Note: This chapter takes place during and after the events of Chapter 6.
Kikimora had never felt more in control of her life then now.
In only the first few days since the formation of the Mercenary Coven, they had gained a very large following. All in secret too. From Biped Demons to Witches, people from the different races across the Isles had been convinced to join up with them.
They had even created an official sigil for the Coven: A circle jagged dagger. It got the point across that they all were indeed Mercenaries, and used their magic for combat specifically.
Kikimora had ditched her old disguise for a new outfit. She now wore clothes similar to Valera's, but without the goggles.
Speaking of the demon, Valera walked up to Kikimora as she was looking at the Boiling Isles map she had gotten ahold of.
"So... Get this. There's supplies being brought to the council building of that new Coven I warned you about." Valera deadpanned, crossing her arms.
Kikimora groaned. This was the sixth time today she had rubbed it in her face that she was wrong about the Coven heads.
They had gone and formed a Coven that united the entirety of the Isles... What she had really hoped wouldn't happen. But alas, the Titan Coven now was the primary faction in control of the Isles.
And now Kikimora had to work EXTRA hard to establish control.
"We could steal the supplies, easily." Kikimora blurted out as soon as the thought entered her mind.
"But I thought we were-" Valera began, but was cut off by Kikimora.
"A little risk of exposure is necessary for us to overpower the Titan Coven, and show those loyal to it that there is a better option for leadership." Kikimora explained.
Valera lifted her arms slightly in exasperation, "Fair enough. But I can't steal the supplies right now, we still have the issue of those debt collectors to deal with." she reminded her friend.
Kikimora sighed. She had forgotten about them. A few days ago, they had run out of money. So they took a loan from a group of Witches from the Palm Stings. Due to some improper negotiations on their part, the due date to pay them back was today... But they didn't have the snails needed to pay them back yet.
So that meant one of them had to go to the Palm Stings to try and talk them into extending their payment due date.
"I'll go." Kikimora told Valera, surprising her.
"You sure? I know how you feel about the Palm Stings..." Valera said, but Kikimora shook her head.
"No, no! It's fine. I can do it." Kikimora insisted. "You just have to go do this supply robbery for me."
"Well, if you're sure... I'll head out now." Valera said, turning to walk away.
"You already got a plan for how you're going to do it?" Kikimora asked, to which Valera chuckled.
"Oh, if my plan works... I'll barely have to do anything at all." She smirked.
With that, Valera got onto a wagon, and rode off toward the exit of the hideout.
Kikimora waved her off as Valera left, and sighed as she looked over at Roka. She had a long flight ahead of her.
It was official. Kikimora hated birds.
Every minute it seemed like one would bash into the side of the flying Roka, or in the rare occurrence, into her face.
She had chosen to use the cloudy weather to her advantage, and fly undetected to the Palm Stings.
Titan, even thinking about the Stings was painful. Her mother had lived there for years now, and ever since the Coven Day Parade... She's done her best to avoid the Stings as much as she physically could.
And now here she was flying toward it purposefully, to try and settle a debt.
Soon, Kikimora could feel the dusty winds of the Palm Stings hit her face as she began to enter the region. She flipped on the cockpit bubble to protect her face from further irritation by it (Why she didn't just do that against the birds, she didn't know).
As Roka finally made it through the dusty winds... The Palm Stings came into view.
After the Titan's reawakening, the left hand had been lifted up into the sky. But the Palm Stings had managed to make it through this, and now instead of being on the palm of the skeleton... It now resided on a landmass of it's own below where the arm once laid.
Kikimora didn't know whether to be happy her old home region had survived or not. She had very mixed feelings on it.
Nonetheless, Kikimora landed Roka on the sand. She looked around, before looking at a note the Witches had given her.
"The cabin should be around here somewhere..." She deduced.
Soon Kikimora spotted it. A wooden cabin with a fence around it. The building was just about the only sign of life she could spot around, apart from a couple Juvenile Sandsnakes that she could see moving under the sand.
Kikimora took a deep breath. "You could convince those Scouts in the caves to join a carbon copy of the Emperor's Coven... You can do this." She assured herself.
She approached the cabin. As she did so, three witches came out from the inside.
"Oh, Kikimora... What a pleasant surprise. I was expecting Valera." The male witch in the front said once he spotted her.
"Hello Athan... No, Valera had other things to tend to. So here I am." Kikimora replied.
"I see..." Athan replied, "But what I don't see is my money, you do know today's the due date right?"
"Yes, we know... But we were hoping you could just give us a few more days?" Kikimora asked.
Athan chuckled a bit, "If I had a snail for every time I've had someone ask that..."
The two witches beside Athan grabbed daggers from their belts.
"I'd have a lot of snails, because most of those people didn't walk away after asking that question." Athan finished, smirking.
Kikimora chuckled humorlessly, "So would that be a no...?"
