“Ahh, were those overpriced fools slain, or did they run away like craven thieves?”
Standing inside the small hidden room filled with alchemical tools and manatech components, a chubby man was scowling at Gael and me. He wore a richly designed garment, reminiscent of a noble, and he held a long metal staff with a large orb attached to its top. On his hip, a belt equipped with numerous glass vials filled with red, green, purple, and yellow liquids could be seen, giving me the impression he was ready for a battle. There was also an ominous black elixir, which sent a chill down my spine.
After the battle in the hallway, I had my wolves retreat back in my shadow while I psyched myself up with Gael. As a hunter, he wasn’t exactly supposed to be here since hunters were supposed to only hunt monsters, not humans. I didn’t even know that he was planning on participating in this Quest as we only expected Farron and Lord Sirius’s troops would help. Still, any help was appreciated, even if it came from a drunkard.
After we entered Davison’s office, I noticed that Davison wasn’t inside it, but instead was in a side room. The door was open and it revealed Davison frantically stuffing his bag with various items I couldn’t identify, but I knew they had to be important for whatever he did. Regardless, we confronted him.
“… Are you Davison? Guild master of the alchemist guild?” I asked cautiously, trying to buy time in order to analyze the room. Although, trying to speak with my [Humanize (Minor)]’s vocal chords made me sound deep and intimidating, but it was better than Hestia who couldn’t speak in this form at all.
“Ignorance! You come here without even knowing who I am? You ruined all my plans, took away my support and funding for my experiments, and destroyed my reputation as a guild master, and you have the gall to say to my face that you don’t know who I am?! Insolence!” His face was red like a tomato. He was already angry when we came in, but his rage seemed to have multiplied by the thousands.
… If you put it that way, it does make me sound like a villain. Not like it matters with what he did.
“Saori, the fatfuck is Davison. Slimy, greasy, Davison, always drinking the finest wine and wearing the finest mana clothes in an attempt to look and act like a noble, despite his ‘lowly’ birth,” Gael answered sarcastically, prompting Davison to grit his teeth.
However, he didn’t let it get to him for too long as he began flaunting himself, bragging like a cartoon villain totally consumed in his own narcissism. “I am Davison. Illustrious senior alchemist and inventor. I was prepared to grant the world technological advancements, but as I expected, the local fief lord is too short-sighted to understand my worth. Fools like him do not deserve the boons from my work.”
“Boon? Have you become deranged?” I replied sarcastically? “What good can you bring when all your experiments revolve around the hunting of fae? It is a crime and an international issue for the Kingdom of Artorias. Have you not heard that your ‘experiments’ nearly ravaged an innocent village?”
“Ahhhh, I see, so you were the ones who stopped the invasion of those onnikais and stopped a new dungeon from forming. Wealth of monster materials and ingredients could have been mine, but I see you have a fondness for angering me,” Davison reproached my involvement in the Rashan Village Quest, but his expression seemed to relax as he asked me a question in a more composed tone. “Answer me this, wolf wench. Was the door on the lowest floor open when you destroyed that onnikai? Answer me!”
Did he just ignore the fact he could have caused another war between Artorias and the elves?
Although I was unnerved by his callousness, I still answered to stall time to form a plan of attack. “Do you mean the massive metal gate? Yes, I saw it was open after my party confronted the onnikai army. Now you answer my question, was Baron Teullon complicit in your plan?”
Baron Teullon should be interrogated by the nobles involved with High Bishop Theodore by now, so asking this question wasn’t really needed. I simply said it to buy time. Still it was unfortunate that Davison didn’t take the bait; instead, he began laughing so maniacally it was comical.
“Kehehehehe! Good! Good! Brilliant! Hahahahaha! Consider yourself fortunate! Make way, and I shall leave you both alive!”
What?! What is this mood swing? is what I thought when he said that, unable to understand why he was so elated about a door being open.
The dwarven gate was an old construction made 2000 years ago and it was used to imprison the remains of a demon or whatever the murals at the ruins were actually depicting. Not even Silva, an elf who had access to the wisdom and knowledge of her long-living kinsmen, knew about this, so how could a human like Davison know anything?
… But what if he did know about this? Does he know about the remains, too? Should I tell him about the fact that we were carrying those very remains—that black orb—with us in our storage? If he did know about it, what was he planning to do with it?
On second thought, revealing any more information to an enemy was stupid. Saying anything more was just idiotic. However, on the assumption that he did know something about the orb, it would be better to apprehend him already.
“Yeah, sorry, fatsack.” While I was contemplating the meaning for Davison’s improved mood, Gael readied his dagger and scoffed at Davison’s “offer.” “Your whole existence is now a thorn in the eyes of the nobles. Whether you get out of this or not, the Kingdom of Artorias will hunt you down with their ‘birds.’ I may not be a merc anymore, and a hunter isn’t supposed to ‘hunt’ humans and beastmen, but I wouldn’t mind getting some favors for this job. In other words, your head is pretty valuable, fatass.”
Gael was right, we couldn’t let him escape, but the way he worded it was a bit too much for me. I drew my daggers.
[“… You have reminded a friend of mine of her past trauma. Somebody wants to meet you very, very badly.”] I decided to finally speak telepathically.
And that was when the talking stopped. Davison scoffed at our remarks and immediately took out a vial of dark red liquid. The last time somebody drank a potion right in front of my face, he healed up most of his wounds and was ready to fight again; that person was that rhinoceros-looking bandit chief berserker. It was better to stop any beneficial effects for my enemy.
I dashed forward, dagger ready to interrupt him. “Saori, wait!” Gael shouted, but it was already too late when I heard the cry. Before my dagger pierced Davison’s hand holding the potion, he showed a big, smug smirk as a blue translucent sphere appeared for a second and reflected my attack. However, I didn’t sense any danger from it, so I kept my aggression up.
