"So, we are to help check out these rumors of disturbances happening in your farming area?" Richard asks as he sits with Ruby, Weiss, and Reese.
Herleva sighs before taking a deep breath as she straps her armor on. "Yes. Since the monster attacks have become more ruthless, they are calling for more experienced adventurers to handle this stuff. The farm is a little out of the way, so we have to be careful hunting around there."
"Deja vu," Richard mutters to himself as he remembers his town and when he went out with Rachael.
"So, is this being paid for or a request in exchange for staying here?" Ruby asks.
Herleva grabs something from the table where her armor and weapons sit before tossing a paper at them. "It's a request from the guild. They said they don't have any adventurers at the moment to handle a possible dangerous monster," she explains while grabbing her leg armor pieces.
"So your company is doing it for experience and starting to make a name for yourself," Weiss comments.
Herleva smiles at the prospect. "Now, that's just a bonus."
"Alright, let's head out then," Reese says, getting up and walking past but sneakily pinches Ruby's ass when no one was looking.
Ruby frowns at how much Reese is getting control of her and vows to make her pay. 'Bitch. Wait till I leave you for a monster and make sure the others don't rescue you in time. Might give me something to work with,' Ruby curses while glaring a hole in Reese's back.
"Farm should be this way," Herleva announces, going ahead of the group and pushing Reese back with Richard. "And try not to get lost along the way," she warns against the others while looking at Reese the entire time.
Reese mounts up with Ruby on the horse they have as she is conserving dust with the limited amount they have. "So how have you been for the past few days, my lover?" Reese whispers into Ruby's ear as they ride.
Ruby lightly slaps Reese's leg while steering her horse to follow the others. "Shut up. That was nothing serious."
"Oh, it was. You want me still. I can tell. Maybe next time bring Richard along, and we can both have our way with you," Reese whispers into her ear, starting to turn Ruby on with how much Reese is pressing her chest against her back and grinding against her.
Ruby frowns and bumps Reese back with leaning back sharply, giving her some room now between them. "Don't count on it, sweet cheeks. If anything, I am going to make you regret doing that to me."
"I am sorry. Who invited me to do it?" Reese reminds, making Ruby realize why she didn't get her.
Ruby growls under her breath. 'This will take forever, especially if I have to deal with them like this. There must be a better way than going to them alone one by one.'
"Maybe you will get lucky, and you will be the third from it," Reese whispers into her ear.
"Like grimm, it would be. I still have to make sure my sister doesn't get into too much trouble," Ruby sharply responds.
"Oh, then the idea isn't making you wet, or is it my dirty talking?" Reese whispers into her ear.
Ruby grits her teeth as she tries not to respond as such a tact question. 'When this is over, you are going to follow me bitch.'
"You two doing ok?" Weiss calls as Richard rides up beside them with Weiss holding on to him.
"Yeah," Ruby forces out, smiling. "Just doing fine."
The company proceeds to the agricultural area and then starts asking around. They learn of disappearances in the villages, even coming across one that is empty. This unnerves a few of the knights until inside one of the buildings is an altar. The same as a cult they had thought the lord had stamped out completely.
"Are we…missing something here?" Richard asks, trying to rack his brain on when he could have possibly learned about this strange circle symbol with markings inside.
"It seems to be a demonic cult," Herleva informs, gaining Ruby's full attention.
Richard groans. "Great. First monsters to contend with and now cultists who worship demons. Next thing you know, they are making sacrifices…does this one do that?" he asks in some worry.
"Yes, they do," Herleva says as a ranger of the company runs up to her.
"My lady, we found tracks leading towards the mountain," the ranger informs.
"Okay. Then that's where we follow. But not on the tracks. Follow on the side and watch for anything," Herleva orders the ranger and the rest of the company. She then turns to the others as the company goes to follow the tracks ahead of them. "Stay with me, and we should be fine."
