Chapter 35

  We found Gustav Falk waiting with the ‘golden boys’, as Lily called them, by the eastern gate. A carriage had already been organised for our personal use, and the others were loading their belongings inside.

  I had chosen to leave Soot behind for this mission, but Tiara and Vek were both latched onto me already. Kipper should have no issues following us from the ocean path.

  “Here they are, hey you three!”

  Gustav waved to us and came over to inspect us.

  “Lookin’ good, white suits you!”

  He referred to our new uniforms. They were chosen to meet our individual tastes, but still followed a uniform colouration. Since this mission involved both members of the empire and the kingdom in one unit, we wore white clothing with black accents. This was done to avoid showing any favouritism for either side, though we still had our respective emblems sewn into the inside of our collars.

  Meztili merely had to trade a purple cloak for a cleaner white one, Lilly chose a vest and suit pants, and I wore leather armour with a hooded robe thrown over the top.

  The others all looked the same, choosing a simple white version of the default IMA military uniforms.

  “Here, Rex, the blacksmith finished up this morning.”

  Gustav handed me a simple rectangular box and popped the lid in a dramatic reveal.

  A plain silver mask with eyeholes. Simple, protective, sleek. Exactly how I requested it. I wasted no time donning it and drawing my hood up.

  Something about being covered like this felt calming. Like I could filter out the distractions in the world and focus on my immediate objective.

  “Looks good, you all ready to go?”

  We nodded in affirmation and one by one, climbed aboard the carriage. Gustav considerately chose something spacious so we wouldn’t feel too cramped in the back while he manned the reins.

  Lily still intentionally sat as far from me as possible, knowing Vek was clutching on tightly.

  “Alright, gang, we’re off! Hyah!”

  Gustav’s voice rang out, and with the crack of the reins, the carriage moved into action.

  “This is it… My first real mission!”

  Donald let his excitement be heard, and his two buddies echoed the sentiment.

  “We gotta impress Sir Falk and get ourselves a recommendation. We could get an easy ticket to squirehood!”

  “Yeah! But… How do we do that exactly? Besides arresting some bandits, there probably won’t be much for us to do.”

  “Pfft…”

  Lily snickered at them, which did not go ignored.

  “What? Something funny?”

  Donald glared at her.

  “Listen to you three! Arrest the baddies? Impress the knight? You sound like a group of children!”

  “What the hell do you mean? That’s the whole point of us being assigned to him!”

  I didn’t mind their innocent perception of things, but I did want to make sure of one thing now that Lily had called attention to it.

  “What will you do if they resist arrest?”

  “Huh? Well, of course, we would have no choice but to subdue them by force.”

  “And if you can’t? I’ll just be blunt about this, will you kill if the need arises?”

  They went quiet and shared a glance.

  “Well, obviously if we have to. That’s what being in the military demands.”

  Careless words that were spoken by people who didn’t understand their gravity. That was how I perceived their attitude.

  “Leon, Arnold, what about you?”

  I moved on to the only other unknown factors there. Leon answered immediately.

  “I would rather avoid it, but a blade is designed to cut; I do not carry this sword without understanding its weight.”

  We all had real weapons on us now, and Leon had brought with him a beautifully made Goldbrand katana made by his father.

  “Leon and I have experience fighting goblins. We have already killed out of necessity before.”

  Arnold backed up his words, but I jumped on it without missing a beat.

  “How do you view goblins?”

  “What? They’re vermin to be culled.”

  “And what did you feel after killing them?”

  “Nothing, what’s your point?”

  “You don’t have experience killing.”

  I folded my arms and closed my eyes as I reassessed our group. Three were naive and likely weren’t ready to fully commit to real combat, and two believed they could treat humans the same as vermin. Lily and Meztili may have also only killed monsters, but their reaction to the slaughtering of the imps led me to believe that wasn’t the case.

  “Hey! What do you mean by that?”

  Donald continued to yell at me while I was in thought, but only Lily bothered acknowledging him.

  “Nyahaha! We’ve just left and are already fighting! How funny!”