I dived into my shadow and used [Shadow Dash] to reappear from the ceiling. I extended the shadow armament around my feet and used [Shadow Descent], a heavy downward kick.
“Pest! Auracoil!” As if it was voice commanded, he pulled the thick glove on his right hand off, revealing a thin metal gauntlet. Some sort of blue circle shone on it, before it produced a barrier of mana around him.
My leg crashed against the shield, but no visible damage could be seen, except for a dent that disappeared the moment I jumped backwards, landing on the table of alchemical tools. I could hear the sound of dropping metal tools and shattering glass vials.
It was a rune. Definitely. Hestia had described to me how Farron used the ones on his spear. [Defensive Rune: Pavise] and [Defensive Rune: Auracoil]; both conjured up a mana barrier but the former was for physical attacks while the latter for magic. Meaning, that first blue wall he used to block my dagger was probably pavise, and the rune was likely etched onto whatever was hidden on his left hand.
“Tch! Even willing to destroy my belongings, huh? Barbaric beastman,” Davison chided me before pouring the red potion down his throat. He spasmed for a second before his body transformed.
His arteries bloated up in size, to the point I could see them protruding from his clothes. His skin began to blacken, turning his white skin into a slate grey, all while his muscle grew in size. He still retained a chubby belly but he now resembled more a mix between a sumo wrestler and a boxer.
After his sclera turned black-red, he gave off a haughty laugh, shouting, “The elixir worked! It’s better than his failed concoction! I AM A GENIUS! Ahahaha!”
He then gave off a fiendish grin, fully immersed in his powertrip. Davison then pulled out a cartridge-like object glowing a brilliant blue from inside his robes and began crushing it in his hand.“Let’s test this body out! Die!”
“Shit! Saori, into your shadow!” Gael, having prepared a [Shadow Dash] in advance, immediately dove into his shadow.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the amount of distress in Gael’s voice was enough to override any hesitation I had. As I submerged into the dark, a loud crack resounded above me but I couldn’t see what happened. I traveled through the shadow world to my goal and exited out of my targeted shadow, only to discover that I was free falling. Davison’s office was gone!
What in the—?!
As I had [Air Walk], the danger of falling down wasn’t so prominent anymore but suddenly losing the ground I was standing on was a real shocker. As I looked around in the air, I noticed Gael waving at me—also using [Air Walk]—before pointing at me to look around. There was a large hole in the roof where the hidden room was and the floor of the entire second floor seemed to have collapsed, destroying the 1st floor in addition.
There was already a small fire caused by that fire mage loopridae in the hallway, but the roof had caught on fire now too. I had no idea what just happened, but whatever it was, it had to be Davison’s work.
“He crushed an industrial mana battery, the ones dwarves make for their machines and manatech golems. Compared to the standard market stuff, if you break them, the sudden release of all that mana can cause a pretty big explosion. Davison, that suicidal asshole, probably blew himself up into chunks of meat,” Gael words made sense to me, evident of the surrounding. “He probably thought the runes on his gauntlet would save him, but I don’t think even high-quality runes like [Auracoil] can protect you from something like a large explosion at point-blank range.”
Kushlek’zar is right. Runes are strong. That was instantaneous unlike magic, but I guess it would cost us a lot of money if we wanted high-quality ones.
“Ahahahaha!” In the midst of this ruined building, a maniacal laugh pierced through the dust clouds, reaching my ears and bringing me back to reality. “Excellent! Excellent! I have overcome human limitations!”
Before, Davison had the appearance of a rich, refined, and cultured man, despite being overweight. Now, similar to his guild building, his appearance was in tatters, completely unrecognizable from before. His clothes were ripped and singed apart, revealing his chest and stomach. There, an orb was lodged into his chest with a marine-blue slime keeping it in place, slowly growing over it. He wasn’t holding his staff anymore and his left forearm, the one holding the mana battery, was blown up into a bloody mess.
“Regeneration-rate is astounding. Pain reception is numbed to tolerable levels even after removing my heart. Arm is regenerating to its former form, overcoming the limitations of the pathetic ‘white grace’ of that incompetent Aurena. Kehehehek, holy magic belongs in the past. Alchemy is truly superior! It is the future!” he roared to the sky, as if he was announcing the results of his actions. “The Law of Equivalent Exchange. For the acquisition of such power, something must be given in exchange. Sacrifices must be made, otherwise, stagnation will occur. The human race cannot accept being content with being the weakest of the humanoids. Relying only on the System isn’t enough!”
He then pointed his finger at us and declared, “For ruining my plans and not accepting my good graces, I shall return the favor. An eye for an eye. You two shall be the test for how powerful this potion and catalyst combination is! Hardened earth, pierce my opposition! Earthen Spears!”
Earth Mage!
Magic circles appeared on the ground floor of the building and, the moment they activated, the wooden floor splintered into fragments as giant rock spears flew at me. Gael and I dodge them as if we were dancing, causing Davison to launch another set of spells. Seeing as he could only use one spell at a time, he shouldn’t have [Multi-Cast]; however, he was launching spells as if he had no issues with mana.
“Hey, Saori,” Gael called me out as a spear flew by his face. “Don’t know about you, but I don’t have the mana pool of a mage, so I can’t keep this up. You have a plan?”
To be honest, after the battle from before, I was afraid of arcane corruption, so I wanted to avoid more flashy attacks like the one before. Still, we were sitting ducks if we stayed up here. [Air Walk], although useful, still consumed annoying amounts of mana and stamina when kept up. We had to stop now, otherwise we would run ourselves dry.