'This could be bad if other demons are there,' Ruby thinks as she rides along with the rest of the company.
Richard tries to catch up and ride beside Herleva. "Do you know what to expect?"
"If we find the cult…" Herleva trails off, not sure how to say it.
Ruby meanwhile spotted someone very familiar and shocked she didn't recognize him sooner. 'How the heck…?!' she thinks in shock as she sees the lieutenant she let fuck her and is sitting near the front. 'No fucking way! No fucking way, I control that guy, and he is here right now!'
"Hey, how much ammo you got?" Reese asks, checking her weapons.
Ruby frowns before sighing. "I mostly got dust for my weapon. And they are in bullet form with the best I can do."
"How much do you have in terms of clips?" Reese clarifies.
Ruby looks back at her seriously. "Three."
"Five for both here, but since you have a sniper, I doubt you will go through as fast as I will," Reese comments.
"That's the problem. We might need to get up close. But since they all have swords or daggers, it wouldn't be a problem in close combat," Ruby thinks out loud.
"Which is my range," Reese says.
"And Weiss even," Ruby adds. "We just have to protect Richard."
"Alright, I will protect your husband, lover," Reese whispers to Ruby.
Ruby groans audibly to voice her displeasure. 'I have to get her to listen to me.'
"Okay. We'll follow your lead. The girls are mostly about range attacks, but they don't have the ammo for it. As for getting up close, it's a little tougher to handle," Richard notes with worry.
"My lady, the tracks diverge up ahead," a messenger calls.
Everyone looks ahead as they go through the group of knights and see the footsteps and wagon wheel marks split into two different paths deeper into the forest. "Okay. We have to split up. Both tracks have the same weight on them. So we need to search carefully at this point," she announces and turns to everyone behind her. "Now to split us all up…" she says out loud, looking between all of them. "Ena, you and you four go with our friends there and search. The rest with me," Herleva decides considering how strong they were, and Richard could provide a bit of moral support if need be.
Richard watches as most of the knights follow Herleva while four stay behind beside Richard and the others. "Okay. Let's go left," Richard says and starts to walk down the other path as the company goes down the right side. The girls also follow behind, getting off their horses, and leading them with their reigns.
Herleva and the knights dismounts, having found empty carts at the base of the mountain and starts to head up a small mountain path, trying to be as quiet as possible. The trail is littered with clothes and some leather armor at times while some daggers and cheap swords were tossed haphazardly to the ground. Herleva examines the clothing as much as she can while passing by it, trying to figure out what this cult is doing now.
When they get to the end, they immediately duck behind the rocks and pillars at the top of the rough path. Herleva peeks out slightly and spies a large number of cages and boxes, containing a large number of people inside them. She then sees one of them and notes that it is a young boy, huddling himself with his arms as he stands there naked among the rest of the almost equally sized kids. Both boys and girls. However, there are no adults in sight of what Herleva can see, and she guesses that they are kept somewhere in the mountain or possibly already sacrificed.
Herleva then looks past them and sees a large group of people wearing long dark-red robes that keep their heads covered with hoods. They all stand around a massive cliffside area that overlooks the land beyond as clouds settle on the ground below. Five pillars stand around a circular stone area as the cultists stand around the altar. Loud chants sound out in a decipherable language as they seem to be preparing for something. Herleva then ducks again as a cultist moves closer near her with a torch to keep the area lit, but the sparse amount of lit torches around the area cover what looks like essential areas in the light.
Herleva looks back at the others as she slowly and quietly as possible takes out her sword. The other knights follow her example and prepare to charge in the mess as the chanting becomes louder to their ears.
"Kill them!" Herleva roars, and the knight company charges into the fray as the rangers let loose their arrows at the cultist, starting to find their mark.
