{...} represents Pokémon speech, to let you know.

Naranja

"Arceus' thousand arms, that is a lot of waffles!" Auronaku could only shake her head at the ridiculous amount of food that Bonnie and Nemona were piling on their plates.

"Yeah, I've heard Nemona is a big eater, but to see it like this only confirms the rumours," Brisallan added as they sweatdropped alongside her.

"Everybody around here says the food Nemona eats goes to her legs," Nanda put a pair of blueberry waffles on her dish and poured some chocolate syrup over it, "I still don't get the joke."

"Yeah, neither of us too," Auronaku had chosen a trio of chocolate chip pancakes and poured some Unovan maple syrup over it. She added a medium dollop of whipped cream to it.

Looking over to Bonnie and Nemona's breakfasts, the trio could see Bonnie had a stack of eight blueberry waffles, while Nemona's stack of banana waffles was twelve high. Add in the copious amounts of whipped cream and syrup and it was getting ridiculous.

"Geesh, you're just as bad as Ash," Max rolled his eyes as he saw Bonnie and Nemona's respective stacks. His two banana waffles were also covered with maple syrup, with a similar sized dollop of the whipped cream as Auronaku, "At least Auronaku and her friends knows how to tone it down."

Brisallan was eating their banana pancakes; it was also drizzled with the same chocolate syrup that Nanda had also added to her waffles. As the five joined them at the group's usual table in the left furthermost corner of Naranja School's cafeteria, Brisallan could already tell that Max was annoyed with Bonnie over that trait.

As the rest of the group began eating, the festive atmosphere of light chatter washed over the cafeteria. Some of the chatter was of the latest episodes of TV shows, while others were of miscellaneous topics.

"Why didn't you put whipped cream on your pancakes? Everything tastes better with it on top!" Nemona's proclamation made Brisallan sweatdrop again.

"I'm lactose intolerant," They admitted in embarrassment.

"I didn't know that! That's new," Auronaku said in amazement.

"As long as I can remember, dairy has been part of our diets," Nanda added, "I remember that when I was young, my mother often made a dish called ad-borani, which is goat meat marinated in yogurt & spices and cooked over an open fire. It was a popular dish in her homeland."

"My mother and I gathered bracken fern shoots every spring. Most of it was dried for future uses, but one of my favorite dishes was a stew made from bracken, pork or ham, and fava beans. Butter was used to add flavoring to the beans," Auronaku added.

"For me it is my mom's empanadas," Brisallan gushed, "It's so wickedly good! Sundried tomatoes, spinach, peas and beef galore, enveloped in flaky goodness!"

"My mom makes a killer Torta de Santiago! You should come over to try it!" Nemona chimed in.

"My dad makes pretty good Mont Blancs," Bonnie licked her lips, "It's a recipe that has been passed down in our family for generations. One of my paternal great-great grandmothers was a pâtissier at a Luminoise restaurant. When it closed after fourty-five years in operation, the recipe she developed went into the family archives."

"My mom makes some incredible salmon onigiri. The rice she uses is usually lightly salted, and she adds umeboshi to cut the taste of the fatty salmon," Max reminisced, "The taste is heavenly, and I remember coming home to see fresh onigiri after a day at school."

They went back to eating; meanwhile their Pokémon were having their own conversation underneath the table their masters were using.

{It seems our masters are discussing food,} Auronaku's Rowlet hooted, {Interesting stuff.}

{Oh yeah, Max mentioned his sister's purple PokeBlocks to me a few days back! Her Blaziken told me he tasted them as a Combusken and it was super nasty stuff,} Max's Ralts added.

{What berries did she use to make it?} Brisallan's Misdreavus posed his question, and it was quickly answered.

{Two Pecha berries, one Oran berry, one Bluk berry and a dash of Tamato,} Ralts answered.