[“Here!”] Taking out one of Hestia’s holy bombs, I threw it with full force at Davison. He simply smiled and accepted the attack as if it was nothing, being burned under a coat of white flames after the bomb exploded.
“Argh! Ahhh, I can feel the pain! Ahahaha, who is the creator of such a powerful bomb? I must learn more about it, dissect its function!” Davison howled, not stopping his assault despite it looking like his body was melting.
I clicked my tongue and began using [Just Blink] as I avoided his attacks. The slight delay where he couldn’t acknowledge my presence was enough for him to ruin his aim. Dashing through the air by stomping, I eventually reached Davison’s burnt face and slashed with my shadow covered tanto. The feeling of lacerating flesh and sliced bone shook in my hand while my ears heard the sound of cutting spongy muscles. I was sure of my aim.
“Huh?” My [Foresight] just warned me Davison’s arm was about to grab me. Before I could react to this warning, he somehow managed to grab my leg.
As I turned my head around, I saw Davison gurgling blood while there were shards of glass inside his mouth and a green liquid was dripping from his mouth. His right hand was holding his throat. It was finely divided and missing two fingers, while his throat had a bleeding deep gash. “Should’ve drank that agility potion ear—Guuuraaagh! What is your strength that you are able to pierce my improved vitality? You’re not a random merc, huh?”
His body was slumped, about to fall down, but he seemed to have stopped his fall while using that chance to grab my leg with his barely re-grown left hand. It was hard to hear through his gurgles, but I believe he mentioned he drank an agility potion? When did that happen? Was his increased speed because of that potion? Still, the distance between him and me was close enough that any increase of speed would work.
Davison then pulled on my leg, tripping me, and began dragging me on the rough floor. My strength and vitality didn’t translate into weight, meaning the difference in our build made it easy for him to haul me around like a ragdoll. He then raised me up and was about to swing me down onto the ground, but that is when my shadow churned.
“Grack!!!” Three massive garms, all with fury in their eyes, jumped out of my shadow and began tearing Davison’s newly regrown arm. He still held onto me well, but with the help of my garms, I was able to start hacking onto his arm with my dagger.
“Miss Saori! Duck!” a female voice called out to me, which I obeyed without delay.
Out of nowhere, a beautiful ice sword pierced Davison’s arm, severing it and freeing me. For a split second, I managed to see Tasianna in her fairy form sitting on the sword and shooting shrapnel-sized ice spikes at Davison’s face, sending him reeling back.
[“Daviiiiiiiiissooooooooon!”] Kiiro, who was inside Tasianna’s orb, screeched out as Tasianna retreated back with me.
[“Thank you, Tasianna.”] I nodded as Tasianna transformed back into her elven-fairy hybrid, the form with her fairy wings.
[“Alpha, call us sooner, next time!”]
[“Alpha’s safety comes first.”]
Uno and Song chastised my action of telling them telepathically to hold back while Davison was dragging my body around, saying that they should attack when the moment was right. I was thankful they were worried about me, but being too overprotective was an issue. The minor scratches on my face were already gone the moment Hestia’s [Sanctified Blaze] activated.
Still, hurting them did hurt my pride … my wolf’s pride. I had to silence them. [“Enough! Focus on the fight. Do you three not remember how well I fought against you? Do not patronize me!”]
[“Daaaaaviiiiisoooon! Youuuuuu wiiillll paaaaay! Youuuu willll paayy with yourrr life! Die! Die!”] Kiiro once again shouted hysterically, and when I looked at Tasianna’s determined eyes, I could already guess that what they found in the basement wasn’t pleasant.
They immediately began attacking without speaking anymore with me. Tasianna threw her ice sword in the air and touched the bright blue orb where its crossguard was supposed to be. With a single touch, cyan colored mana began to crystalize into ice as she created another sword with it, all while using [Torrential Rain] to barrage Davison’s damaged body with water projectiles, slowly freezing him with the help of her floating ice spikes.
“Argh, such a shame, my arm is severed once again,” Davison spoke calmly, despite his bloody appearance. He then took out a yellow potion before crushing the glass vial in his mouth, completely abandoning drinking it to gain the potion’s effect. “Protect me, oh, Mother of Earth. I ask of you a safeguard of rocks, your blessing to your faithful. Stone Armor.!”
As Davison’s insane regeneration was kicking in, the earth began covering up his body as the stone fragments quickly hardened and grew in size, eventually transforming into sturdy armor. He honestly looked like a golem monster now.
Davison’s armor was thick enough that Tasianna’s ice spike and [Torrential Rain] had no effect on it, prompting the fairy to use [Aqua Beam], a water beam similar to a high-pressure water cutter. As expected, the attack managed to drill a hole into Davison’s body, but only after a period of resistance; however, she couldn’t continue her attack when Davison launched another earth spell at us.
While Tasianna was chugging down a mana potion, I began to enact my plan. I wasn’t idling while watching my friend fight, after all. As Davison was ready to shoot his next spell at us, I touched my shadow and a magic circle appeared.
“Smoky Haze.” My shadow exploded, not in fire, but in smoke, covering Tasianna, my garms, and me in it. It obstructed all sources of light, preventing anybody from seeing us inside.
I felt pretty annoyed after losing my first custom spell [Shadow Pack], so I decided to work on a new custom spell during my free time, which admittedly was sparse. Like a shinobi’s smoke bomb, I wanted a spell that enabled me to hide from somebody’s vision, allowing me either to launch a surprise attack or escape when I needed to. Additionally, as this was Peolynca, I wanted it to compliment my spells, skills, and newly gained garms.
