocabulary. In that order." She said, working her arm free.
"You'll stop that or I'm going to kill you!" the guard snarled, stomping towards them.
"Bite me." Komugi snarled back, pulling the rope from her legs. The guard paused as if surprised by her boldness, then growled and swung his spear at her head. Sprissa, her legs untied for some reason, jumped to her feet and planted herself in the path of the guard's spear. He changed the direction it swung at the last minute, and the end of it caught her veil and pulled it from her face. The guard's eyes widened at the look of determination on her face, and she met his gaze without fear.
"Alright, let's go!' Komugi exclaimed, kneeling behind Sprissa to work at the ropes holding her wrists together. She blinked in surprise as she found the rope merely wrapped around the woman's wrists; she had untied herself long ago.
"Are you of my blood? Was your father the Titan Oonugh?" she heard Sprissa asked the guard in a low voice. Komugi looked at the guard, who had begun to tremble as he held the spear, its point touching the woman's chest.
"I am Ketra!" he repeated with a growl. "My father was a dishonor even though the Ketra spared him their knowledge." With her veil off, Komugi noticed that Sprissa did indeed have some resemblance to the guard in front of them. However, she looked more like a green-skinned Dark Elf than an Orc, and was very pretty.
The temple began to rumble, interrupting the strained silence between the Orcs. Kylon, his knee back in its proper joint, stumbled to his feet and over to a pillar, where he held on for dear life. Komugi knelt to the ground to keep her balance, and Kyosuke knelt beside her. Sprissa stumbled slightly and fell onto the guard, who stared at her with an unreadable expression as he put his hands on her shoulders to support her.
The wall farthest away from them exploded outward in the next moment, dust filling the room and debris flying through it. Kyosuke shielded Komugi with his body as she ducked down, and the guard quickly turned so that Sprissa was pressed against the pillar, the rocks hitting his back. She glanced up at him in surprise as the hail of rocks ended, and he looked away from her, as if embarrassed.
Through the hole in the wall suddenly leapt a demonic looking woman with glowing eyes riding upon a strange dog-beast. Both woman and beast lacked lips, and had sharp, pointed teeth. Her head seemed to have grown long to act as hair, skin bulging and splitting in a frightening mockery of it. She pulled her beast up short, and it snarled and snapped at the people inside of the temple, and Kylon squealed like a little girl as he hugged the pillar in fear. Komugi fell onto her bottom, and Kyosuke crouched next to her, holding onto her shoulders protectively.
"Where is the bastard that dares to disturb my master?" the demon woman demanded, her voice sounding as if it were grating with rocks. A floating, horned spirit wearing long robes and carrying a staff floated in on one side of her from the hole, and a red demon with a mouth in its torso flew in on the other. Her glowing eyes scanned the room, and she let out a hiss that sounded like a snakes. Her beast shifted and paced below her, anxious for a battle.
"Begone demon! This is the sacred land of the Ketra, you are not welcome here!' the guard shouted bravely, brandishing his spear. The demon woman hissed again, and her beast snapped at the guard's weapon.
"This land belongs to my master Scarlet von Halisha! You are merely being tolerated!" she snarled. "Now bring the demon that dares infiltrate my master's territory so that I may honor her and bring his head for her to eat!"
"There are no demons here, so book it lady; I'm in a bad mood." Komugi said, standing up. "I've had it up to here with you supernatural beings, always stepping in and thinking you can rule our lives. Go back to your little tunnel thing, and we'll be out of your master's territory quick enough." She spun on her heel, not noticing the bewildered looks that she was receiving from everyone around her. Kylon peeled himself from the pillar and quickly dashed to follow close behind her.
"Impudent little mortal! You will die for your insolence!" the demon shouted, and with a wave of her hand, her two servants flew towards Komugi's back. She spun around with a surprised gasp and winced as the demon servant raised its claws with a squeal. It froze mid-swing and suddenly began to dissolve into tiny particles. Kyosuke stood behind it, half crouched with one arm extended and his fingers clenched in a claw-shape. A black-rimmed light glowed around his hand, and he had a look of hatred upon his face.
