Chapter 7: Hounted manor

"Who are you...?" As the rain around them continues to fall, her wary voice can barely be heard. Despite that, the small succubus had a feeling they could base on the way their posture straightens.

At least, that's what she thought. It's very hard to be sure considering the figure keeps flickering in and out of thin air. Once more, Chrome curses her streak of bad luck.

The word 'strange' wouldn't do the situation justice. Chrome has read about Monsters using various means of camouflaging themselves either with their unique physiology or a form of concealment magic. Whoever, this is different.

It's like her eyes and her mind is having an argument. On one hand, she acknowledges the fact that right now, right here, someone is standing in front of her. There they are, the one who's been messing with her experiments since this morning.

But on the other hand, her eyes simply refuse to cooperate. Trying to focus on the culprit before her is akin to grabbing a hold of water.

She begins to wonder if they are even real at all. What if this is just her mind playing tricks on her? Had her isolation finally driven her to go senile?

'Just... what the hell is going on!?'

As Chrome began to consider the probability of all this only being a bad dream, the unidentifiable figure finally decided to reveal themself.

Chrome saw them – or rather – she saw him. Draped in a green cloak, his long purple hair gently swaying behind him, she could see his full face now that he had lowered his hood.

"A human!?" She let out, mouth agape in disbelief.

"..." Not saying anything, the interloper simply stared at her with an unreadable expression.

The necromancer gathers her bearing, the indignations and burning anger she had harbor for the one who has been ruining her experiments returning at full force.

She pointed her finger at him accusingly, "You! It was you wasn't it!?"

How dare he! Not only did he release all of the souls in the mansion, but he's also the one who reburied the bodies back in their grave!

Does he have any idea how long it took her to reanimate all of them!

When the human before her remains quiet, she decided to take matters into her hand and end this madness one and for all.

"Tch! Fine..." Pulling out a pair of syringes out of her bag, the necromancer threw them towards the interloper, intending to end the fight quickly so that she could continue with her studies.

What she wasn't expecting was for the syringes to bounce away from her intended target via an invisible barrier.

Her eyes widened. 'He knows magic!?'

Not only that, but for a human to use magic that effortlessly, it's unheard of…

After the shock died down, a small mischievous smile appeared on her face. Chrome thinks to herself about what a once-in-a-lifetime chance this is. The opportunity to study and dissect a human who can perform such a feat…

Imagine the zombies she can make out of him!

"Fufufu~" She gave out a sinister laugh and held out her hands in a theatrical way, the one she practices in front of the mirror for hours to make sure she got it right.

"Be grateful human! For I have deem you worthy of being a steppingstone in my path to restoring the name of the great Artiste Family! You may think that you have won by getting rid of my zombies, but you miss just one~"

Her smile turns into a wicked grin as she then gestures behind her. "Come forth, Frederica!"

CRASH!

The ground shock as a tall zombified corpse of a woman came bursting out of the manor at her mistress's command. Its skin a sickly shade of purple and bandages wrapping randomly around her naked body, the worst of it all is the dead look it gave to any who gaze upon the horrible desecration of a person's body.

For the first time since meeting him, the human finally showed a distinguishable expression. That being the look of sorrow he's giving her ultimate creation.

"Oh~ What's wrong? Are you unable to see the beauty of my art?" The necromancer said, mocking him before continuing, "No need to worry, I'm sure we could come to an understanding once Frederica is done with you."

"…" The young man reached for something onhim, after a moment Chrome saw it's a pathetically short wooden sword. What he intended to do with such a thing is none of her concern as she snapped her fingers, commanding Frederica to take him out.

Swiping his sword upwards, a huge gust of wind blocked its path and pushed the zombie back. It tries again from a different angle to the same conclusion, being thrown back to where it first started.

Realizing the stalemate, Chrome ordered the giant zombie to overwhelm the human's defenses with brute force. "Tsk! Frederica, grab that boulder and charge at him as hard as you can!"

She figures, even if both of them get damaged, she could always fix them back later after winning this fight. At first, she wanted to subdue the human with pleasure attacks, but seeing as getting close to him is nearly impossible, she'd have to go with a different approach.

Her ultimate creation lifted the sizable chunk of rock and made a dash towards him, only to find that he's already in the air, away from the danger and charging up a new attack. The necromancer was about to warn her creation before something impossible happened.

She blinked, and that was unfortunately enough time for the human to get in front of her.

CRACK!

The strike hit her before she could even brace herself, flying back all the way to the hunted manor and breaking the wall in the process.

When she came to, her ears were ringing, and she could barely open her eyes. It hurt like hell, her ribs were broken and multiple organs inside her felt bruised, the impact against the wall of the manor must've given her a concussion too.

After a bit, the faint sound of fighting reached her, and she desperately hoped that her Frederica had come up on top. That hope was soon crushed as a pillar of green light shot up into the sky and she could no longer hear any struggles.

'… Frederica doesn't have any attack that can do that, which means…'

Sure enough, amongst the pitter-patter of rain a quiet footstep made its way to the laying body of the necromancer. Even though she knows that panicking wouldn't help the situation, could you really blame her when her heart started racing in dread knowing how utterly fucked she is in this?

'I might as well beg him to make it quick…'

Hesitantly opening her eyes, she can see him looking at her through the large hole in the wall. There's a look of disappointment on his face (much to her frustration).

