Hertrude Sera Fanoss is on paper the main antagonist of the first game.
Motivated by a desire for revenge on the Holfort Kingdom for their miss-perceived role in the death of her parents Hertrude wants nothing less than the complete destruction of the Holfort Dynasty.
The reality of the matter though, as I've learned through reading the intel reports destined for my mother's desk, is that Hertrude and her sister Hertraude both are pawns in the schemes of her own country's nobility, even their motivation for revenge is a fabrication.
When their parents decided that the mad schemes for world domination of their nobility were just that and tried to axed them, the Black Knight murdered them both with a bomb on their ship and blamed the Holfort army for it.
Hertrude is ultimately destined to die in the siege on the capital during the final battle, a sacrifice to her own country's nuclear deterrent the imaginatively named Flute of Summoning Monsters to produce the 'God of the Earth.' If both sisters can be assassinated in advance then a lot of headaches for ourselves can be saved, unfortunately they have some rather formidable body guards.
Excerpt from Diary 1
Fanoss's princess was rail thin, skinny to the degree that Nick wondered if Fanoss fed her. Her eyes were hollow and dead like a fish, the longer this meeting went on the more strongly that Nick suspect he wasn't talking to a person at all, and unfortunately she hadn't actually said anything yet instead engrossed with Leon's coffee.
"Delightful." Hertrude's voice had no inflection to it, no sign that she legitimately enjoyed Leon's drink beyond her short tart comment on it. "I must give you my compliments for the drink Count Blackmore."
"My brother's the Count. I just live here." Nick stated as he wondered if he should be talking to Hertrude here or her bodyguard. Of the two he projected the image of being in charge far more readily. "I don't know how long my parents plan for us to still be living here but this is temporary." Nick indicated the islands that had been lined up, stacked onto each other and chained together. "They have a... hobby you could call it, of collecting specific ruins from old human civilisation, specifically of the Umbran Lumen Architectural bent and then restoring them."
"Oh? Perhaps there's a few we could direct you towards?" Hertrude at least had the decency to move her face when she spoke, if only barely.
"Sure." Nick looked to the clock on the wall as he spoke. Seeing him do so Hertrude took out a pocket watch and compared the two.
"My watch must be off. It's later in the morning than I thought it was." Putting the watch away Hertrude got down to business. They did say that they were here to parley after all. "Regardless of how they acted in your country we did have a good relationship with the Offrey's."
"Are you going to make a fuss that they're gone?" Nick asked suspiciously.
"No. I perfectly understand the reasoning why you would want them gone." Nick doubted that Hertrude understood much in all honesty. "We simply had a good relationship with our neighbours, and we'd like to continue having a good relationship with them."
"We aren't going to send a fleet over the border if that's what you mean." Nick stated steepling his fingers together. "What else made them 'good neighbours' trade? Did they help defend your borders against monster attacks? Emergency support?"
The Negotiations continued for a time, Hertrude returned to the room she was borrowing for Lunch and then she wanted to talk about expanding the Coffee trade over the border into Fanoss. Well in Nick's opinion Hertrude could use some more food in her even if it wasn't lunch time.
"Bring him out." At once a nearby Closet door opened and a gagged and restrained man with Green hair appeared in the small room with his arms and legs bound by Umbra's mechanical arms. "I am waiting to hear your excuses." Nick ripped off the gag from the man wearing the clothing of the kitchen staff. "About what you were doing with this?" Nick held up a vial to the man, containing a powerful nerve agent. A single drop and whoever had consumed it would die from a violent aneurysm. The Shadows caught him in the middle of trying to dump it into the meal he just shared with Hertrude. "She is an enemy you damned fool!"
"If you try this again, Marmoria, then you will be ours! Your stupid heir threatened my sister, my family, and tried to kill my brother once already, and now you almost killed me too. Do I make myself clear!?" Nick was spat on his face in response. Glowering with rage he shoved the gag back into the Man's mouth. "I will be taking this to the Royal family seeking due compensation, and know that if I find it lacking, you're going to wish you swallowed this yourself!" Umbra took the man away. "Get the ship ready. As soon as the girl and her guard leaves we're returning to the capital with the goods we discussed before. The price just shot up." Nick walked out of the pent house they were using as a meeting room and looked on at the Black Knight's armour before he shook his head and walked away.
Sarah Fia Winchester: Why do you dislike armour so much?