As a result, I used my shadow to create an area where no light could pass through. At first, I thought it wouldn’t work, since it made no sense from a physics standpoint, but then I remembered I was a history teacher reborn into the body of a wolf in a world filled with magic and I threw that idea out of the window. If I could imagine it, then it would work.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get rid of the increased holy weakness from using the spell, as I didn’t understand why losing my shadow temporarily would cause such a side-effect. Still, it worked and it synergized well with my garms. In an area where I couldn’t get rid of all light sources, this spell was my ace-in-the-hole.
Heat Vision, activate.
Sensory skills other than sight could still detect me inside this cloud if I was careless, so having both advanced stealth skills—[Silence] and [Odorless]—was necessary to use this spell well. As I too was robbed of my vision, I needed to use [Detection Sensor] to pinpoint the location of my enemy while using [Heat Vision] to attack at critical spots. As Davison was already engulfed by the fog, having those two skills helped tremendously.
“Robbing my sight? Well, I believe that is how assassins and arcane tricksters fight, so I cannot blame you too much. You wouldn’t mind if I made some fire, no?” Davison shouted in the pitch-black, too lax for somebody in this situation. Two explosions could be heard, both probably caused by bombs. My vision was able to detect heat sources similar in size to fire, so I wasn’t confused by this attack.
“Huh?! What in the—? Why is there no light after my fire bombs exploded? Damnit, is this a spell?! Tch, would a wisdom or a vision potion work in this situation?” he mumbled before becoming silent, probably aware I could hear him. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t need sound to attack.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence soooo deafening.
“Grwoooh!” And then the wolves would hunt!
“Huh? What?!” Davison cried out as Uno and Song grabbed onto his right arm from within the shadow fog, pulling and unbalancing him.
Sarasa then used this moment to tie his body, binding and immobilizing the alchemist, despite the increase in strength from his transformation. As long as mana flowed through mana threads, they couldn’t be ripped apart that easily. And my wolves knew that.
“Argh! I can’t tear off these bindings?! What are they made of, I wonder? Argh, strength potion, no, two strengths!” Davison’s arm was still severed and hasn’t regenerated yet but he didn’t need it, as the orb lodged into his chest began creating that familiar slime to replace his arm, helping him grab two potions to throw into his mouth. “Ahhhh! Power! Now, I will—Urgh! Wha—Mana threads!”
He caught onto that fact quickly once his other options were exhausted. He was right, and while they couldn’t be torn apart, if my garms had been holding them, the tug-of-war would have gone in his favor. However, if weight wasn’t too much of a concern, then my far higher strength was enough to hold this desk jockey down.
The small peak I took of his Profile convinced me that Davison was simply a normal middle-aged mage-alchemist. In other words, outside his transformation and potions, his stats were still mediocre compared to mine. He needed potions to close the gap … and even that wasn’t enough.
Holding onto my threads, I kept Davison in a bind while my wolves continued wrapping my threads on him. Whenever he tried to use his spells, my garms used their [Telepathy] to attack him mentally in order to interrupt his focus and ability to cast spells. It was a trick Hestia told me that garms and wargs used during hunts, an experience she gained after fighting my garm family.
Eventually, he couldn’t move anymore, and that was when I activated my [Telepathy].
[“I can see you. Take him down, Tasianna!”] I declared, sending her a telepathic message to inform him where I could see him with [Heat Vision].
[“Thank you.”] she replied quietly, before I dispersed my [Smoky Haze], bringing back the light and revealing a small army of ice daggers, all descending down onto Davison.
For the first time since we fought, he had an expression of distress. The daggers tore through his armor of rocks, piercing his limbs, organs, and finally the orb in his chest. Davison was screaming loudly, not in pain, but in rage, insulting us all the way through. While he could break through the frozen daggers, more would simply pierce him after one was removed.
His body turned into a pincushion before he fell onto his knees, unable to resist anymore. Tasianna, taking this as a sign of our victory, grabbed her ice sword with her orb and landed before walking towards Davison.
“I saw everything in the basement. You scum, bastard, devil! How could a sentient being like you be so devoid of any sense of empathy for other lifeforms! How can you keep those fae in those cages, only to torture them again an again in a cycle where only death can break it!” Tasianna screamed, punching Davison in his face, causing him to fall over. The punch seemed to have hurt her fist, as it trembled a bit, but it was all ignored in her fury. “I have heard enough from Miss Saori. That orb in your chest? Junk. Destroyed. The faefolk inside is free. Your potion you were so proud of? Defeated. Your monstrous form is useless before my swords. Before you depart to Goddess Ilsaphone, I hope you will etch this into your soul: Your life was worthless and meaningless.”
She then let her sword melt and took a hold of her catalyst. “Kiiro, it’s your turn. The fiend isn’t dead yet. Do what you want to do.”
[“Kiehiehiehiehie … thank you.”] Kiiro’s laugh was reminiscent of its onnikai days, but those last words were strangely calm, as if it was at peace. However, that immediately disappeared as blue slime grew out of the orb, forming into a dagger. [“… You have no idea how long I have waited for this, human. All that time inside that basement. Then the one year you gave me to mull over how I would like to cripple you, crush you, eviscerate you. Your death was all I could think of, Davison! So, how would you imagine me taking revenge now that I heard you cannot feel any pain?”]
The orb trembled for a moment before continuing, [“… I want to rip you apart, but my current strength does not allow me so. Still, before you die, I will somehow inflict you great pain. This twisted project means the world to you? Then I will do what I must to cause you to scream in agony. I will find my catharsis.”]
Should I feel bad for him? The old Saori would, but cadejo Saori couldn’t care less. What a weird conundrum.
While I was sighing at my own trivial problems, Kiiro neared Davison.
And that was when Davison raised his head. The vial with the pitch-black liquid was inside his mouth.
A crack.
And the horror was born.
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AbyssRaven The opposite of the monologuing villain.