The cultists, who are caught off guard from the sudden surprise attack, struggle to grab weapons, and attack back. While the kids stuck on the side cower in their cages as blades fly above their heads. Screams of pain and anger cry out as they can get a few surprise strikes that earn them a few good kills, but Herleva and her company are now struggling to gain ground when their weapons are either blocked or locked up close. Now the line is held, the company starts to take down the cultists slowly as possible, struggling even to get more kills as most are only able to damage or wound their enemy.
Herleva grunts and pushes away one of their sword users, trying to gain an idea of how things are going. "Don't stop! They are not invincible! Just keep pushing the line and take down what you can!" she calls, hoping to help spur her men on before blocking another strike and quickly swipes the cultist across the chest, spewing blood into the air.
The rest of the company starts to push the line back, stabbing or swiping their weapons at what they can reach. Rangers behind them try to get higher ground or stand on the pillars as they fire arrows into the line and behind it. Each arrowhead hits their target either in the head or chest, sending them down from both the force and pain.
Herleva smiles as the numbers of the cultist start to whittle down, and they lose ground. 'So we can keep Richard and the others out of the way and safe if this keeps up. Thank goodness they won't be put in harm's way,' she thinks, smiling and takes out another one, only getting a glance off her shield.
The cultists are recoiling until they hear something like a roar. Some of the knights are rattled and try to retake their stance before they are knocked down by a bright beam in the darkness. Herleva watches in shock as the beam washes over them, emitting a loud piercing whistle that shakes everyone to their core with how oceanic and yet demonic like it is. When the beam stops, she gasps in shock at the sight of the armor lying on the ground, but also the pieces falling apart. It seems like the beam disintegrated the body into dust and left only the weapons and clothing behind.
Then the armor rattles before a tiny arm reaches out from it before Herleva gasps as a little boy climbs out and looks confused. Then another unholy beam screeches across the air, hitting another group of knights before it is cut off and leaves another set of boys as well.
"Run!" Herleva calls before gasping as her vision is filled with light.
The rangers on the far side watch in fear and shock as the beam ends, and Herleva climbs out of her bulky armor. She looks at herself and covers her naked form with her lithe arms as best she could. She stands at least a few feet tall as she feels the age of her body in her mind. While it is still older on the forefront, the back of her mind hears that she is around five or six years old from all of this. Herleva groans and rushes back to her armor to grab something to use to fight but then screams in pain as one of the cultists grabs her hair before lifting her in the air. Herleva growls and tries to grab the man's arm as her legs kick uselessly in the air before she is tossed into a cage among the other kids.
The rest of the company tries to run before they are either held back by the cultist or blasted by the beam. As each one goes down, they are grabbed and tossed into the many cages around the area, leaving them defenseless against the cultist as they are changed and wiped out. Beam after beam covers the field, keeping many blinded as to what is going on before it suddenly ends, and only the roaring wind reaches anyone down low.
Richard hums as he looks into another empty carriage and sees only an empty food container. "Nothing but food scraps. Guess they cleaned out whatever they come across," he guesses as he looks back to the other knights and girls searching around the area.
"Strange, they didn't conceal their presence," Ena says, picking up a dress that had been discarded.
Ruby hums and stands on top of a branch, trying to overlook the area. "Maybe this isn't theirs. It's possible that this could be some people traveling through here."
"You hear that?" one of the group asks.
"Hear what?" Richard asks as he moves some crates around to see if anything was tossed away and covered.
"Sounds like fighting. Over there," Reese says, pointing up the path.
Richard grabs his rifle and holds it up to bear. "Then let's take it slow. I don't want to end up in an ambush they may have set up," he says before running not on the path, but alongside it in the trees.
"You choose someone a bit hot-blooded, I see," Reese says, smiling at Ruby.
Ruby shoves Reese before running and catching up with Richard. "Let me go ahead. You know I can watch from far away and get away just as fast," she points out as she runs beside him.
"Go," Richard says, nodding to her.