Nick Blackmore: I don't dislike armour I dislike what you call Armour.
Sarah: Its the why that escapes me.
Nick: Armour was originally designed to be used to defend mankind against demons and angels. They were noble machines that saved the lives of countless people. What you call armour though is designed to fight against other people in armours.
Sarah: Is there a Difference?
Nick: Long Range. Fast. Light Weight. Cheap and Mass produced! These traits make it possible for you to pointlessly raise armies to slaughter each other. But against the likes of Demons and Angels?
*Several sharp blades-like claws were suddenly pressed into Sarah's neck by someone, something behind her*
Nick: Demons and Angels alike can appear from and disappear into Purgatorio at whim. You won't be able to hit them until they are right on top of you.
*The clawed hand disappears from Sarah's neck and she spins around to see no one and nothing behind her.*
Nick: Even after they hit you, you won't be able to hit them back, they won't stick around long enough. Long distance weaponry is effectively useless. Light weight armour is too. Monsters are creatures that are strong enough to tear steel apart with their bare hands. Light armour is only useful if you can hit hard enough to kill them before they can kill you, and for that you need heavy armour, with the kinds of beefy melee weapons that can put them down without a fight. Heavy armour, with a strong emphasis on short to mid range weapons, I have no problem with the idea of them being fast but it's a third priority compared to being durable enough to withstand a protracted battle against multiple opponents and strong enough to take them down in a short amount of time is vastly more important. As for cost effectiveness? If the effectiveness of the Unit is sacrificed to reduce costs then you're effectively trading the lives of your men for money.
Sarah: Your description sounds a lot like Lost Tech armours.
Nick: That's because armour was invented in the first place to fight the kind of multi-story horrors that even our family needs magic to deal with. And I don't mean the basic crap they taught you at the academy.
Transcript from a Conversation between Nick Blackmore and Sarah Fia Winchester
"HHHIIIYYYAAAHHH!" A comically large dust cloud was kicked up into the air as Raymond ran through the courtyard.
"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING!?" Another dust cloud was kicked up into the air as a woman with navy blue hair chased after Raymond, holding a knife in her hands. Leon landed in front of the screaming woman and grabbed her by her arms, sliding for several feet before Leon was able to stop her with force. "Let me go! Let me Go!"
"Kara you're holding a knife!" The struggling woman suddenly stopped, looked at the knife in her hands as if she had never seen it before, before abruptly letting it hit the ground and collapsed while crying.
"It's not my fault! It's not! It's not! It's Not!"
Leon just shook his head in response as he looked up to the tree next to him.
"You can come down now!" It had taken some effort by the duke to Track down Angelica after he and his son collected the payment for the Blackmores pirate captives. As it turns out it was because she was running all over the school trying to chase down one of her new followers who had gotten into a fight with his mistress. Olivia was with the woman in question using her magic to help calm her down while Leon was busily prying the follower in question out of the tree. That left one person to deal with the situation.
"What happened?" Gilbert asked as he looked around at the mess the courtyard had been in, complete with staring faces of students.
"I can't speak about it publicly, but Leon introduced the boys of the school to some rather dangerous women." Angie was holding her face with her hands as she spoke, conveying a feeling of 'I am so done with this situation.' Angelica led her father and brother to the relative privacy of the Student Council room. The contents of what she had to say though were rather shocking.
"Leon paired the boys of the academy off with Demons?" Vincent asked eyes wide with surprise.
This was only natural. Under normal Circumstances if a group of ferocious demons were discovered roaming about the capital freely it would result in a all hands on deck notice sent out to the adventurers guild to wipe them out. Even if a 'tamed' monster like what Leon had utilised was discovered to go on a rampage like what happened to Raymond today then it would also result in a extermination notice, and aside from the harsh reprimand he would receive Leon would still have to foot the bill for cleaning up his own mess. Instead Vincent Folded his hands together as he spoke his next words.
"How did he do it?" Vincent spoke with a tone Angelica knew he only used when he was scheming something.
"Huu. His sister made a doll out of human hair, then Leon put a demon into it in the same way that he summons demons using his hair as a medium. According to him the demon is effectively a clone of the person that donated their hair, complete with fully functional reproductive organs." Even though Leon could be considered part demon from another point of view he was just a human that had a large amount of demonic power. When you took away his knowledge of the Umbran arts then he wasn't too much more different than a normal human and thus unlike the case when they try and crossbreed a horse and a donkey there isn't anything wrong with the children, so long as nothing were wrong with the parents that is.