{Eeewww,} Nanda's Popplio commented, {That's a pretty horrible combo. Too much sweetness and dryness. Not enough sourness to balance the two out, and the smidgen of Tamato berry makes it worse.}

{Note to self: stay away from anything Ralts's master's sister makes,} Rowlet hooted again.

{Definitely agree,} Brisallan's Greavard joined in, and the others merely nodded.

{My master is a big eater. I might as well explain the school joke about the food going to her legs,} Nemona's Fuecoco looked around at his new Pokemon friends.

{Now I'm intrigued,} Bonnie's Dedenne's tail twitched in a display of curiosity.

{Me too,} Auronaku's Tarountula swung back and forth on his thread.

{Me three!} Greavard yipped.

{Me four,} Misdreavus chanted.

{She is always on the move, and she does so much running to the point she earned herself a spot on the track & field team,} Fuecoco shrugged, {Pawmi and I see this on a daily basis.}

{Plus there was an incident two years ago where Nemona's classmates exploited this trait by piling her up with energy drinks so she could deliver a package on short notice,} Pawmi chimed in.

{Really!?} Rowlet was dumbfounded.

{Yes. As far as I know, the details are true. I was there,} Fuecoco added.

{If a package needs to be delivered, it's likely our masters will choose to do the same with Bonnie,} Popplio chimed in.

{But why?} Nanda's Hoppip was clearly confused.

{She is energetic, and she could be pretty fast as well,} Rowlet added, {I can attest from experience, as Auronaku and Bonnie were badminton partners when they broke that record.}

{I saw the video,} Hoppip answered, {I still don't understand how your master became so agile.}

{She's been training in some specific stuff ever since she was young. Something about hunting demons. Agility and archery are key aspects of it,} Rowlet explained, {She told me she wanted to be normal, but the woman who raised our masters is teaching her because Auronaku is her apprentice.}

{Plus, she was selected because she met specific criteria that the Demon Hunters often seek when selecting individuals to be induced into their order,} Popplio added.

{Brisallan told me about the dreams they've been having. About a corpse and a man trying to get her to do something with life essence on it. They don't like the necromancy stuff at all,} Misdreavus added.

{Ooooh, that definitely sounds like creepy stuff,} Rowlet observed.

{Riiiight. Brisallan's dad was correct about their family ancestry,} Misdreavus did the equivalent of a shrug.

The battle class was in full swing; Auronaku was in her usual gym class garb. Looking over to Max, she could see that he was wearing the male version of the gym attire, which was a light blue sleeveless polo shirt with the exact same trimming on the collar, and it came with two options, which were baggy orange shorts with double stripes in the same color as the shirt and vice versa. Max had chosen the former one.

Rowlet and Ralts were on their shoulders, observing as Dendra explained the Champion Assessment.

"Even if one person wins the championship at the end of that season, they don't automatically qualify for the Champion-rank assessment. When Geeta and the Elite Four select individuals for it, they choose the person on their merits and character. The process for selection could be quite arduous; a lot of people are eliminated as the pool grows smaller and smaller. Each year, only 5-15 people usually manage to make it to Champion-level. Last year, only 4 individuals managed to make it to the ranks of Champion-level trainers. Nemona was among these four selected," She lectured.

"Interesting," Auronaku whispered to Max, "Even if I don't get the Champion-level assessment, I know my journey across Paldea is going to be quite eye-opening."

"Yeah, from what I know, a lot of people who aspire for the rank are going to be sorely disappointed when they are turned down for one," he answered.

"Yeah, and many of these often take their anger and disappointment out on their Pokémon, which kind of proves the point of this process," she shrugged.

"If people can't handle their disappointment well, they often end up abandoning their Pokémon. Ash Ketchum taught me that these people in turn wash out of the training profession quickly because of their inability to adjust expectations," Max added.

"You know him? He's my idol!" Auronaku was flabbergasted.

"Yeah, I travelled with him over Hoenn and Kanto on my sister's first Coordinator journey," he explained.

"Let's split in pairs, and we'll work on our battle techniques. I'll be critiquing them as required," Dendra said.