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“Ahh, were those overpriced fools slain, or did they run away like craven thieves?”
Standing inside the small hidden room filled with alchemical tools and manatech components, a chubby man was scowling at Gael and me. He wore a richly designed garment, reminiscent of a noble, and he held a long metal staff with a large orb attached to its top. On his hip, a belt equipped with numerous glass vials filled with red, green, purple, and yellow liquids could be seen, giving me the impression he was ready for a battle. There was also an ominous black elixir, which sent a chill down my spine.
After the battle in the hallway, I had my wolves retreat back in my shadow while I psyched myself up with Gael. As a hunter, he wasn’t exactly supposed to be here since hunters were supposed to only hunt monsters, not humans. I didn’t even know that he was planning on participating in this Quest as we only expected Farron and Lord Sirius’s troops would help. Still, any help was appreciated, even if it came from a drunkard.
After we entered Davison’s office, I noticed that Davison wasn’t inside it, but instead was in a side room. The door was open and it revealed Davison frantically stuffing his bag with various items I couldn’t identify, but I knew they had to be important for whatever he did. Regardless, we confronted him.
“… Are you Davison? Guild master of the alchemist guild?” I asked cautiously, trying to buy time in order to analyze the room. Although, trying to speak with my [Humanize (Minor)]’s vocal chords made me sound deep and intimidating, but it was better than Hestia who couldn’t speak in this form at all.
“Ignorance! You come here without even knowing who I am? You ruined all my plans, took away my support and funding for my experiments, and destroyed my reputation as a guild master, and you have the gall to say to my face that you don’t know who I am?! Insolence!” His face was red like a tomato. He was already angry when we came in, but his rage seemed to have multiplied by the thousands.
… If you put it that way, it does make me sound like a villain. Not like it matters with what he did.
“Saori, the fatfuck is Davison. Slimy, greasy, Davison, always drinking the finest wine and wearing the finest mana clothes in an attempt to look and act like a noble, despite his ‘lowly’ birth,” Gael answered sarcastically, prompting Davison to grit his teeth.
However, he didn’t let it get to him for too long as he began flaunting himself, bragging like a cartoon villain totally consumed in his own narcissism. “I am Davison. Illustrious senior alchemist and inventor. I was prepared to grant the world technological advancements, but as I expected, the local fief lord is too short-sighted to understand my worth. Fools like him do not deserve the boons from my work.”
“Boon? Have you become deranged?” I replied sarcastically? “What good can you bring when all your experiments revolve around the hunting of fae? It is a crime and an international issue for the Kingdom of Artorias. Have you not heard that your ‘experiments’ nearly ravaged an innocent village?”
“Ahhhh, I see, so you were the ones who stopped the invasion of those onnikais and stopped a new dungeon from forming. Wealth of monster materials and ingredients could have been mine, but I see you have a fondness for angering me,” Davison reproached my involvement in the Rashan Village Quest, but his expression seemed to relax as he asked me a question in a more composed tone. “Answer me this, wolf wench. Was the door on the lowest floor open when you destroyed that onnikai? Answer me!”
Did he just ignore the fact he could have caused another war between Artorias and the elves?
Although I was unnerved by his callousness, I still answered to stall time to form a plan of attack. “Do you mean the massive metal gate? Yes, I saw it was open after my party confronted the onnikai army. Now you answer my question, was Baron Teullon complicit in your plan?”
Baron Teullon should be interrogated by the nobles involved with High Bishop Theodore by now, so asking this question wasn’t really needed. I simply said it to buy time. Still it was unfortunate that Davison didn’t take the bait; instead, he began laughing so maniacally it was comical.
“Kehehehehe! Good! Good! Brilliant! Hahahahaha! Consider yourself fortunate! Make way, and I shall leave you both alive!”
What?! What is this mood swing? is what I thought when he said that, unable to understand why he was so elated about a door being open.
The dwarven gate was an old construction made 2000 years ago and it was used to imprison the remains of a demon or whatever the murals at the ruins were actually depicting. Not even Silva, an elf who had access to the wisdom and knowledge of her long-living kinsmen, knew about this, so how could a human like Davison know anything?
… But what if he did know about this? Does he know about the remains, too? Should I tell him about the fact that we were carrying those very remains—that black orb—with us in our storage? If he did know about it, what was he planning to do with it?
On second thought, revealing any more information to an enemy was stupid. Saying anything more was just idiotic. However, on the assumption that he did know something about the orb, it would be better to apprehend him already.
“Yeah, sorry, fatsack.” While I was contemplating the meaning for Davison’s improved mood, Gael readied his dagger and scoffed at Davison’s “offer.” “Your whole existence is now a thorn in the eyes of the nobles. Whether you get out of this or not, the Kingdom of Artorias will hunt you down with their ‘birds.’ I may not be a merc anymore, and a hunter isn’t supposed to ‘hunt’ humans and beastmen, but I wouldn’t mind getting some favors for this job. In other words, your head is pretty valuable, fatass.”
Gael was right, we couldn’t let him escape, but the way he worded it was a bit too much for me. I drew my daggers.
[“… You have reminded a friend of mine of her past trauma. Somebody wants to meet you very, very badly.”] I decided to finally speak telepathically.
And that was when the talking stopped. Davison scoffed at our remarks and immediately took out a vial of dark red liquid. The last time somebody drank a potion right in front of my face, he healed up most of his wounds and was ready to fight again; that person was that rhinoceros-looking bandit chief berserker. It was better to stop any beneficial effects for my enemy.
I dashed forward, dagger ready to interrupt him. “Saori, wait!” Gael shouted, but it was already too late when I heard the cry. Before my dagger pierced Davison’s hand holding the potion, he showed a big, smug smirk as a blue translucent sphere appeared for a second and reflected my attack. However, I didn’t sense any danger from it, so I kept my aggression up.