"I see." Vincent had zeroed in on the benefits in this situation as his daughter knew that he would. "How many people know about this?"
"For now myself and Leon. We'll probably have to give an explanation in the near future to my followers though." A adjusted explanation if her father was planning what she thought she was planning. "I need a meeting with Leon."
Gilbert and his wife Elenora having been trying to have a child for several years now but have been failing. According to the Church the problem one in the relationship wasn't Elenora but Gilbert, who was sterile, according to the church likely stemming from a side effect of his fire magic, something that was apparently common in men. In theory the situation can be resolved by quietly contracting a demon and having it sub for Gilbert. Leon was brought in and had Gilbert's circumstances explained to him, the Redgraves were even willing to help him resolve the issue with the Rusalka, provided that no more knife wielding demons rampaged through the school.
"Neither of those should be a problem." Leon crossed his arms as he explained the situation. "Most of the Rusalka seem to be suffering from Anxiety attacks: they're not use to being outside of the dungeons, not to mention being in a real relationship. Near as I can tell Kara has had the worst of them, though we are going to have to come up with a solution for the rest of them."
Not only were the Rusalka jealous, they were also vengeful, just breaking up with them won't stop them from wreaking havoc, on the contrary the amount of trouble they would cause would only increase. And when asked about what the boys of the school had done to make him do such a thing to them? Leon led them to his old room and showed him the state it had been in since Julius challenged Angelica to the duel and that was that.
"Instruct your classmates on how to keep the Rusalka as you called them calm, I imagine that living with the stress that if they fail to do so today's events will repeat themselves will be punishment enough." Vincent proved to be a wise and magnanimous duke. "In the mean time your Brother should be back soon with the items we discussed."
Technically speaking, the new Blackmore territory was a considerable distance from the Capital, but Angie knew first hand how fast Umbra could be when it wants to, or rather when Leon and his siblings were working the demon like a slave. They were a couple of days away but Vincent still had other business in the Capital that needed to be addressed.
Which was fine, because while Leon was resolving the Rusalka crisis the five idiots and saintess were having a meeting of their own.
"Kappai!" With that cheer the Five Fools and Stunted Saintess clinked their glasses of soda water together over their makeshift table. "To the heroes of the week!"
The majority of the Pirates and their loot was at the Blackmore estate. The ones that Leon fought however, including the leader of the Pirates who fought Leon personally? That same pirate who had raided the church and made off with the Saintess Necklace? Leon personally confiscated that item and it was on his ship when he arrived at the capital. The thing was unscratched, that was in spite of the overwhelming force that Leon used to kill the pirate with turning him into a pin cushion for swords. It's miraculous power was only further confirmed when it glowed with a bright reaction to the presence of Marie and her other two key items.
"We could barely do anything against the damned Pirates." Chris stated pouting with his cheek against his fist.
"The realisation of our own inadequacy has left behind a pretty bitter taste in our mouths." Greg stated mirroring Chris's depressed mood though not his exact posture.
"I in the mean time feel on the cusp of a breakthrough!" Brad had benefited from his time aboard Umbra, already Brad was picking through the inefficiencies of the Magic Leon showed him to study Greg and Chris's movements and then using magical control to copy them onto his own body. His own training should go much faster at this point. His good mood was even further helped along by virtue of the fact that he had been vindicated in his decision to toss Stephanie away.
"What did you expect was going to happen?" Jilk asked looking at the duo like they were stupid. "You asked a magic user to show you how to fight and he told you to learn magic." Both of the young men in question let out a sigh at that.
"Yeah. Leon wasn't exactly encouraging after that." Chris distinctly remembered the glare that Leon gave him when his 100% affinity for lightning magic was revealed, immediately drawing the connection between Lightning and Arclight, as in Arcing Light. Lightning was well known for its high offensive power and extremely fast cast speed, and Chris's family's affinity for it was so strong that it had become their last name. Leon's glare intensified when Chris stated that he would need a few days before his lessons would begin.
Greg on the other hand had pure fire affinity like Angelica though not her reserves of mana, unlike Angelica he wasn't looking to diversify but raw offensive power, something that is particularly difficult for him to accomplish considering he isn't allowed to enter the dungeon these days.