"So, we're partners now," Auronaku added, "So I've been working on trapping techniques with my Tarountula. I've been teaching him patience. From the information my Rotom Phone has on him, he has a Bold nature, but also tends to get lost in thought."

"My Ralts has a Quiet nature, but is also similar to yours in his introspectiveness," Max noted.

As the duo began working with their respective Pokémon, they could see Dendra was observing their progress.

"We'll be working on your patience and accuracy, Tarountula. Rowlet's gonna help us, she'll be moving, and you'll have to get the timing of your String shot right to trap her," Auronaku explained to the String Ball Pokemon.

"I'm taking out Grovyle. We'll be working on your Teleports. The goal is to teleport swiftly out of an incoming attack. It's an essential skill for many psychic-type Pokémon. You'll be learning the same concept as Auronaku's Tarountula, and that is how to get the timing right for this strategy," Max turned to Ralts as he released his Hoenn starter from his pokeball.

As the Pokémon set their mind to the training exercises their trainers had assigned them, Dendra approached them.

"I see the two of you are working on timing your Pokemon's attacks precisely," she observed.

"Yeah, from what I've read up on arachnid Pokemon, their natural trap predator instincts mean they must cultivate some level of patience and precision in their natural setting," Auronaku explained, "My Tarountula is young and reckless. That's why I've been working with him to build up these basic instincts before we do anything advanced with it."

"That's a brilliant observation," Dendra asked, "I take that Jacq helped you with that aspect?"

"Pretty much," Auronaku shrugged.

Turning to Max, she watched as his Grovyle flung leaves at his Ralts; the Feeling pokemon teleported as out of the way. There were a few near-hits, but Ralts slowly got the hang of the move Max was teaching him.

"So, you're teaching your Ralts evasive maneuvers?" The question Dendra was asking was expected.

"It's a necessity. Knowing that he's weak to Ghost, Steel and Poison, I chose to teach that trick in case we encounter Pokémon with these types," Max explained.

"An astute decision," Dendra nodded.

As the Battle class teacher walked away, a familiar figure dropped from the tree the duo and their Pokémon were training under.

"ALIN!?"Auronaku's shocked reaction as she saw her master doing so was comical. If Max had photographed her expression with his Rotom Phone and shared it with her small circle of friends, there would be no shortage of good-natured jibing from them.

"I've come to check on your progress," Alin said as she observed Auronaku, "It seemed you stuck to the track I set out for you."

"I still don't like it," Auronaku had an annoyed expression on her face, "I wanted the general studies. Especially because it is more conductive to my ambitions to be Champion."

"Discipline restrains Hatred," Alin reminded her apprentice, "You have no shortage of Hatred in your heart. You need the structure of the athletics tracks to aid the development of your Discipline pool. Or you'll burn yourself out like so many people who failed their training to become full-fledged demon hunters."

"But I intend on staying here in this world; there's no need for things like that," Auronaku rolled her eyes.

Alin face palmed. How could her apprentice understand the necessity of her training? Marquz told her a few years ago before the move to Paldea that Lord Rathma, the patron of the necromancers, was working on a ritual to bring the group back to their home world.

It was an arduous process of research on both Rathma and Marzuq's ends. They had spent time discussing the necessary catalysts, and it turned out that one of the most important ones was the blood of a living blood relative.

With Nanda Liurmien, it was a well-known fact among Caldeumites that the House of Liurmien was a wealthy and powerful mercantile house that had risen to power in the later years of Hakan I's reign. They had displaced a trio of houses that had been disgraced by their attempted power grabs during the short-lived Terovingian insurgency. Fortunately, according to Rathma, she had several living second-degree relatives, which included three aunts, two uncles and twelve cousins between them.