I dived into my shadow and used [Shadow Dash] to reappear from the ceiling. I extended the shadow armament around my feet and used [Shadow Descent], a heavy downward kick.
“Pest! Auracoil!” As if it was voice commanded, he pulled the thick glove on his right hand off, revealing a thin metal gauntlet. Some sort of blue circle shone on it, before it produced a barrier of mana around him.
My leg crashed against the shield, but no visible damage could be seen, except for a dent that disappeared the moment I jumped backwards, landing on the table of alchemical tools. I could hear the sound of dropping metal tools and shattering glass vials.
It was a rune. Definitely. Hestia had described to me how Farron used the ones on his spear. [Defensive Rune: Pavise] and [Defensive Rune: Auracoil]; both conjured up a mana barrier but the former was for physical attacks while the latter for magic. Meaning, that first blue wall he used to block my dagger was probably pavise, and the rune was likely etched onto whatever was hidden on his left hand.
“Tch! Even willing to destroy my belongings, huh? Barbaric beastman,” Davison chided me before pouring the red potion down his throat. He spasmed for a second before his body transformed.
His arteries bloated up in size, to the point I could see them protruding from his clothes. His skin began to blacken, turning his white skin into a slate grey, all while his muscle grew in size. He still retained a chubby belly but he now resembled more a mix between a sumo wrestler and a boxer.
After his sclera turned black-red, he gave off a haughty laugh, shouting, “The elixir worked! It’s better than his failed concoction! I AM A GENIUS! Ahahaha!”
He then gave off a fiendish grin, fully immersed in his powertrip. Davison then pulled out a cartridge-like object glowing a brilliant blue from inside his robes and began crushing it in his hand.“Let’s test this body out! Die!”
“Shit! Saori, into your shadow!” Gael, having prepared a [Shadow Dash] in advance, immediately dove into his shadow.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the amount of distress in Gael’s voice was enough to override any hesitation I had. As I submerged into the dark, a loud crack resounded above me but I couldn’t see what happened. I traveled through the shadow world to my goal and exited out of my targeted shadow, only to discover that I was free falling. Davison’s office was gone!
What in the—?!
As I had [Air Walk], the danger of falling down wasn’t so prominent anymore but suddenly losing the ground I was standing on was a real shocker. As I looked around in the air, I noticed Gael waving at me—also using [Air Walk]—before pointing at me to look around. There was a large hole in the roof where the hidden room was and the floor of the entire second floor seemed to have collapsed, destroying the 1st floor in addition.
There was already a small fire caused by that fire mage loopridae in the hallway, but the roof had caught on fire now too. I had no idea what just happened, but whatever it was, it had to be Davison’s work.
“He crushed an industrial mana battery, the ones dwarves make for their machines and manatech golems. Compared to the standard market stuff, if you break them, the sudden release of all that mana can cause a pretty big explosion. Davison, that suicidal asshole, probably blew himself up into chunks of meat,” Gael words made sense to me, evident of the surrounding. “He probably thought the runes on his gauntlet would save him, but I don’t think even high-quality runes like [Auracoil] can protect you from something like a large explosion at point-blank range.”
Kushlek’zar is right. Runes are strong. That was instantaneous unlike magic, but I guess it would cost us a lot of money if we wanted high-quality ones.
“Ahahahaha!” In the midst of this ruined building, a maniacal laugh pierced through the dust clouds, reaching my ears and bringing me back to reality. “Excellent! Excellent! I have overcome human limitations!”
Before, Davison had the appearance of a rich, refined, and cultured man, despite being overweight. Now, similar to his guild building, his appearance was in tatters, completely unrecognizable from before. His clothes were ripped and singed apart, revealing his chest and stomach. There, an orb was lodged into his chest with a marine-blue slime keeping it in place, slowly growing over it. He wasn’t holding his staff anymore and his left forearm, the one holding the mana battery, was blown up into a bloody mess.
“Regeneration-rate is astounding. Pain reception is numbed to tolerable levels even after removing my heart. Arm is regenerating to its former form, overcoming the limitations of the pathetic ‘white grace’ of that incompetent Aurena. Kehehehek, holy magic belongs in the past. Alchemy is truly superior! It is the future!” he roared to the sky, as if he was announcing the results of his actions. “The Law of Equivalent Exchange. For the acquisition of such power, something must be given in exchange. Sacrifices must be made, otherwise, stagnation will occur. The human race cannot accept being content with being the weakest of the humanoids. Relying only on the System isn’t enough!”
He then pointed his finger at us and declared, “For ruining my plans and not accepting my good graces, I shall return the favor. An eye for an eye. You two shall be the test for how powerful this potion and catalyst combination is! Hardened earth, pierce my opposition! Earthen Spears!”
Earth Mage!
Magic circles appeared on the ground floor of the building and, the moment they activated, the wooden floor splintered into fragments as giant rock spears flew at me. Gael and I dodge them as if we were dancing, causing Davison to launch another set of spells. Seeing as he could only use one spell at a time, he shouldn’t have [Multi-Cast]; however, he was launching spells as if he had no issues with mana.
“Hey, Saori,” Gael called me out as a spear flew by his face. “Don’t know about you, but I don’t have the mana pool of a mage, so I can’t keep this up. You have a plan?”
To be honest, after the battle from before, I was afraid of arcane corruption, so I wanted to avoid more flashy attacks like the one before. Still, we were sitting ducks if we stayed up here. [Air Walk], although useful, still consumed annoying amounts of mana and stamina when kept up. We had to stop now, otherwise we would run ourselves dry.
