Kurstwood

1 week after Diane’s departure from Versailles

The stone crunches under the impact of Lieutenant Septimus’ boots, as he dismounts his horse in the center of town. His knights are returning from quickly scouting around the perimeter. Septimus is looking around and taking in the entire scene before him, his eyes pouring over every detail in the midday sun.

One of his team leaders, Sergeant Alain Dufount, approaches him.

“Sir, we have concluded that there are no hostile creatures left in the town. This… it had to be the work of that thing that came through during the summoning ritual.”

The knight had a particular emphasis on the word “thing”, his voice shuddering in disgust. Having felt its arrival, there really wasn’t much of any other way for him to take it.

“So it would seem… however, some things do not match up here. Tell me, Alain, were you able to find any bodies around the town? Or any other creatures at all?”

Alain looks over at Hal’s slowly rotting corpse, and then to the remains of the other two knights within the circle of the town square.

“Other than the one’s here… no. Actually, now that you mention it, the fact that these bodies were left untouched is also quite strange.”

“It is indeed. Do you remember the girls report from back in Versailles?”

“No, sir… I may have forgotten.”

There was some nervous hesitation in Sergeant Alain’s voice.

“One weeks’ liberty deducted for drinking instead of reading the report. You are a professional knight here on an investigation from His Majesty himself.”

Sergeant Alain grimaces, and hangs his head in shame.

“Yes, sir.”

“For your refresher, this is where her team fought the Demon, as she called it.”

“Well, if they fought the Demon here, then all this devastation makes sense.”

“Does it? A Demon that would have cleared out the entire rest of the town, and yet left the rest of these bodies here unscathed? Then look, are you telling me that this crater matches up with the destruction of the rest of the town?! Then compare the blood stains themselves, you can see where the sheering of the rock has cut through the old, dried blood. But the fresh blood has poured over the edge of the crater and hardened.”

Alain tried to swallow, as his throat started to turn dry. He knew the Lieutenant was sharp, but he had picked up this much information without even using his magic skills.

“Now then, lets get a better look, shall we?”

There it was, Septimus’ signature smile when he knew he was on to something.

“History, unveil your secrets to me, let neither light nor shadow impair my search, Trace!”

Upon his command, Septimus’ eyes quickly adjusted their sight. He was looking at the mana concentrations and residue within the town center. His eyes opened wide at the sight… everything he was looking for, it was here! Even after a week… so much residue of dark, demonic energy. It came from near the fountain, where the carriage tracks were at.

Then, another cluster, a little farther from the carriage. It looked just like the energy called from the summoning ritual. Then… following the path to the crater, he saw something… interesting. The residue of a different demon… however only the footprints were there, and at first it seemed like a determined advance before… it ran. Clearly it did not make it very far before it got caught up and taken in to whatever made that blast. He was right on the money, although that was less than reassuring. That girl, and her stupid father! There must have been more to happen here than she let on! Even then… for a Demon from Ebenheim to have come all the way out here… his investigation is only beginning.

However, his investigation would not continue so smoothly. Upon returning to Versailles, he found that the Duke and his men had already begun to march to war. His knights asked around the town trying to find where the Daughter of Vermillion went, and they were able to corroborate a few reports that she had rode to Archion to see the King.

Unfortunately, it led him to the wrong daughter of Duke Vermillion, Antoinette Culaine. By this time, the war between the houses was entering full swing, and Diane’s trail had long gone cold.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Stanley had always been a man of conscience, albeit a little lazy and not the brightest person. He was absolutely plain in every respect, with a face able to be easily lost in any crowd. His lack of talent had kept him stuck in a dead end office job most of his life, answering phones, sorting papers, reading papers, and sending summaries of those papers to people who would summarize them again, before sending them to someone else to proofread and finally deliver them to the person who would make a decision on them.

Such a life would turn any man to drinking. Eventually, one night he drank too much and hit the road, and the last thing he remembers is swerving off the road. Next thing he knew, he woke up here, in Anastasia! When he first wandered into a town of magic, he was absolutely ecstatic, having read stories of great adventure all his life. Soon, he would learn, is that stories were just that… pleasantries to help the masses escape the pain of their reality. Here, all he found was suffering, and then more suffering. He couldn’t speak to anyone, and the work was grueling.

He then tried to become an adventurer, but there he learned he was not special. Others used him, treated him as nothing more than a meat shield or a baggage carrier. By then, he had finally learned enough of the language to get by. That is when he found a job recruitment poster “Njord adventurer’s guild is hiring! Office worker positions available! Safe, dull work environment filing paperwork and submitting reports.”

YES! It was a dream come true to him! Something he knew how to do, a way to escape the roughness of everyday life! So he took the job. For a while, it was absolutely great. He had everything he wanted… at least, that was until he started noticing something strange happening. Ever since that girl Diane arrived, data he compiled was reviewed, and a lot of key things from it went missing. He started making some secret copies, just to make sure he wasn’t crazy, and started seeing the information reported was… adjusted. Then, there were the demographic reports sent by the city guard. Apparently, there were some small reports about less orphans being found around town. However, nobody pressed to much about it, but once reaching the guild, at the very least an investigation quest should have been issued. Instead, those reports just… disappeared.

Then, he started to notice another trail. People who had asked questions about it… disappeared. But eventually, their death reports disappeared from the records or were also adjusted. Something was up, someone was hiding something. Stanley knew it had to be someone important in the guild, so he decided to take his compiled documents and try to sneak out of the city with them. He had to get his reports to the guild master!