  ***

  Night came, and it was time to set up a campsite. Gustav had a map that showed a quiet clearing by a river that we shouldn’t be far from. It would be the perfect spot to set up.

  To our surprise, a group was already there.

  “Oh? Greetings, sir knight! Will you be joining us for the... erm... night?”

  A middle-aged sun-kissed man who smelled strongly of the sea bowed awkwardly to Gustav. He was clearly a fisherman, and the others in his group looked to be ordinary men as well.

  They looked at me and Meztili with faint surprise due to our attire, but quickly acknowledged the uniforms and relaxed.

  My eyes scanned them one by one. Muscular arms from hard labour, but otherwise average body types. Leathery skin from long periods in the sun. Clothing too light to obscure any weaponry. They seemed safe, I judged them not to be threats.

  “Why hello there, gentleman, we’d love to stay the night if you would permit it!”

  Gustav approached them in his usual amicable manner.

  “You need no permitting from the likes of us, sir knight! Though, we can’t offer you much more than dry bread and vegetables, unfortunately.”

  “No need to waste your food on us, we came prepared.”

  The fishermen exchanged looks and seemed to silently agree on something as the apparent leader spoke up.

  “Sir! We was hoping, if it were not too much trouble, did you happen to bring any fish with you? We could trade double the amount in our own food.”

  “Ah, no, I don’t believe fish was included in our rations.”

  He looked at the rest of us for confirmation, and nobody corrected him.

  “Damn. Uh, I mean, most regrettable, Mr. Knight, sir!”

  The three men looked visibly disappointed by something so mundane. Gustave took an interest as well and spoke again.

  “Is there a reason fishermen are so interested in seeing fish?”

  “Aye, sir… Things have been tough for us lately. We’re on the way to Borderton to see if things are any better there, might even move there permanently if it means we’re needed again.”

  “Farrowgate has no need for fishermen? Next, you’ll tell me I no longer need air to breathe.”

  “Haha, good jest milord. But unfortunately, it is true. The fish have gone bad. It don’t matter none how many we catch if they can’t be used.”

  One of the other fishermen pulled out something wrapped in dirty cloth.

  “It’s hard to explain, have a look for yourselves.”

  He unfurled the cloth and showed what was wrapped within.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “What the…”

  Gustav murmured. Though we were all confused, I suspected that I was the only one feeling anger at the bastardisation of life before me.

  It looked to have been a fish once, but its very existence was wrong. It had vacant eyes, and the scales had begun peeling off on their own to reveal grey, lifeless flesh beneath. What was most concerning though, was the fact that it still moved.

  But it did not move with the vigour of a fish on dry land, flopping desperately to get back to water. It was listlessly wriggling its tailfin at a constant pace with no sense of urgency whatsoever.

  “They’re all like this nowadays. Business has been going downhill for a lot of us.”

  “Has anyone figured out the cause?”

  “No, sir, we’re all in the dark. We’ve cut ‘em up, had priests try all sorts of magic, even had a doctor look through their insides, nobody can figure it out. Don't you think of eating 'em either, me cousin Larry tried it and bled from his rear for weeks.”

  “Look.”

  The fisherman who unveiled the creature picked it up and swung it hard into the ground. The fish did not acknowledge the pain at all, nor did its movements cease.

  “Sounds like your wheelhouse, Tilly.”

  Lily whispered.

  “No. It is not undead. I do not know what this is.”

  The others continued to stare at it and speculate among themselves, they didn’t notice the simmering rage bubbling under the mask of the man behind them.

  That creature is neither dead nor alive. It has had its soul removed and replaced with… something. It was like nothing I had ever heard of before, but it had dire implications.

  If this infection was spread across all the sea life around Farrowgate, it was safe to assume it could happen elsewhere as well. Soulless beings created en masse… who benefits from that?

  The gods? That doesn’t make sense, their current system already entitled them to every soul upon death. With their eternal life, they had no need to forcefully claim more before their time. So, a natural phenomenon? Unlikely, souls were the very core of nature, no evolutionary trait or biological countermeasure would ever develop like this.