"W-well…? What are you… waiting for?"

"…"

"Just… end it already …" Chrome gave the human one last glare before closing her eyes again. Then she waited for the void to take her.

She could hear him coming closer, the panic return despite her best attempt at drowning it and when he places his hand on her shoulder her whole body jerks back in surprise.

"!?" Opening her eyes instinctively, her frantic pink was greeted with his soft blue.

Illogically, that somehow managed to calm her down. The hand reaching for her syringes also came to a stop, not that she thought it would do much to be honest.

"It's wrong…"

And if that wasn't enough, his voice put her mind in a pause.

"…What?"

"Your experiments, what you did to those people." His tones became rigid. "It's horrible."

Her brow furrowed, is that all there is to this?

"Corpses… not people." Not to mention, she doesn't actively hunt humans unless they come after her.

The one who defeated her shook his head before pointing towards the manor, "Even then, they deserve a proper rest." Just as he said, souls of the people whose body she had used can be seen wandering the inside of the manor, floating around without purpose. "You disturbed that with your doings."

Bah! What is he? Some sort of righteous hero wannabe?

"They're already dead… who cares?" Chrome said, at the risk of endangering herself.

"I do."

Well… shit.

It took a bit longer, but she eventually promised to never mess with the corpse of people and to pursue another art in the Artiste Family. It was humiliation of the highest order, for someone like her to be forced to abandon her beloved necromancy like this… but she didn't want to try her luck with him any more than she already did.

He seems satisfied by the look on his face. Nodding to himself before the hand he put on her shoulder started glowing softly.

"I'll come back one day to check on you."

He didn't say it in any threatening manner, but the implications are enough for her. What came after startled the necromancer, as her body began to heal. Though, before she could inquire more about this, a wave of fatigue suddenly hit her.

[Sylph's lullaby]

"No… I have... shoo~ many questio-" Chrome yawns before she could finish.

By this point her body had fully healed and the human stood up from her side. The last image she saw before her mind drifted off was his long purple hair dancing in the wind, framing his frowning face.

There's something about that last part, it made her feel distinctly uncomfortable.

She's not sure why.

"ZzZzZzZzzzzz…"

===0===

By the time he got the fire going nighttime had arrived. Patting his hands together, Luka took a look at the surrounding forest. Nothing new compared to the last couple days, the only exception being what's on his mind.

Leaning against an old fallen log, the young man brought out his rations for the night. He would have loved some variety, but Luka had long since understood the value of temperance. Especially when working with finite resources.

Not a minute later, his companion chimes from the depths of his mind.

'Hey Luka.'

'Hmm?'

'Are you doing alright?'

He paused at that.

'Yeah, I'm fine Sylph. What's wrong?'

'Nothing. Just making sure is all. You look really bother by what you see on that haunted manor.'

'It did bothers me…'

Just thinking back at it is enough to make his stomach twist in nausea. The way that monster was messing with those bodies like it was nothing. Calling what she's doing a work of art is an insult to all the artists out there.

When Luka first got there, he could already tell something bad was happening. The air was filled with negativity, and it marinated inside the manor like a pot of unholy soup. Observing the short succubus going about her day still made him feel like some sort of stalker, but the wind spirit reasons that he was doing it for the greater good.

At least some good came out of it in the end. He knows where she kept the zombies she reanimated and reburied them back where they should be. Of course, she was pretty mad about him doing that, but he had to. Those people had already suffered enough.

'And that fight too! I've never seen you hit someone that hard Luka. You were all like KAPOW! And she's knocked out! Also did you use a new move on her? Does it have a name yet!?'

'Was it that bad…?'

He admits that he was a little disgruntled with her after all of her experiments. Some of his frustration must've bleed into the fight…

'Not that it's a bad thing, I think it's good to be angry sometimes Luka!'

In his minds eyes he could see his friend floating around him as she begins.

'You were angry at her, and you used that anger as motivation to help all those souls. Rather than bottling it all, you ended up stopping her in the end. That's a good thing if you asked me~'

A gentle gust of wind came and blew against his hair. He finished his dinner in a better mood, and with a small smile.

He was unsure about only having Sylph in his mind at first. But now he's glad to know nothing much has changed. His fairy friend is still there with him, even if he can't see her outside of his head.

"Thanks buddy…" He yawned. All the actions today have evidently taken a toll on his energy.

'No problem~!'

===0===

"What is this?"

The woman in a lab coat came in to see the situations around the haunted manor has changed considerably to her previous visits.

For starters, no longer is there any lingering souls in the air. Or any sort of negative energy inside the manor. Almost as if it's a normal human resident if she didn't know any better.

"Hmm?" Looking down, there's something that caught her attention.

After picking it up, she was greeted with a single strand of purple hair.

"This is…" Her cold calculative eyes narrowed.

Using magic, she stored it inside a preservation capsule and continued looking around. She went to the back of the manor to find the necromancer Chrome soundly sleeping in the middle of rubles and debris.

"ZzZzZzzzz…"

"…"

It would seem further research is required.

END OF CHAPTER


Author's note: So, because I'm an idiot I forgot to mention something important in the last chapter. That being, Sylph is following Luka on this journey only through their link, her physical body is staying in the Forest of Spirits. Same reason as canon, they don't do well in other environments.