"Get out of here, hurry! I'll find you later!" Kyosuke commanded. The horned spirit hesitated, and the demon woman let out a shrill noise.
"You! You are the one I seek!" she screeched.
"Kyosuke!" Komugi exclaimed as the guard, Sprissa and Kylon raced behind her and out of the temple.
"I'll be fine; I promise I'll find you later." Kyosuke said with a half grin. He grabbed her around her waist and kissed her. "You're radiant when you're angry, don't ever change." He shoved her roughly on her back and she went flying through the temple. She landed roughly on her side near the entryway, and Sprissa quickly pulled her to her feet. There was another rumbling, and rocks fell from the ceiling of the Temple, blocking their path in.
"KYOSUKE!" Komugi cried as Sprissa pulled her away from the temple at a run.
Inside, now alone, Kyosuke faced the Shadow of Halisha with a dark grin. "Now that the pests are out of the way…" he said, his voice deepening slightly. The Shadow backed away slightly as Kyosuke suddenly began to grow, his body changing shape and color as his disguise melted away.
Far below the Pilgrim's Temple where a battle of demon versus demon was taking place, a tiny woman with gray skin and silver hair that fell over each shoulder to her collarbone, sat in the center of a large circular room. She wore a black bikini of warrior design, and had strange, thin horns protruding from her forehead and extending daintily over her head. Her knees were drawn up, and she rested her arms over them as she gazed to the high ceiling. This strange room lined with candles and portraits was the Last Sepulcher, the place where the mad King of Elmore had locked himself away, and this girl was Scarlet von Halisha, the demon in which he had made his blood pact with.
"Who gave you permission to send the Shadow out?" a male voice came. Scarlet turned her head slightly to glance behind her. Upon a raised podium, in front of a large pipe organ sat the man who was her captor, lover and bonded, Frintezza. She shrugged and returned her gaze to the ceiling. In her mind's eye she watched the battle, as the Shadow was a weaker extension of herself.
"That old pervert Beleth didn't warn one of his underlings to stay away from my territory, so I'm teaching him a lesson." She answered. Her voice was innocent and youthful, but there was nothing truly innocent about her. The King, the upper half of his face covered in a mask, tilted his head as he connected himself with the Shadow as well. The Shadow had been the first of four wives he'd taken to sacrifice to bring Scarlet into the mortal world, and had been the fieriest.
"It seems Beleth's servant is winning. Too bad for you, I guess your attempt at freedom failed." Frintezza said with a shrill giggle. Scarlet stood and spun herself to face Frintezza quickly, the richly embroidered black loincloth that draped down between her legs swinging with her movement.
"I merely sent her forth to stop Beleth from invading our sacred territory!" Scarlet said quickly, shocked that Frintezza could see through her so fast. Truth be told, she had hoped to possess the body of Beleth's servant, and escape Frintezza's enchantments upon her through him. "You're so near your final goal master, I merely wished to stop anyone from interfering with that!" Frintezza raised a finger and waved it back and forth like a metronome, clicking his tongue with it. Scarlet clamped her mouth shut with the movement, her face darkening with suppressed rage.
"I do so find it deliciously adorable how you try to fool me, Scarlet." Frintezza said, amused. "But I am quite capable of protecting myself from Einhasad herself if I needed to. You needn't be so worried; my plans will come together in the end." He began to laugh shrilly, his voice echoing off of the high beams that held the ceiling in its place. Next to him, leaning peacefully next to the organ, was a large golden sword that flashed with both holy and unholy light. The only time it had ever seen battle was in the hands of a Dark Elf who sought to avenge herself by killing the god who dishonored her, and it was thought to be lost. A yellow flame swirled around it with Frintezza's laughter, as if joining him in his mad amusement, knowing that it's time for true battle was at hand.