Ruby smiles before swirling ahead in a whirl of rose petals. Richard smiles after her as she disappears among the trees before she climbs a tall tree. She then comes out of her semblance and hangs on the top of the tree. Ruby hums and narrows her eyes at a cliffside with torches, and people littered around it. "Hello, my soon to be dead beauties," she snarls with happiness and excitement before snapping her finger, and an imp appears beside her. "Inform my nightmare to capture any monsters or cultists who flee this area," Ruby instructs without even looking at her imp.
"Got it, boss," the imp says before disappearing.
"Now then…no way," Ruby says, spying what is now Herleva.
Ruby watches as the little girl that looks like a younger Herleva struggles against the bars of the large cage she is in. Other boys around her try to bang and pull at the bars, but it doesn't budge as the cultist simply locks and covers up the cage, so they do not escape. "Bring the first sacrifice," the cultist with the fanciest headgear commands.
Ruby frowns and waves down to the others as she sees Richard and the others getting to an area where they can see her. She then points toward the cliff's edge where the cultists are. Richard gives a wave back before rushing to where Ruby directs them. Ruby uses her semblance again and rushes over the trees, jumping over the tops of it as she tries to get close before the others can arrive.
A little girl, still clothed, is being led up to the altar to the cultist. Something about her seems familiar, but Ruby couldn't place it. The cultist with a dagger in his hand chants something Ruby doesn't understand until a pop up came up with a translation, 'I wish to place an order for the demon market.'
Ruby's face immediately becomes a flat expression as she contemplates that phrase. 'Really? Do they think they are talking to a god or something? And do they even know what they are saying?'
The cultist keeps chanting before the little girl makes a sudden movement, and blood comes spraying out from the cultist's throat, seeing this, Richard shoots. He blows one of the other cultist's heads off.
Ena chants in the magic language as a magic circle appears under her. A lightning spark soon spreads across her before it shoots out and strikes a few near the base of the path to the altar—the lightning arcs from one cultist to another before it stops at the fourth and sends them down, blackened and cooked.
Reese suddenly appears from behind one of the pillars and opens fire. A stream of gunfire and dust rains down on the cultist as they try to block the shots with their swords, but it wasn't allowing time or even going through the cheaply made ones. As it does so, Reese runs up and also slices one away with the blades on her guns, trying to keep moving from the tips and edges coming at her.
A few of the knights rush in as well, trying to hold back most of the forces left. However, a sudden bright beam with an unholy scream sounds out before it ends. Everyone looks in shock as the armor left behind shakes before little boys come crawling out of it, all confused and scared now.
"What the…?" Ruby tries to question and follow the sight of where the beam came from before seeing a cave in the mountain above the altar.
"Watch it. You get hit by that beam, and you will end up like your friends in the cages!" the one who killed the cult leader calls.
Ruby looks back to the girl that was pulled up onto the altar, now stabbing her dagger into another cultist. Her short-skirted green Mistral dress doesn't hide her form as she keeps moving. From the long sleeves and white, pink stockings make her legs as shapely as possible, not hiding any bit of any part of her body. 'That's a Mistral dress. How does this girl have one?' Ruby asks herself as she looks over the short black-haired and pink-eyed girl.
The girl then jumps up over a cultist and severs their head in one clean movement as she flips. Ruby blinks and blushes as she notes how, when the skirt flips around, that she sees the girl isn't wearing anything under the little flaps.
Ruby's eye is then caught, seeing Richard rushing over to the cages, starting to hit a lock with the butt of his rifle, trying to break it. She then looks up and sees the little cave in the mountain with the light starting to brighten the cave—the figure of something in there almost seen before a bright beam fires down towards Richard. "Richard!" she yells in shock, and he looks toward her before turning his head and stops as he sees the beam of light coming at him.
"Richard!" Weiss yells, standing her sword in the ground and tries to send a wall of ice in front of him. But it is too late as Richard screams when the beam hits him dead on, and the wall of ice is blasted by the beam as well, shattering it into pieces. "No…" Weiss gasp before the beam begins to waver and move around.