"How about you Marie?"
"I have to study more water and Earth magic." Marie let out sigh as she looked around the group.
Erica seemed to have thrown Brad, Greg and Chris at the secret route character and now they're all introspective and are tackling all their really obvious weak points. Which also means that her end of the deal with Erica is not being done on time, or to the princess's satisfaction, which means incurring the wrath of invisible floating assassins.
"Do you two have any plans?" Marie asked looking at Julius and Jilk with curiosity. She knew that she would have to be careful as she tread into unknown waters. Playing the 'My parents stole all my money and treated me as a slave to make more for them deeply traumatising me in the process' managed to cut down on unnecessary spending.
"Of course! I intend to spend every waking moment with you Marie!" Julius proudly boasted beating his fist against his chest. "I'm going to be studying and working at the Church. Julius. I still have to get my body into decent Shape." Marie put her cutsie goody two shoes game face on. Time spent with her was less time they spent on 'stop the apocalypse levels of desperate ability development that they needed' which was especially needed because of the whole 'hard mode level penalties put on them for being so stupid!' was making them develop at a snail's pace.
"You don't have to change yourself for our sake Marie." Julius stated doing his best to sound kind and reassuring. "You're perfect the way you are." He wasn't reassuring though, and more importantly he was wrong.
"It's sweet of you to say-" To the point of being nauseating. "-but I am finishing my treatment." Luckily every once in a while Marie gets to speak from the heart like this. "I am tired of being stuck in the body of a child. Every single time that I look in the mirror I'm reminded of the endless abuse that my family heaped on me to the point that I want to tear my own eyes out. I'm a prisoner in my own body and I want out!" Suddenly five bodies wrapped themselves around Marie in a comforting group hug. They're fools yes, but occasionally they get it right. After a few moments the hug broke up and Marie resumed damage control.
"In simple terms, you five are in danger of falling behind because you can't go into the dungeon anymore. In the worst case scenario you'll even be held back while I go into my next year of schooling." The Five Fools held no delusions of Marie staying back a year with them should they fail to make the cut. She has told them of her obligation to help the people of her territory who helped to protect her from her family's idiocy. Her 'Sense of responsibility' was one of the traits they admired in her, if only they could acquire it for themselves.
"If you fall behind the rest of our year, then that means we could be separated. Personally I don't want that." If Marie, the 'Protagonist' can't build a decent relationship with at least one of these fools then they were all monster chow.
"Looks like we're off to study then." Julius let out a sigh, his time with Marie coming up short for the time period.
"If you do well with your grades I'll take you out for Grilled Skewers." Suddenly a battle cry-like aura ripped through the small dorm room before Julius ran out of the room at full speed slamming the door behind him.
"You really know how to motivate him." Jilk's never seen Julius that excited before.
The Un-Civil Wars is a term used to refer to a series of short but brutal skirmishes between the Holfort Kingdom and the Principality of Fanoss, the Alzer Republic, Rochelle Holy Kingdom and the Repard Magical Kingdom over the course of three years.
Experts would look back on the the events in question, though it's universally agreed that the first of the Un-Civil Wars was between the Principality of Fanoss and the Kingdom of Holfort the exact cause is still a subject of hot debate. Most argue that the cause of the conflict in question was Fanoss's unchecked aggression against its former scion, others cite both sides rocky relationship with the Blackmore family and the tension that rose over the family in question as a consequence.
Spencer Fia Smidt on the Un-Civil Wars
Umbra docked directly in the royal dockyard. Notably it did so by pushing the ship that was already parked there out of the way. Of course the royal guard took offence to their ship being so rudely pushed out of the way. They at first demanded that the ship be moved. Then they attempted to board it but their armours were shot down. Hostilities continued from there but the ship refused to budge and it only ever struck back when it was struck first. In the mean time Nick was walking, to be more accurate he was walking while he dragged along the man that he had taken captive back at the compound by his hair. He had given up struggling at this point, or Nicks simply broke his arms and legs.
He was too mad to remember.