[“Here!”] Taking out one of Hestia’s holy bombs, I threw it with full force at Davison. He simply smiled and accepted the attack as if it was nothing, being burned under a coat of white flames after the bomb exploded.
“Argh! Ahhh, I can feel the pain! Ahahaha, who is the creator of such a powerful bomb? I must learn more about it, dissect its function!” Davison howled, not stopping his assault despite it looking like his body was melting.
I clicked my tongue and began using [Just Blink] as I avoided his attacks. The slight delay where he couldn’t acknowledge my presence was enough for him to ruin his aim. Dashing through the air by stomping, I eventually reached Davison’s burnt face and slashed with my shadow covered tanto. The feeling of lacerating flesh and sliced bone shook in my hand while my ears heard the sound of cutting spongy muscles. I was sure of my aim.
“Huh?” My [Foresight] just warned me Davison’s arm was about to grab me. Before I could react to this warning, he somehow managed to grab my leg.
As I turned my head around, I saw Davison gurgling blood while there were shards of glass inside his mouth and a green liquid was dripping from his mouth. His right hand was holding his throat. It was finely divided and missing two fingers, while his throat had a bleeding deep gash. “Should’ve drank that agility potion ear—Guuuraaagh! What is your strength that you are able to pierce my improved vitality? You’re not a random merc, huh?”
His body was slumped, about to fall down, but he seemed to have stopped his fall while using that chance to grab my leg with his barely re-grown left hand. It was hard to hear through his gurgles, but I believe he mentioned he drank an agility potion? When did that happen? Was his increased speed because of that potion? Still, the distance between him and me was close enough that any increase of speed would work.
Davison then pulled on my leg, tripping me, and began dragging me on the rough floor. My strength and vitality didn’t translate into weight, meaning the difference in our build made it easy for him to haul me around like a ragdoll. He then raised me up and was about to swing me down onto the ground, but that is when my shadow churned.
“Grack!!!” Three massive garms, all with fury in their eyes, jumped out of my shadow and began tearing Davison’s newly regrown arm. He still held onto me well, but with the help of my garms, I was able to start hacking onto his arm with my dagger.
“Miss Saori! Duck!” a female voice called out to me, which I obeyed without delay.
Out of nowhere, a beautiful ice sword pierced Davison’s arm, severing it and freeing me. For a split second, I managed to see Tasianna in her fairy form sitting on the sword and shooting shrapnel-sized ice spikes at Davison’s face, sending him reeling back.
[“Daviiiiiiiiissooooooooon!”] Kiiro, who was inside Tasianna’s orb, screeched out as Tasianna retreated back with me.
[“Thank you, Tasianna.”] I nodded as Tasianna transformed back into her elven-fairy hybrid, the form with her fairy wings.
[“Alpha, call us sooner, next time!”]
[“Alpha’s safety comes first.”]
Uno and Song chastised my action of telling them telepathically to hold back while Davison was dragging my body around, saying that they should attack when the moment was right. I was thankful they were worried about me, but being too overprotective was an issue. The minor scratches on my face were already gone the moment Hestia’s [Sanctified Blaze] activated.
Still, hurting them did hurt my pride … my wolf’s pride. I had to silence them. [“Enough! Focus on the fight. Do you three not remember how well I fought against you? Do not patronize me!”]
[“Daaaaaviiiiisoooon! Youuuuuu wiiillll paaaaay! Youuuu willll paayy with yourrr life! Die! Die!”] Kiiro once again shouted hysterically, and when I looked at Tasianna’s determined eyes, I could already guess that what they found in the basement wasn’t pleasant.
They immediately began attacking without speaking anymore with me. Tasianna threw her ice sword in the air and touched the bright blue orb where its crossguard was supposed to be. With a single touch, cyan colored mana began to crystalize into ice as she created another sword with it, all while using [Torrential Rain] to barrage Davison’s damaged body with water projectiles, slowly freezing him with the help of her floating ice spikes.
“Argh, such a shame, my arm is severed once again,” Davison spoke calmly, despite his bloody appearance. He then took out a yellow potion before crushing the glass vial in his mouth, completely abandoning drinking it to gain the potion’s effect. “Protect me, oh, Mother of Earth. I ask of you a safeguard of rocks, your blessing to your faithful. Stone Armor.!”
As Davison’s insane regeneration was kicking in, the earth began covering up his body as the stone fragments quickly hardened and grew in size, eventually transforming into sturdy armor. He honestly looked like a golem monster now.
Davison’s armor was thick enough that Tasianna’s ice spike and [Torrential Rain] had no effect on it, prompting the fairy to use [Aqua Beam], a water beam similar to a high-pressure water cutter. As expected, the attack managed to drill a hole into Davison’s body, but only after a period of resistance; however, she couldn’t continue her attack when Davison launched another earth spell at us.
While Tasianna was chugging down a mana potion, I began to enact my plan. I wasn’t idling while watching my friend fight, after all. As Davison was ready to shoot his next spell at us, I touched my shadow and a magic circle appeared.
“Smoky Haze.” My shadow exploded, not in fire, but in smoke, covering Tasianna, my garms, and me in it. It obstructed all sources of light, preventing anybody from seeing us inside.
I felt pretty annoyed after losing my first custom spell [Shadow Pack], so I decided to work on a new custom spell during my free time, which admittedly was sparse. Like a shinobi’s smoke bomb, I wanted a spell that enabled me to hide from somebody’s vision, allowing me either to launch a surprise attack or escape when I needed to. Additionally, as this was Peolynca, I wanted it to compliment my spells, skills, and newly gained garms.