But with Auronaku, there was a whole bunch of unknowns. There were hundreds of Arreat tribes, the vast majority of which were either extinct or had been absorbed into other surviving tribes. It was a well-known fact that the Barbarians valued their blood-ties highly. Alin had realized that in taking Auronaku as an apprentice Demon Hunter, she was probably breaking centuries of melee-focused combat traditions in favour of one based on range-focused attacks and subterfuge. It was not lost upon Alin that Auronaku's lack of knowledge of who her father was gave her the freedom to adapt and learn.

And she indeed was an excellent student. The only technique Alin had recognized as being distinctly Barbarian was her leap, and Auronaku had adapted it into a variant that incorporated acrobatics and stealth. To do it probably involved extremely high levels of motor control that most Barbarian warriors just didn't have. It was a logical outcome of her training in the ways of the Demon Hunters.

However, if Rathma couldn't identify Auronaku's living relatives, there was little he could do. And that aspect was one that troubled Marzuq and Alin the most.

"I know it's a little sudden, but why me?" Brisallan asked as Auronaku, Nanda and they snuck down the hallways of the Iron Mudsdale, their Pokémon riding on or hovering over their shoulder that night.

"We know you can see and talk to dead people. It's the only way to solve the mystery of that damned barrel," Auronaku replied.

"Plus, if there is a body inside, we'll likely address a horrible injustice as well," Nanda added.

"The boss ordered us to move the barrel to his warehouse," one man said to his partner in the room opposite the door to the basement, "He says the International Police is on his ass!"

The proclamation made the trio pause. If the person was correct, then the bastard was probably on the radar after Director Clavell had notified them of the Mesogoza mayor's corruption.

"But it's too heavy! What the fuck is in that barrel?"

Now that was intriguing; the trio definitely had to know what was in that blasted barrel.

As Auronaku pushed the door, Brisallan nearly tripped, but Nanda caught them just in time.

"Damned development coordination disorder acting up," They cursed.

"What is it, exactly? I'm not familiar with it," Auronaku's question was quickly answered.

"It's a neurodevelopment disorder that manifests in many ways. Mine includes clumsiness and messy handwriting, and I can't tell right from left, so I'm ambidextrous," Brisallan explained as the group strode down the stairs.

As the trio gathered around the barrel, Brisallan began focusing on it, willing their eyes to shift to Essence vision.

The flow and ebb of Essence manifested in their sight. As they focused their gaze on the steel barrel, they could see an area of stagnant Essence, and a mummified corpse inside.

"I definitely see the corpse," They said.

"Just as I suspected," Auronaku crossed her arms across her chest, "I was working on an essay regarding a trio of barrels that had washed up on Galarian beaches. They had female bodies inside; any identifying marks had been removed so they couldn't be reunited with their families. This barrel is definitely connected to the others."

"So, a serial killer, then," Nanda answered.

"Yes," Auronaku nodded, "I'm beginning to suspect the owner of this blasted place is one."

"I'm seeing the spirit attached to the body," Brisallan said as they looked up above the barrel, "She said her name is Carolyne."

Nanda's eyes widened in amazement as she began recalling the details that Letitia Ruiz had told her about her second cousin.

"A shopkeeper told me about her missing second cousin," She added, "I think her body is inside that barrel."

"Can you explain?"

As Nanda began her tale, the trio didn't notice the mist in the room begin to coalescence into ghostly figures, guided by the deft hands of a figure in the shadowy corners.

It was only when Auronaku's enhanced eyesight spotted the man in the corner, that the trio begun to recognize what was happening. The man summoned the spirits as if he had been doing it all his life.

"You're the man from my DREAMS!" Brisallan pointed a finger at him; their expression of shock was, to put it lightly, comical. Auronaku, Nanda and their Pokémon sweatdropped.

"Correct, Brisallan," He turned toward the trio, "When I learned what the three of you were doing, I realized that you would correct a serious injustice that has gone unaddressed for years due to government corruption on the municipal level. Far too many people have looked away from the rot that lies at the heart of Mesogoza for decades."

"Oh yeah, the fucking mayor of Mesogoza," Auronaku snorted, "What an Ekans of a politician! The fact that he accepted bribes from various interest groups make it worse."