An unholy scream, more so than the beam itself, screeches out and deafens everyone at just the slightest hit of the noise. The beam then shatters outward into tiny magical bits that dissipate as Richard stands right where he was, still an adult as well. But he is surrounded by a profound red aura that oozes out of him and covers the area. When Richard slowly turns his head to the remaining cultist, they start to cower in fear at the powerful aura he extrudes. "You…DARE?!" Richard seems to roar and lets out a distorted yell at them all, shaking them to their very core and makes them bow in fear or fall at the force pushed against them. The aura he is giving off is scaring Ruby to her core. It is as if it is something primordial. It felt like…when he used that spell that hurt that demon.
Half of the cultists start to run away immediately. Still, Richard holds up his gun, pulling the trigger, and a spell circle appears in front of the barrel before the bullet passes through it and becomes several beams of energy that either blew off a leg or pierced through the calf. "I didn't say you could leave," 'Richard' informs as the monster in the cave runs in terror as no monster Ruby has ever seen.
Ruby snaps her fingers, loud enough to echo throughout the area. But nothing appears next to her as explosions and gunfire from 'Richard' keeps happening. At which point, she then hears a horse's whinny in the distance and smiles. If Ruby is going to get anything out of this, she might as well get that monster for her use. But now…to deal with the new beast that has just appeared.
"Now then," 'Richard' says, drawing his sword. "I might be a benevolent god, as I am gracing you with an audience through my vassal here, but you have angered me greatly with what your minion did. Oh, and don't worry. It will get it's comeuppance later," 'Richard' says before waving his sword, and one yells in agony. Looking towards the source, they see the woman looks like she has been skinned alive as the remaining body screams in terror and pain.
'Oh…that's his patron. That's a god!' Ruby realizes in a bit of horror.
"Now I believe the term you mortals use for such a thing is. Divine Retribution," 'Richard' says before stabbing the sword into the ground.
The remaining cultists still in the area or are now getting their bearings, start to run away, trying to find a safe place to take shelter before Ena stops them by electrifying their legs. "Don't you dare move. That is a god speaking through him," Ena informs, rooting them to the spot in a bit of fear.
"Um…what's going on?" Reese asks a bit oblivious as the ground starts to rumble a bit. Then, out of the land comes what appears finely made spears and halberds below the cultist. The weapons impale them all, holding them in the air, still alive and having their skin as they scream in abject terror and pain.
"There. A fitting punishment, I would say. Let the carrion birds eat well from this," 'Richard' says, before turning his gaze to those in the cages, allowing the captives to see one eye is just a red, and the other is grey.
"What are you?" Herleva whispers after now stopped fighting against the bars along with the others in the same cage.
'Richard' snaps his fingers and the cage doors fall forward, freeing them. "Yes, that would be annoying. Consider this a boon to you all," 'Richard' says, snapping his fingers again.
Herleva blinks as she takes a deep breath in with everyone else. Soon the cheers of everyone reach her ears before she opens her eyes again and sees that every single person captured is now turned back to normal age as there is a mix of everyone in the captured group. From young to adult and even the elderly are here. It seems that whoever was caught is now normal again.
"You mortals. You check out for a few thousand years. Every one of you ingrates forgets about you. If you must know. I am Xedlous, the Emperor of dragons and god of smithing and war. I am using my contractor as an avatar to speak to you. You would think all of you would be more grateful as I am the one who granted your species the ability to work metals," 'Richard' complains, sounding kinda childlike.
"What…What is this feeling?" Reese questions as she huddles up, trying to shrink away from his gaze. "And why does everything feel heavy?"
"Right, I am going back to sleep. You may have my contractor back now…you, smith. Keep improving your work. You have talent in it," Xedlous informs, as the aura starts to fade.
Everyone starts to breathe more comfortably as they see the body slump down and fall to the ground.