As a result, I used my shadow to create an area where no light could pass through. At first, I thought it wouldn’t work, since it made no sense from a physics standpoint, but then I remembered I was a history teacher reborn into the body of a wolf in a world filled with magic and I threw that idea out of the window. If I could imagine it, then it would work.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get rid of the increased holy weakness from using the spell, as I didn’t understand why losing my shadow temporarily would cause such a side-effect. Still, it worked and it synergized well with my garms. In an area where I couldn’t get rid of all light sources, this spell was my ace-in-the-hole.
Heat Vision, activate.
Sensory skills other than sight could still detect me inside this cloud if I was careless, so having both advanced stealth skills—[Silence] and [Odorless]—was necessary to use this spell well. As I too was robbed of my vision, I needed to use [Detection Sensor] to pinpoint the location of my enemy while using [Heat Vision] to attack at critical spots. As Davison was already engulfed by the fog, having those two skills helped tremendously.
“Robbing my sight? Well, I believe that is how assassins and arcane tricksters fight, so I cannot blame you too much. You wouldn’t mind if I made some fire, no?” Davison shouted in the pitch-black, too lax for somebody in this situation. Two explosions could be heard, both probably caused by bombs. My vision was able to detect heat sources similar in size to fire, so I wasn’t confused by this attack.
“Huh?! What in the—? Why is there no light after my fire bombs exploded? Damnit, is this a spell?! Tch, would a wisdom or a vision potion work in this situation?” he mumbled before becoming silent, probably aware I could hear him. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t need sound to attack.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence soooo deafening.
“Grwoooh!” And then the wolves would hunt!
“Huh? What?!” Davison cried out as Uno and Song grabbed onto his right arm from within the shadow fog, pulling and unbalancing him.
Sarasa then used this moment to tie his body, binding and immobilizing the alchemist, despite the increase in strength from his transformation. As long as mana flowed through mana threads, they couldn’t be ripped apart that easily. And my wolves knew that.
“Argh! I can’t tear off these bindings?! What are they made of, I wonder? Argh, strength potion, no, two strengths!” Davison’s arm was still severed and hasn’t regenerated yet but he didn’t need it, as the orb lodged into his chest began creating that familiar slime to replace his arm, helping him grab two potions to throw into his mouth. “Ahhhh! Power! Now, I will—Urgh! Wha—Mana threads!”
He caught onto that fact quickly once his other options were exhausted. He was right, and while they couldn’t be torn apart, if my garms had been holding them, the tug-of-war would have gone in his favor. However, if weight wasn’t too much of a concern, then my far higher strength was enough to hold this desk jockey down.
The small peak I took of his Profile convinced me that Davison was simply a normal middle-aged mage-alchemist. In other words, outside his transformation and potions, his stats were still mediocre compared to mine. He needed potions to close the gap … and even that wasn’t enough.
Holding onto my threads, I kept Davison in a bind while my wolves continued wrapping my threads on him. Whenever he tried to use his spells, my garms used their [Telepathy] to attack him mentally in order to interrupt his focus and ability to cast spells. It was a trick Hestia told me that garms and wargs used during hunts, an experience she gained after fighting my garm family.
Eventually, he couldn’t move anymore, and that was when I activated my [Telepathy].
[“I can see you. Take him down, Tasianna!”] I declared, sending her a telepathic message to inform him where I could see him with [Heat Vision].
[“Thank you.”] she replied quietly, before I dispersed my [Smoky Haze], bringing back the light and revealing a small army of ice daggers, all descending down onto Davison.
For the first time since we fought, he had an expression of distress. The daggers tore through his armor of rocks, piercing his limbs, organs, and finally the orb in his chest. Davison was screaming loudly, not in pain, but in rage, insulting us all the way through. While he could break through the frozen daggers, more would simply pierce him after one was removed.
His body turned into a pincushion before he fell onto his knees, unable to resist anymore. Tasianna, taking this as a sign of our victory, grabbed her ice sword with her orb and landed before walking towards Davison.
“I saw everything in the basement. You scum, bastard, devil! How could a sentient being like you be so devoid of any sense of empathy for other lifeforms! How can you keep those fae in those cages, only to torture them again an again in a cycle where only death can break it!” Tasianna screamed, punching Davison in his face, causing him to fall over. The punch seemed to have hurt her fist, as it trembled a bit, but it was all ignored in her fury. “I have heard enough from Miss Saori. That orb in your chest? Junk. Destroyed. The faefolk inside is free. Your potion you were so proud of? Defeated. Your monstrous form is useless before my swords. Before you depart to Goddess Ilsaphone, I hope you will etch this into your soul: Your life was worthless and meaningless.”
She then let her sword melt and took a hold of her catalyst. “Kiiro, it’s your turn. The fiend isn’t dead yet. Do what you want to do.”
[“Kiehiehiehiehie … thank you.”] Kiiro’s laugh was reminiscent of its onnikai days, but those last words were strangely calm, as if it was at peace. However, that immediately disappeared as blue slime grew out of the orb, forming into a dagger. [“… You have no idea how long I have waited for this, human. All that time inside that basement. Then the one year you gave me to mull over how I would like to cripple you, crush you, eviscerate you. Your death was all I could think of, Davison! So, how would you imagine me taking revenge now that I heard you cannot feel any pain?”]
The orb trembled for a moment before continuing, [“… I want to rip you apart, but my current strength does not allow me so. Still, before you die, I will somehow inflict you great pain. This twisted project means the world to you? Then I will do what I must to cause you to scream in agony. I will find my catharsis.”]
Should I feel bad for him? The old Saori would, but cadejo Saori couldn’t care less. What a weird conundrum.
While I was sighing at my own trivial problems, Kiiro neared Davison.
And that was when Davison raised his head. The vial with the pitch-black liquid was inside his mouth.
A crack.
And the horror was born.
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AbyssRaven The opposite of the monologuing villain.
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