The man turned to Auronaku.

"You have the bluntness of your tribal forefathers," he replied, "From my own experiences, governmental corruption often enables worse evils to take root at its heart, as this case has demonstrated clearly."

As the ghosts of the murdered women hovered in the air, their individual features became clearer. One woman had a raunchy tattoo near her nether regions that made the trio blush a bright red.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Nanda commented when she saw it and her Popplio yipped in agreement.

Another woman had dark skin and dreadlocked teal hair; she had welts on her back that indicated some level of abuse in her life.

"Judging by the pattern I can tell they were inflicted by an electrical cord," Auronaku's sharp eyes was observant, "They have these tines that frequently cause injury when people whip their children with it. I've seen the scars on a neighbour's adopted kid."

The third woman had an ear and lip piercing.

"Look at the earring. In the Grammen and North Kalos regions, it's common for LGBTQ2+ people to signal their availability with certain metals. A nickel or tin stud earring on the right ear means you've open to casual sex encounters," Brisallan pointed out, "I learned it from a mentor who helped me figure out my gender identity."

The last woman was familiar; Nanda instantly recognized her.

"Carolyne Munroy!" she exclaimed.

Marquz raised an eyebrow at the observations Auronaku and Brisallan had made.

Both were quite sharp-eyed individuals. It was a necessity for their future professions; Auronaku had demonstrated it well. Alin Aryth had told him about her comment regarding her desire to stay in this world. He had shaken his head in disbelief; honestly it was one of the most juvenile things to come out of her teenage mouth. Auronaku was shaping up to be an excellent Demon Hunter. She could be quite adaptable, and her sniping skills were top-notch. If only she understood why Alin was doing this for her own sake.

Brisallan's resistance to the teachings of Rathma was equally childish as well. Even if they understood the Great Cycle of Being very well, their resistance to them could be summed up in the thought of not touching that corpse. Plus, Brisallan's stated goals to become a Pokémon Gym leader in Paldea or another region was never their destiny. Marquz's foresight had told him about this reality on the eve of their birth.

To make it worse, he could remember the day Brisallan's parents had sat him down and told him about their diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder at the young age of eight years old. It was a neurodevelopment disorder; from the sources he had looked up on the internet, he had found it occurred in 1 in 20 children and that males were more likely to be diagnosed at earlier ages than females.

It was at the end of last year that Brisallan had begun to come out as a non-binary person and told them their preferred pronouns, which was they/them. Although Marquz had encountered androgynous people, it was the first time he had encountered the term to describe these people. The world of Sanctuary never had the necessary vocabulary to describe it as the world was still stuck in the rigid binary model propagated by the Zakarum faith. Anything that deviated from that was deemed heretical.

The advanced society of the Pokémon world was progressive, and they accepted people's identities; the few outliers among the regions that was vehemently transphobic and homophobic usually had dark pasts; Orre was no expection.

Focusing on the task at the hand, Marquz soon understood what Auronaku and Brisallan were talking about.

"It's good to see that somebody cares about us," the earring woman spoke, "All these years I was trapped in limbo because I was murdered. Lorenzo Cepero, he's the owner of this bar. He killed me after he forced himself on me. At the time, I was desperately poor, and no one would hire me because they thought of me and my family as trailer trash."

"I was a runaway child. My parents whupped me so badly, I couldn't bear it. Ceparo took advantage of that while I was turning tricks to survive. He murdered me too because I was unseen and thus vulnerable," The black woman explained.

"I was a drug addict. I was always seeking my next fix, and sex work was the only way to pay for them. Cepero strangled me while we were fucking. The next thing I knew, my spirit was in limbo, and I couldn't move on," The woman with the raunchy tattoo added.

"Cepero wanted me as his personal sex slave. I said no, and he beat me to death during the auditions his friend was having for his TV show," Carolyne Munroy's ghost spoke up, "He made his friend clean up the mess, and got the guy blacklisted from the movie industry all because one of the girls he had chosen the backbone to stand up to Cepero's influence!"