Thanks to the demonic fairies whose souls are bound to his Onyx Rose Shotguns Nick was able to pry the bastard's dirty little secrets out of his skull and learned the identity of the bitch that almost killed him. Of course no one noticed the concerning sight of a young man dragging an older man into the castle by his hair, even though Nick could make out their faint outline. Purgatorio was a strange place within the trinity of realities, not a true realm but a gap in between through which it was possible to enter and exit from the three worlds. To people on Earth Nick was effectively invisible, a fact that the assassin he apprehended found disturbing to a horrifying degree. Nick directly ignored the 'obvious' targets: the King who despite it being the middle of the day could be heard loudly bouncing on his bed to the moans of the maids in his quarters.
The Queen and her various robotic assistants in her office, instead Nick entered the bedroom belonging to the youngest 'official' member of the royal family. The room was nice looking, lots of pink, lace and various stuffed animals but it looked barely lived in. Nick sat down on the bed as he waited for the room's occupant to return, surprisingly he didn't have to wait long as Erica Rapha Holfort walked into the room and sat down at her vanity, or rather her desk based on the way that she opened a cabinet door and pulled out files to start to read. Nick abruptly opened a portal back into the physical plane before he shoved the man he had dragged into the room through the portal stumbling through.
"Princess you're-!"
With a Flick of his wrist Nick summoned Pandora, the Suitcase turning into an eight barrelled machine gun and opened fire on the man through the Portal. The Carnage was brutal. In seven seconds a grown man was reduced to bone, blood and mince meat as the wall in front of him was torn apart. Immediately guards ran into the room as Erica caught only the barest hint of Nick through the portal, the window broke open and in that moment Erica already knew for a fact that the person who walked directly into the Royal Palace and murdered a man in front of a member royal family had just left without anyone being able to do anything to stop him. Further more said murderer had only minced everything below the neck, the face, locked into mortal terror, was none the less easy enough to recognise as the spy that had been assigned to the Blackmore estate.
Erica also saw her bed, and sitting on it was a vial full of clear liquid, she suspected that if she got Luxion to test it it would come up as the same odourless tasteless neuro-toxin that the Marmoria family favours in their 'discreet' assassinations. So one of them took a shot at the Blackmores, and they traced it back to her? If this was just the Marmoria's taking the initiative again then they would have delivered this warning to their home instead of hers. No this was a warning: 'control your dogs or watch them be put down.'
"Luxion." Erica stated as the floating silver orb appeared next to her. "Trace the trajectory of those shots."
"I'll do one better." At once a hologram shined from Luxion. The gruesome death Erica watched replayed, confirming both that the now dead man had appeared from thin air and so had the shots that killed him.
"So it's not teleportation magic." Erica stated bluntly.
To her knowledge? No such 'magic' actually existed, there were however completely natural phenomena that seemingly hauled people across vast distances in seemingly impossible time frames. Such locations would be invaluable as a highway between nations if not for two factors: the first was that the phenomena was extremely short lived, and the second was that it's also incredibly unstable and as a consequence more likely to destroy whatever ship that goes through one instead of spitting it back out in one piece. Erica considered the possibility that the Blackmores had figured out how to replicate the phenomena in a controlled manner but dismissed that possibility, because the bullets were appearing in the middle of being fired.
"Invisible then?" Erica questioned holding her chin in confusion.
"Possible but unlikely." Luxion summarised his opinion bluntly. "There were none of the magic fluctuations associated with illusion casting."
"You didn't pick up these fluctuations when the Blackmores ship dropped in on us during the duel." Erica stated letting out a sigh. "Which means that we simply lack the ability to detect them if they don't want to be found." That was a nice security nightmare to imagine.
It would be nice if they had it on their side, a shame that somebody ruined it already. While thinking about this Erica's parents finally ran into the room.
Purgatorio isn't so much part of the Trinity of Reality as it is the gap between the three.
There are three layers of reality, Paradiso where the Angels live, Inferno where the Demons live, and Midgard where Humanity lives.
The inhabitants of the three realms cannot see or interact with each other, at most they appear to be glass-like outlines of their real selves. That said objects remain consistent across the three realities though with some changes.
Objects seen from Paradiso may appear brighter and have a holy glow to them, objects that are seen from Inferno appear to be darker and induce a sense of fear in them. To use an example, a castle in Midgard might look like a church in Paradiso, the same castle in Inferno might look like a sinister and foreboding fortress. Regardless of what it may look like, the castle remains consistent across realities, if the church is destroyed then so is the fortress and so is the castle and vice versa.