  Then, a mortal factor? Possible. Though I could not fathom what the point would be. The one main problem I had with this nagged at my mind. Everything I and the Primordials were seeking to do, everything we had worked towards, would all be pointless if a third party were removing souls from the cycle altogether.

  It occurred to me as I was lost in my thoughts that the anger I felt was twice as intense as it should have been. The Stag Lord shared my concerns, and my heart felt a faint tightness.

  ***

  Everybody had set up their tents and retired for the night, and Lily had volunteered to take the first watch. She looked out to the road, but unknown to the others, her eyes were closed. More accurately, her eyes were not in her skull at all.

  Two shadow eyes floated around the camp, making certain everybody was truly asleep before she made her move. She recalled them and spun on her heel, walking directly to Rex’s tent.

  She had a handy little ability she had been keeping quiet about, but up until recently, she thought she wouldn’t have a chance to use it.

  Mental Fortress. That was what she overheard Rex claiming to have for his Gift. If true, her ability would not work on him and could even backfire, causing some nasty backlash. Luckily, through her friendship with Rose, she discovered that Gift was a lie. Apparently, the Druid was Giftless, one of the people said to be condemned by the gods. Perhaps that was what made him want to take his revenge on the deities.

  She had no need for further guesswork. Dream Diver was the spell Lily planned to use. It was an understatement to call it rare, in fact, it was completely unavailable to the mortal races. But her skill in utilising it had got her to where she was today. The sheer amount of secrets she had collected from the unguarded minds of her victims over the years could be converted into thousands of gold coins if sold to the right buyer.

  She lifted the tent flap and froze for a moment. As she feared, that damned spider was there, staring with gluttonous eyes. Tiara was also at attention.

  But Lily likely wasn’t going to get another chance at this, and fortunately, she didn’t need to get any closer to use Dream Diver.

  Oddly, once the spell began, Tiara and Vek seemed to back off, as if they decided it was not a threat to their master. Lily considered this nothing more than good luck and completed the casting.

  This would later be what Lily would refer to as her greatest regret.

  She felt her mind disconnect as she peered into Rex’s dream, seeking to steer it to his past and see what he knew. She found it odd that he was seemingly dreaming about meditating in what looked to be a field of bone and dried blood, but a simple whisper would be enough to influence his mind to where she needed it.

  Lily walked straight up to him without a care, then she fell to the ground as her leg was sliced clean off.

  “Huh?”

  Rex had spun and hit her with his axe, then he stood over her with an empty expression.

  How could he see her? How could he physically interact with her? Why did he immediately resort to such brutality?

  None of these questions were answered before he raised his axe again.

  “Wait! Rex, it’s me!”

  He stopped, a look of confusion signalling the first sign of emotion from him.

  “...Lily?”

  “Yeah! H-haha… didn’t recognise me?”

  “Not with the horns, no.”

  …What?

  Lily reached for her head and felt something she had been so careful to conceal. Two black horns with purple tips.

  She looked at her hands next. Deep blue skin with dark markings like tattoos.

  Why?

  Why was her true form revealed at this moment? Why could she feel pain?

  Where the hell was she?

  ***

  [Rex’s POV]Well… That was unexpected.

  Lily lay before me with a look of total horror. Her sclera had turned black, and the already bright purple eyes of hers now shone with a wicked allure.

  I knew of creatures that mimicked the voices of loved ones to lure their prey in, but I did not think the Lily before me fit into that category. I mean, if it were one of those monsters, it wouldn’t choose Lily to lure me. It would prefer someone I couldn’t resist. Like Tiara.

  So, how did she end up here? That wasn’t too hard to piece together. She probably tried to read my mind or interfere with it in some way while I was asleep. Doing so while my soul dwelt in the Crucible would forcibly pull the offender in with me.

  It may have just been another of her pranks, but it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

  “Hey, why were you poking around inside my head?”

  “How’d you know!?”

  Bingo.

  “Talk or I’ll start removing more pieces from you, demon.”

  “Hey! I’m not a demon! I’m a devil…in training.”