Now that the group mulled over the allegations the ghosts had made, it made a twisted kind of sense. All four had come from marginalized groups and/or had been in dangerous situations. Given what Auronaku had recalled from reading Looker's book, the famed detective had noted that serial killers nowadays often target vulnerable people that few cared about.

"Well, that was dark," Brisallan commented, "Nikos was right about his project."

"I'll have to call the International Police," Auronaku pulled her Rotom phone out of her pocket. With a single command, it began dialing the phone number for the League-sanctioned law enforcement organization.

That month, Lorenzo Cepero and the Mesogoza mayor's arrests become the talk of the entire Pokemon world and it would take two years before the media circus around it died down.

Two days later, in biology class, Auronaku and Bonnie sat next to each other; they had come into the class early.

Bonnie tapped her orange Rotom phone and selected the video app. Selecting a favourite video, she snickered quietly.

"Whatcha's watching?" Auronaku's question was quickly answered.

"The best of Osaka," Bonnie answered, "She's the space cadet of the Azumanga Daioh crew."

"Oh, what a weird girl," Auronaku commented as she replayed Bonnie's video, "But I like her."

She stopped and moved the recording cursor back to a specific point, then hit play. The scene showed the aforementioned girl chasing floaters in her eyes.

"Nanda used to do this when she was younger," Auronaku added, "She could be a bit spacey at times."

As the class filled up, Jacq entered and turned on the projector. The projector screen was pulled down, and the class could read the word Genetics and Chromosomes on it in white letters on a kelly green background.

"Today's lesson is about genetics. As you recalled from earlier classes, you receive fifty percent of your genetic material from each parent. This union of genetic material come from which event?"

"The fertilization of the human ovum by the sperm," Auronaku answered, "It occurs during or a few days after male-female intercourse."

"Excellent, Auronaku," Jacq applauded, "From there, the DNA from these cells determine our hair and eye colors, our facial features and much more."

He clicked the button on the projector remote, and it changed to another slide. The title was Genetic Inheritance Patterns. There were diagrams that represented a couple and their possible children.

"In the 18th century, there was a monk of Arceus who studied single allele traits. What was his name?" Jacq posed his question.

"Heinrich Mendel," Bonnie replied, "He lived in North Kalos."

"Good job, Bonnie," Jacq smiled, "The subject of his studies were pea plants. He isolated seven traits from these plants; What did he select?"

"Seed shape, flower color, pod type, height, seed coat color, flower location, and seed coat shape," Auronaku answered.

"Correct," Jacq continued, "As he studied them, he formulated a theory of dominance in genetics. He wrote in his paper that some traits appear to dominate, while others recede into the background. This created the modern inheritance pattern we now know as dominant autosomal and recessive autosomal,"

As Jacq continued his lecture, Auronaku and Bonnie took notes in their composition books.

"My mother was a blacksmith. Her name was Moraine. She was from the village I was born in. I still don't know who my father is," Auronaku sighed.

"I recall that somebody used daddy issues as an insult for a promiscuous woman a few years before in my neighbourhood. Turns out that person was right, she was abandoned by her bio dad when she was young, and she used her looks to fuck random people looking for the love she never had. When she lost her attractiveness, she turned to alcohol," Bonnie added.

"Knowing my father, he's probably a slimy Casanova who takes advantage of women like her," Auronaku said bitterly.

Auronaku looked out the window of her dorm room. The full moon kept her room alight, and she could see the hustle and bustle of Mesogoza's nightlife. The scramble crosswalk that had been greenlighted six years ago moved like clockwork; she had been there with her friends, and she found the crowds to be somewhat overwhelming visually. It was a side effect of her Hunter's Sight and she had found that to some extent, hoods helped her filter some of the input, especially the ones with a beak-style extrusion.

