It had only taken moments to turn the people milling around on the market-square, going about their business, into an angry mob, some even equipped with torches. Looking over to them, I handed Sigmir my bag and mentally asked Lenore to leave her Hallow, which she instantly did.

“You take care of things in here, I take care of things out there.” I told them, as Lenore hopped off from my shoulder.

Then I stepped outside, confronting the angry mob. Thanks to my connection with Lenore, I was able to explain my plans to them, even while I was outside. Their part in things was to turn in the quests, get the money and ask Saya to give the herb-lore book I had borrowed to the herbalist. It seemed I wouldn’t get my deposit back, but that was fine with me.

Looking at the people outside, I wondered just why they were so angry and why their anger was directed at me. It didn’t make any sense, at least from where I stood. But if they wanted to a confrontation, they would get one.

“Silence!” I spoke, trying to project my voice without shouting. At the same time, I pulled the large Eternal-Ice core out of my bag, shattering away the ice that I had surrounded it with, holding it in my hand, even as the cold painfully invaded my hand. To help my hand, I shrouded my hand in a combination of Liquid Moonlight and Mist. The idea was to use the inherent power of the Liquid Moonlight and the diffuse nature of mist to create a layer of insulation. I needed to use Overflow to control it and to keep myself from harm as I handled the Ice but I would have used Overflow anyway, just for the visual intimidation-factor.

The square was bathed in silvery-white light from the orb floating above my hand and the mist billowed around me, causing the temperature of our surroundings to noticeably drop. A gasp went through the gathered people and they seemed to collectively take a step back. But my command was obeyed, silence fell over the square, the power radiating from the orb in my hand quashing any notion of resistance. At least for now. But the power of the Eternal Ice was also radiating back into my hand, even with the insulation I used, making it painfully cold. It was a strange sensation, a part of me welcomed the icy cold, even as I had no doubt that it was damaging me, maybe even destroying my arm.

“Hear me, people of Yaksha!” I spoke into the silence, making sure that every eye was either on me or the glowing orb, promising death, in my hand. Either focus worked very well for me.

“My party and I came into your town in peace. Apparently, you do not want us here, so we will leave and will leave in peace.” I announced, causing the mob to start muttering again. With the mutterings, I also felt a few attempts to Observe me but I tried to do the same thing I had used against Saya when we were here the first time, using shadows to hide my stats. Now, I used the mist to do so, at least that was the mental idea I was using with my magic. I had no idea if I was successful but the least I wanted to do, was try. The creepy, uncomfortable feeling that came with being Observed never fully manifested, only the foreboding feeling that I got a split-second before it happened.

“But if you try to harm us, if you try to attack me or mine, there will be no more Yaksha. I will make it my mission, the mission of an undying Traveller, to wipe this town off the map, to make sure that each and every one of you dies, that your families die and that ‘Yaksha’ becomes synonymous with ‘death’. And you can see that I have the power to do so.”

While I was outside, explaining the facts of life to the angry mob, Lenore was inside and I listened in, as she, once again, used my own voice to speak to the others.

“It seems as if we should leave this town post-haste. Sigmir, can you hand Saya the herb-book? And Saya, can you return said book to Suja, of the Greyfur-tribe? If you could do that, we just need you to formally complete the quests and we will be out of your hair.” she explained the others.

“You mean the hag? Sure, I can do that. But first let me count the mess on my floor.” Saya agreed, quickly tallying up the birds and wolves we had brought in.

“Well, you brought me twelve normal wolves and the remains of twenty-three Wind Raptors. Give me a moment to get your coin.” after saying that she rose, taking the book from Sigmir and moving behind her counter. She rooted around under it for a moment, before gesturing to Sigmir and handing her a handful of coin.

“There you go. I doubt you will come here again, at least judging by the mob outside, so I wish you luck on your travels. And ask the little monster not to raze the town; judging by the amount of Power I feel outside, she’s gearing up to something big.” Saya said, apparently unconcerned with what I was doing.

“We are done, can we come out?” Lenore asked from inside, just as I had asked her. A short glimpse to my event-log told me that I had quests completed and EXP gained, enough to bring me a level-up. But it was time to leave, before the mob could go look for their courage and force me to make good on my threat. I had no doubt that the power contained in the crystal would be enough to wipe Yaksha off the map, killing everyone in the area, including me.

“We came in peace and hope that we can leave in peace again.” I finished my announcement, my voice as cold as the orb in my hand, and I increased the amount of Mist I was creating, causing the mist to shroud half the square within seconds. There were others in the mist and I drew the disorientation-rune, using the concept it represented to add to the mist around us, even going so far to gently push against the minds of the closest townspeople that were still out there.

“You can come out.” I told Lenore and heard the door behind me open. Feeling the others behind me, I combined runes for concealment and mist, trying to hide us in the cold mist that shrouded the area. It felt easier to shroud them like that, maybe because I was just hiding us within a larger formation compared to hiding us in an open field. I also noted how the silvery light from the Eternal Ice refracted in the mist, making it even harder to see through due to the diffuse light. I was still able to get a rough perception about our surroundings, thanks to my connection to the mist, but without that connection, seeing further than the length of my arm was impossible.

“Let’s go.” I told the others, letting Lenore hide in her Hallow again and changing the density of the mist around us, so the others could at least see me while I guided them back to the wall. As we walked, I continuously increased the amount of mist in the air, blanketing the whole town in a dense cloud. In addition, Lenore added her own mind to mine, using the mist as a medium to confuse the few people we had to pass.

Once the mist was dense and widespread enough, I placed the Eternal Ice back into a shell of Ice and into my bag. That action made me notice how badly my arm was damaged, even from just being close to the Eternal Ice for a few minutes. My arm had stopped feeling cold while I had been talking to the townspeople and now I was unable to move my fingers and wrist, making me curious how much damage I had caused to myself. My HP-bar was down to forty percent, but the HP-bars in Road to Purgatory were a rather bad indicator for normal living things, as even something with a huge HP-pool would die very quickly with the right wound. Open a major blood vessel and there would be an added debuff, reducing the HP by a percentage of their maximum, depending on the vessel. For example, I had noticed that cutting the throat added a fifteen percent maximum HP per second bleed-effect. Other attacks simply counted as fatal, causing instant death, those mostly involved massive brain-trauma or things like decapitation.

The mist made our way to the wall quite easy, nobody was able to see us, but the wall was guarded, especially the ladder. But I had enough Astral Power left to simply make my own ladder, out of Hard Ice, allowing us to climb up and jump down the other side. Climbing the ladder one-handed was hard enough that Sigmir noticed the damage I had done to my arm, causing her to frown in displeasure and pick me up like a child as she jumped down the wall and on our run away from the town. When we got to the treeline, she activated all her self-buffs, changed her grip on me so that she had one hand free and hacked the few wolves that waited there apart without either slowing down or putting me down.

When I looked up, I had never seen her looking better, her mouth set, a few splatters of blood on her face, it was… fitting. My fierce protector.