“Ah, quite a pleasant night for a walk, isn’t it, Stanley? That was your name, right?”

Stanley swallowed in nervousness. He had taken a lot of precautions, trying to sneak out of the city. He left at night, and although he had the feeling he was being followed, he could never see anyone behind him. The guards on the south gate were luckily sleeping, so he had slipped quietly past them. However, he did not expect to run in to the branch manager in the middle of the road! His iconic robed form could not be mistaken for any other thing. Oddly enough, he also had a small package of opened meat sitting next to him.

Stanley didn’t say a word, as he nervously eyes his little pack.

“Do you know how long ago it was I came to this world?”

An odd question… why is he asking me that? He still kept silent.

“15 years ago today, if I recall right. At the time, I was summoned by a very sad little man with big dreams. Mr. Eric von Straught, he begged me to help him become a branch manager in the adventurer’s guild! I could hardly believe it, such a scrawny and pathetic man, with dreams far too big for himself!”

Stanley did not like where this was going. He did not like it at all.

“But then… he told me, he was willing to offer anything to be able to make it here. Now that is something I would have to be… heartless to refuse, ahaahaha!”

Sheer malice radiated from Baal as he continues his speech.

“Then, just as I was getting bored, worried I was missing out on all the fun back home, something interesting came to me. A little girl, determined to be an adventurer. That on its own is not much, but here is the kicker… she was originally a failure with no future, who was contracted to none other than my master! Can you believe it? I have so much I want to say to him, so much I want to know! But there is an iron law where I come from, passed down from my oldest ancestors after their birth, and the only Demons to have ever spoken with Dagon himself. His instructions were simple, to build a nation worthy of him, and that from that moment on, they were to never disturb him in his room. Any who did, he promised, would certainly die by his hand without thought or mercy. Now, do you know why I am telling you this, Stanley?”

“B-b-b-because you’re going to kill me?”

“Wrong! Well, half wrong. You ARE still going to die. Hehehe, well, have fun, my dear Stanley. This is why I like recruiting your kind to work for me, you always know just enough to keep things fun for me!”

As he spoke those last words, Baal removed his hood, revealing two thick horns curling over his head, much like those of a Bull. His black and red skin, and infernal smile were revealed. Stanley began to realize that the entire time, the robe was magically enchanted to make it appear as if there was human face underneath the hood.

As Baal faded into the darkness, Stanley could hear the growls coming closer, and numerous pairs of large, bloodthirsty eyes began to emerge from the darkness, with snouts full of razor sharp teeth and bodies the size of horses.

He realized what the meat was for, too. Direwolves could follow the smell of blood from miles away, much like sharks in the water back home. Stanley glanced back at the town, much too far away. The guards sleeping made sense now. From the moment he started gathering documents, he was a dead man. He closed his eyes and turned his face towards the sky. If this was to be his fate, at least he would accept it peacefully.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Thistleman had been preparing his book for months now, and he was certain that it was ready enough for Diane. He wasn’t sure how fast she would pick up the skills, but if needed, he could just make another book later. He decided to pack in a few of the essentials, basics to help any Demon get by in the world. Could a human learn demon skills? Well… that was another thing he had to find out.

He had 6 different skills, drawn with the best artwork he was capable of. At their most basic step, their benefits were decent but nothing spectacular. However, once they were taken to mastery, each of these skills becomes quite terrifying, with each step up far more valuable than the last. Diane already gained access to Demon Sight and Demonic Fury through the nature of the contract and her own temperament. Gaining these would be… much harder. The skills he planned for her were Shadow Step, Demonic Resistance, Infusion, Devour Life, Devil’s Ray, and Concealment.

Shadow Step was a movement technique, in which mana is used to reinforce the footwork and legs to improve speed. It had a secondary effect in which, when used to move between areas of darkness or shadow, the image of the user is blurred in with the shadows and becomes much harder to strike as a result. Demonic resistance was much simpler in comparison, as the one simply involved using Demonic aura to reinforce the skin to protect from blows.

Then there was infusion. Unlike basic magical reinforcement of weapons, infusion involved assigning elemental magic properties to weapons and armor. This was a more advanced basic skill, and was highly draining in terms of mana usage, at least for normal people. While contracted to Thistleman, Diane would be able to use this skill for far longer than most other adventurers.

Devour life is as the name suggests, where you devour the life of another to take their energy or soul, but the hard part there is convincing Diane to change her mindset to accept it. It is a very, very cruel and painful ability to execute on someone. As long as she learns it first, before figuring out how cruel it is, that is fine. In an emergency, it could certainly save her life. In fact, if he wasn’t so messed up when Diane found him, Thistleman would have likely used that ability himself to devour everyone present.

Lastly are Devil’s Ray and Concealment, where Devil’s Ray delivers a powerful, precision blast of dark energy and concealment uses mana to diffuse light around the caster. At mastery, concealment can completely erase one’s visible presence.

Now, for the hard part. Getting Diane to find the book in a believable way. After some careful thought, and checking the guild quest boards, he was eventually able to come up with a suitable solution. First, he needs to make a treasure chest. Then, he would need to manually age it a bit, before slipping it in to an ogre cave. I believe people around here would call those mini-dungeons? Well, it ought to work. From what he had overheard in his short stay in Njord so far, adventurers rarely question what they find in these ‘dungeons’ of theirs. Now how to point Diane in that direction….