Yawning, she looked at the clock. 10:31, it read. It was getting late, and she needed to sleep. Laying back in her bed, she pulled the comforter over her and slowly fell asleep.

The camp of the Khazra goatmen was rowdy, as always. Frightened women and teenage girls were passed around by various members, who continued to torture and violate them in depraved ways that Auronaku found disturbing. There were no words to describe it, it was evil incarnate in the worst way possible. Her heart burnt hot with Hatred at this scene, but the cooling influence of Discipline kept her from losing herself to it.

The Khazra in the middle of it was an absolute unit; even if Auronaku was guilty of using meme speak to describe it, it was the only way to describe the demon. The horns were eight feet wide, and the demon was 12 feet high. He carried a cudgel that had been made of the bones of fallen adventurers who had tried and failed to kill him. But the most horrific part was the necklace that was made from the skulls of children. All the unfortunate victims had been slaughtered in various raids on innocent settlements that had the misfortune to be in the sight of this clade.

As the Khazra prepared for the ritual that would power up this abomination, Ragnar stepped onto the scene. He took out his favored weapons, an old pair of throwing axes that had served him well in various battles. Throwing them, the axes beheaded several unfortunate Khazra. Another throw bisected a shaman in a brutal display of gore. As the axes returned to their owner, he took out a battle mace. He cut a bloody swathe through the group. The brutal swings of the man were precise; a testimony to his years of battle experience. It was intended to maim and outright kill the Khazra, which were well-known to be a dangerous menace to the denizens living in the region for years.

This attracted the attention of the giant, who squared up his latest challenger.

"Another set of bones for my club!" The abomination laughed.

Ragnar gritted his teeth in determination.

"Voldett the Mad, your evil ends here!" He roared. Gripping his battle mace tightly, he began spinning around the abomination in a whirlwind. It was an ancient Barbarian technique derived from the now extinct Tribe of Thunder, which the Vahalkin tribe was one of several descendants of.

As Voldett swung his cudgel, Ragnar blocked it with his mace. Pushing it off him he leapt behind the Khazra and took out his throwing axes. A blow from Voldett struck true, nearly breaking Ragnar's arm, but Ragnar's Iron Skin softened it. He threw the axes at the Khazra abomination, slicing open several wounds on Voldett. The Khazra roared in pain and began flailing wildly. A lucky hit injured Ragnar, but he took a swig of his healing potion and pressed on.

Switching back to his mace, he swung at Voldett, breaking the abomination's ribs on his left side. Voldett responded by swinging at Ragnar's head, but he swiftly ducked to evade the blow. He attempted a bash, but Voldett had anticipated it.

"There was this delicious little blacksmith lady. She was a fiery spirit. I enjoyed tearing her flesh from her bone while she was still alive. Her breasts were tasty little morsels," Voldett bragged, "My underlings picked her up in some village called Wathiram."

Auronaku recognized the name of her village. Even though it was ten years ever since the attack on her village, the name was still etched in her mind. Ragnar went berserk at Voldett's mention of Wathiram's blacksmith. Something must have struck a nerve with this man, since he seemed to be familiar with her village.

His rage was not a normal one. It was the fury of a grieving father, pure and simple. As Ragnar bashed, flayed and fought Voldett, the increased speed and strength of his movements proved to be Voldett's undoing. A bash crushed Voldett's already broken ribs, and a flay from one of Ragnar's axes severed his cudgel arm. The crescendo of the battle came with Ragnar's calling of the three Ancients of Mount Arreat. Talic, Korlic and Madawc descended on the battlefield, their whirlwinds tearing Voldett apart with brute force.

As Ragnar dropped to the ground in grief and exhaustion, his task of avenging his love and daughter was done. He begun sobbing, as the enormity of his loss hit him.

"Your daughter still lives, Ragnar," Madawc's voice broke Ragnar from his sorrow, "She is in a different world. One created by a deity of a thousand arms and teeming with wondrous creatures. Seek out Lord Rathma, you are the key to returning her to her rightful place in this world."