"So Herleva," Ruby says, appearing by her and smirking, "You going to go back to your home like that?"
Herleva blinks before looking down at herself and shrieking. Richard groans as he slowly sits up and rubs his head. "Okay…what did I miss?" he groans before looking up and sees Herleva trying to cover her naked body with her arms and parts of Ruby's cloak as everyone else realizes their state of dress and missing armor. "Oh…I missed a lot…"
"Yeah…we had a bit of an audience with your patron. He…didn't like the cult," Weiss informs, walking up, bringing his attention to the cultists impaled.
"Oh shit…what the fuck…?" Richard tries to question as he watches as the still living cultist tries to work through the implements and pain. "What the fuck did…I do?" he asks in pure shock.
"You nothing. The god…well…" Weiss says, trying to put it into words.
"He punished the cultist, scared off the monster who somehow de-aged everyone, and then freed everyone and restored them to their right ages," the girl who killed the cult's leader informs.
Richard looks to the girl and stares at her for a few moments with a raised eyebrow. "Are you Lie Ren?"
Ruby, Weiss, and Reese stares at each other, shocked before turning around to the girl in some wonderment. How the heck is this girl supposed to be Lie Ren. "Uhhh…Richard? How is this, Ren? Ren's a guy and really tall," Ruby points out as the outfit and colors slowly start to make sense, but she can not believe it.
"How do you know my real name?" the girl asks, confirming it.
Richard keeps staring down at the girl before another thought pops into his head. "To be honest…I once saw a picture of you online and just get this feeling when I look at her. And…if you don't mind me asking, why are you the only one clothed out of all of them?" he asks, somewhat embarrassed, but less so as Ruby notices that Richard didn't stutter at all.
"They thought I was a young girl already," Ren informs simply.
"…how old are you by chance?" Richard asks.
"That is very rude," Ren informs.
"But it would ease our minds," Richard points out.
"Fine…I reserve the right to slap you, though. I am twenty-four," Ren says before immediately slapping Richard.
Richard groans and rubs his marked red cheek as Ren walks away to one of the dead bodies. "Damn…to think I meet a different Ren that is definitely not from your world," he notes as he looks beside him towards Ruby.
"Ren, do you recognize us?" Weiss asks.
"No," Ren says bluntly, pulling her dagger out of the dead man.
Richard looks to Weiss as he sees her massive confusion written all over her face before sighing. "We should get back to the capital and at least sleep on this. It's been a damn long day."
"I will take you," Ruby offers.
Richard smiles down at her before letting her lead him away. "Weiss, can you make sure Ren gets a good room? I have questions too for tomorrow," he calls over to the Schnee girl as she watches Ren rifle through every dead body's pockets.
"Yeah…sure. No problem," Weiss whispers while everyone else starts to find rags and armor to wear at least for the journey home.
The monster keeps running. It did not want anything to do with what just happened after the one that had summoned it had died. It rounds a few trees before sliding to a stop as it comes to rest in the entrance of a clearing. On the other side, blocking the other way out is a sizable fiery equine that snorts and stamps his hooves as he walks toward the beast.
The large pig-like monster snorts and squeals as it tries to find a way out. But with the nightmare closing in, it can't do anything before using its tentacles to slap away at him, only for the nightmare to unleash more fire and blast away the ends. When the demonic beast reaches the peculiar demon, it finds that it is trapped between the dense trees and the stronger monster in front of it. With hardly any room left, it suddenly shuts its eyes as flames cover it from below, expecting to be burned alive. But instead, it opens its eyes and sees the blue flames surrounding its form until a few splinters off and crashes onto its body, burning and scraping a symbol into its side. The monster squeals in pain as the mark of its new master is torched into fleshy skin before the flames dissipate into nothingness.
The nightmare sputters as it looks upon the new unique demonic monster for its master to enjoy. An excellent catch that she would get so much use out of. All that is left is a tired and broken beast on the ground before his hooves.