It's not entirely understood why this is. Some say that Paradiso and Inferno are so alien to us that our minds instinctively overlays the familiar to cope, others say that in much in the same way that Angels and Demons are drawn from human consciousness their realms are drawn from the memories that we have of those places. To the people being protected by the Castle, it's a great sanctuary that protects them from harm, to the soldiers that have to assault it, it's a place of death that slaughters them. In Purgatorio it's all three all at once.
Select individuals are able to step into Purgatorio and through it Paradiso and Inferno provided that they have access to the correct magic formations.
Excerpt from a Lecture on the Trinity of Realities by Jeanne Blackmore
Nick arrived back on the ship in time to witness the Redgraves making the royal guard stand down.
"Long day?" Vincent asked looking at Nick who looked so utterly done with everything that he was ready to kill someone.
"Somebody tried to kill me the other day while the princess of Fanoss was visiting the estate. You might've heard of them, booger green hair, a fondness for the kinds of poisons that would melt a person's brain, that sort of stuff?"
"The Marmorias." Instead of trying to defend his fellow nobleman Vincent just gave a sigh. "This is the second time they've tried to threaten my family." Nick stated bluntly. "For now I've already exacted justice to the Royal Family's assassin and delivered a warning to them." The various royal knights moved in to go on the offensive but Vincent stopped them. "Once is Happenstance, Twice is Coincidence, Thrice is Enemy Action. Do you think you want us as enemies? We, who wiped out all of the Pirates in the Holfort Kingdom in a single day?"
Ignoring the high military power of the Blackmores, which Nick just reminded Vincent about, their stunt with the pirates had already spread far and wide among the Kingdom's lower ranks, everyone who had ever suffered Pirate harassment were probably quite grateful to them. Conversely the royal family spent decades charging exorbitant taxes to their families in the name of ridding them of pirates and didn't appear to do a thing to actually deal with them.
Intellectually Vincent knew what the Royal Family was actually using these funds for and had been actively working together to help them achieve that goal towards that end but this is this and that is that. Vincent would later receive the report about the invisible assassins and spies that could move completely undetected and shoot at members of the Royal family from seemingly another dimension, on top of that was the demon army and demonic warships under the Blackmore's control. He had no intention of being on the receiving end of that.
Mylene, I don't know who the idiot is that authorised the Marmoria's to dump neurotoxin into the Blackmore's territory but they need to cease and bloody desist!
The Blackmore's are people who control hoards of large type monsters, can move undetected across vast distances and slaughter high tier monsters single handily.
At this moment I'm assigning every single member of the Marmoria family to the Rochelle front, and if they continue to antagonise these people I am personally turning the Founding Five Families into the Founding Four.
Have I made my point clear?
A letter Delivered to the Royal Family by a Redgrave Messenger
Marquiss Frampton scrunched the letter his man had intercepted as he boiled with rage!
"Are you screwing with me!?" The old Man growled as his features twisted with rage.
The Offrey's were his people, and now this family of upstart nobodies were being rewarded for removing them!? His pirate pawns had been wiped out and he had to pay the people responsible for their service!? All of his Rivals in the Winchesters, Patton, Atlee and Redgrave families that should've been humiliated and sundered by the Saintess had all flocked to the new power like moths to giant heaping piles of gold! What was worse was that all of Frampton's pawns had been taken from him! Those stupid bitches in the Forest of Ladies had all piled onto the Blackmores at the same time through the pirates and had incriminated themselves, with Vincent wasting no time in scooping them up! The only means of retaliation that he had left to him was the Principality of Fanoss, who were neighbours with the Offrey Territory that had effectively been handed over to the Blackmores, his territory!
"I don't know how! I don't know when! But you will pay for this!" Letting out that curse like statement Frampton threw the letter into his fire place, all the while he was being watched by a big red eye.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Thanks. He really doesn't deserve or need the encouragement. As I think of a specific role for them yes.
Chronos0305: They're hiding from Leon because they know he's going to hit them as soon as he sees them, and Cheshire is hanging out with them.
hnh05813: Well they both end up with their male partners inside the dungeon fighting against monsters for their benefit, the difference is that the Rusalka go in with them, and more than pull their weight, even if they do end up eating a good chunk of the materials.
RedRat8: Oh there's no mercy coming from the Rusalka. The boys won't be able to escape them even after they die, I guarantee you. Demons make 'till death do we part' look like a one night stand.