  More free information, this was turning out to be surprisingly easy.

  “I don’t know what the difference is.”

  “Demons are just mindless idiots who get off on being murderous freaks. Devils are much more refined in their nefariousness.”

  Truth be told, I didn’t really care about that, but so long as she believed I did, it lent more credence to my threats.

  “Sounds like you’re a demon then.”

  She glared at me, but then quickly showed a sweet smile when she remembered I was the guy with the axe.

  “Look, I’ll explain, can you fix my leg up first, please?”

  “Nah, it’s gone. If you want to keep the other, you’ll answer my original question.”

  She bit her lip in frustration. I had to admit, in her current form, her features became even more attractive, and that simple expression of hers gave off strong ‘protect me’ vibes.

  But I didn’t falter, and she realised that soon enough.

  “Arghh… I just wanted to look around a little… just for fun.”

  “Hm. Try honesty next time.”

  I lied about hacking her apart. I wasn’t that cruel. I just cut her head off right away and went back to trying to split my soul.

  …

  …

  “You found your way back.”

  I called out when I felt her coming back towards me an hour later. She was confused by the fact that I never turned to face her. That was natural, she probably hadn’t figured out we were just souls here, and thus, the position of our eyes was irrelevant. Here, I had 360-degree vision.

  “L-look, just tell me how to leave, and I’ll leave.”

  “So soon? Did something happen on your way back here?”

  Of course it did. From her constant, cautious glances at every shadow, she had probably been killed a fair few times already.

  “N-no…”

  Did she think appearing calm would endear me to her? She was so obviously lying.

  “Tell me what you were doing in my head and I’ll think about helping you out.”

  “Like I said, I was j—”

  I had her on the ground with my axehead to her throat before she could finish. I saw her try something with her hands, followed by a look of frustration on her face. She tried using magic, but must have already realised it wouldn't work here.

  “Just be honest. We’ve got seven more hours left in this world, do you really want to keep walking back to me for all that time?”

  “...Ok, fine!”

  I got off her and helped her to her feet.

  “I was listening in on you and Rose that night at the dorm. Y’know, with the gods and the Feral Abyss and all that.”

  Of all the people I didn’t trust with that information, it had to fall into the hands of the worst one.

  “That’s unfortunate. I might have to leave you here forever to keep that secret buried.”

  “No! Please! Just let me explain first!”

  She lunged desperately at me when the idea of eternity in this place was presented to her.

  “Look, I’m not going to rat you out to the churches or anything, look at me! Obviously, I’m not friendly with the gods!”

  Two large leathery wings stretched out from her back as if to declare ‘what god would approve of this?’.

  “Hmm, you’re doing well so far. So what did you want to find out exactly?”

  I acknowledged she had a point, but pressed for more information.

  “I needed to know if you actually had a plan to take out the gods’ divinity.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not? If there is a way, I could spread it among my brethren, and we could help you!”

  “Ah ah ah. Stop trying to bargain. Honesty only.”

  I waved my axe at her in admonishment.

  “...Fine. I could get promoted with info like that. Rising the ranks as a devil is a pretty important thing, you know. I’m what’s called a demi-devil, basically the lowest possible rank. If Lord Lucifer were to promote me to arch-devil, I would be stronger than a diamond knight.”

  “That’s the Lily I know, very devilish of you.”

  She didn’t return my smirk. It had to be said, this reversal of positions was rather entertaining for me.

  “There, that’s everything, now can we please leave?”

  “Yep. In seven hours.”

  “What?!”

  “You can’t leave whenever you like. We just have to wait. Well, I just have to wait. You also need to try not to go crazy. Just stick around, prepare yourself for a few more deaths, and try to have fun.”

  A chorus of rasping moans interrupted us.

  “Oh, look, we have company. Looks like 12 of them. You can fly away if you like, but there are just as many threats in the air. Man, you’re so lucky this isn’t the first floor or I’d have to keep killing you myself.”

  Lily fell to her knees in despair.

  I knew she was truly mortified because she had yet to ask where our clothes went.