Athan's smirk turned into a neutral expression. "Yeah sorry... That's a no. Either pay up now, or we toss your lifeless body into the Boiling Sea." Athan flatly threatened.
"Understandable." Kikimora replied, mimicking the same flat tone.
As soon as the word left Kikimora's mouth, she clicked a purple button on her wristband, activating her Abomatron.
The sound of a burst of magical energy roared through the air as the witch beside Athan was engulfed in a purple beam of energy, disintegrating them.
Athan barely had time to react when Kikimora fired a bolt of magic at the second Witch, directly to the head.
At this point, Athan had lost his confidence. In a last ditch effort to save himself, he tried to conjure a blast of purple fire against Kikimora... But was stopped when Roka flung him against the wall of his cabin like a ragdoll.
The sound of bones cracking was heard, as Athan's body slumped to the ground.
Kikimora dusted off her hands as she looked at the three corpses before her.
"You couldn't have just given us a couple more days?" She complained out loud.
Kikimora busted open the door leading into Athan's cabin, and walked in cautiously.
"Let's see if you have anything worth my time..." Kikimora remarked, looking around.
She soon spotted a chest under a table, and rushed over to it. Pulling it out, and opening the lid.
A red gleam in the chest filled with mostly papers caught her eye.
Kikimora picked up the dagger from inside the chest, and admired it for a few moments. It was made of a red crystal that was shiny enough to show her reflection in it. The crystal was very sleek to the touch.
It was as if the dagger was made for her.
"Well, don't mind if I do." She remarked, putting the dagger in her bandoleer.
After some more looking around, she decided that there really was nothing else worth taking here, and left through the door...
...But not before setting the cabin on fire with a spell.
By the time Kikimora got back to the hideout, she felt as if she was going to throw up from how many bird feathers she inhaled on the whole trip.
She went up to the map of the Boiling Isles, and looked it over.
Now that Athan was out of the way, they could focus on the next stage of their supply gathering... Or rather the last stage they planned to do in secret before revealing themselves to the Isles.
Kikimora wanted to get her hands on some of the artificial magic weapons Belos had created. They could be very useful to either her Coven or the Titan Coven... And she much rather they be used for her own gain than the Titan Coven's.
She was thinking over where a cache of them could possibly be that was intact, when she heard a familiar voice...
"I got the rest of the supplies!" Valera called out to her.
"Great... I've dealt with the debt collectors you were having problems with. I doubt they'll be coming back." Kikimora remarked in response, not even turning away from the map.
"Oh thank Titan... So, what's next for us anyways?" Valera asked, joining her by the map
"First... We have a certain ruin to uncover for the last bit of supplies we require." Kikimora explained, before using the red dagger to mark a spot on the map... The Titan's skull.
"The Skull? What do we need from there?" Valera questioned.
"There's a large supply of a very special type of weapon held there." Kikimora explained.
How can you be sure it's even still intact after everything that happened around that area?" Valera questioned.
"Well, I believe there's only one way to find out." Kikimora said in response, "We leave immediately."
She began to walk toward where she stored Roka.
"What about dinner?" Valera asked.
Kikimora walked back. "We leave in three hours." She corrected herself.
After cooking and eating dinner, Kikimora and Valera were both on Snake Horses (Kiki had decided against bringing Roka, as they no longer had the cloudy sky to hide their flight), heading on a path through the forest toward the skull.
The sun was setting in the distance, giving the red sky an orange hue as it did. Valera stopped and looked at the sight from off an overlook they were passing.
"Wow... Kiki, isn't it beautiful?" Valera asked, entranced by the sky.
Kikimora took a glance at the sunset as well.
"It actually kind of does..." Kikimora remarked, finding some beauty in the setting sun.
But her attention diverted from the sunset, and downwards to a familiar home on a cliff in the distance. She scowled slightly at the sight of the Owl House.
She watched as the door opened, and the human let the Owl Lady and the Titan child inside. She exhaled through her nose at the sight of them all.
As much as she resented them for being the primary reason behind her previous failures... She couldn't focus on them right now. Kikimora had other things so focus on before revenge.
"Let's keep moving, we're losing daylight." Kikimora ushered Valera to keep moving.
Valera shrugged, and the two kept riding through the forest.
Deep in the caves under the Boiling Isles... One of the Coven Scouts that Kikimora sent out to find more groups in the caves was wandering around, using a fire spell as a makeshift torch.
He stopped when he heard the sound of a couple pebbles moving in the darkness ahead.
"Hello? Is someone there?" The Scout asked, only to get no response.
He walked forward a couple feet, illuminating the darkness. "I mean no harm, I'm just-"
The Scout is cut off when he suddenly feels something latch onto the bottom of his leg, and begin to rapidly drag him into the darkness.
His screams were soon turned to gurgling, and wet gasps... Until there was silence. The fire spell in his hand slowly dimmed...
...And the faint sound of heartbeat could be heard in the distance.