- Day 18 -

Axxen

After leaving the guild and returning to the house to collect the second mountain of Millie’s home cooking, Kate gestures me to follow her into the bathroom to see to my blood requirement. I’ll never tire of seeing her curves...

“Better?”

HP: 5440 / 5440 MP: 31279 / 31279 ST: 3626 / 3626

Hunger: 11% Thirst: 6%

Blood State: Greater

“Much, I’m all topped up. Thanks Kate.”

“Hm, good”, she says softly, turning her back to me while taking my hand and gently placing it on her hip, holding it there, just above the seal that binds her to my service. She pauses for a moment, just holding my hand before looking back over her shoulder at me, “We should probably take care of that, other thing. While we’re here...”

“O-other. Other thing?”

She gives me a slight, cheeky little smile, edging her exposed naked self backwards, ever closer to me. Her typical intense and provocative nature completely overwhelming my ordinarily rational mind. She looks up and into my eyes, captivating me with her gaze and that naughty smile of hers. I can feel my desire starting to take over--

“Mhm. That thing…”

Kate locks eyes with me while gently fraughting my attempts to escape her tempting advance. She let loose the hand she stole earlier to let out a heavy, enticing breath. As she does, I seemingly lose all control of the little bugger, as it lifts off her hip, lightly rubbing along her skin towards her inner thigh. I feel my other hand follow suit, subconsciously rising to circle round the other side, finally resting on her right hip, pulling at her slowly. Pulling her closer with more and more force--

”Mm. Yes… The binding ritual”, she pulls back, ”So we won’t die while you’re away.”

Huh?

She pulls my hands free from herself, walking back and picking up her outfit from the bathroom floor. Donning it without further word before turning back to me with a rather wicked smile.

“If you’re leaving us here, you’ll need to bind us to the house so we won’t die when you leave.”

“I...I… W-what?”

Holy crap. Holy, holy crap! Breath Aburi, regain that circulation! Yes, I know trunky, what the hell just happened! I-I can’t deal with that, I need to sit down, no, I need to lay down. I-I can’t think straight. That was too much. Way, way too much! If she didn’t stop that, that would have been it. Control myself? Control? Around that vixen! Impossible. Bloody impossible! What the actual hell was I thinking. I can resist her? No fucking way! If she wants me, she’ll have me! She’s a man-eater, pure and simple. I have no say in the matter. Bloody H Christ!

“You’re awfully red Master? Do you have a fever?”, Kate asks sarcastically, struggling to hold her laughter in.

“Fever? Seriously? I. I mean. That--”

She cuts me off.

“That was something to remember me by while you’re gone”, she nods, “Now, you need to bind me to this location.”

Without letting me process, she retakes my hand, lifting her dress and placing it once more on her seal again.

“Now, just say ‘bind’”

...I… Ah, screw it.

“Bind”

“Good Master”, she drops the lower part of her dress back down, turning to me and cupping my cheek with a smile before letting out a deep breath, “Hmm. I should get back to chores. Make sure you come back safely.”

She leans in and kisses my cheek before swiftly leaving the room.

I’ll need to do this with all the girls… I-I mean, I’ll need to bind them. As if I go more than a certain distance from them, they’ll all die. Something Emily did mention before, but I completely forgot about.

As Kate leaves the room, I collapse down to the floor. Choosing to lay there looking up at the mossy bathroom ceiling, exhausted by what just happened.

I genuinely don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with that woman. One thing's for sure, I can’t take another instance of…’that’. At that moment, I really didn’t care what happened next. My lust for her took complete control of me, and her dominance of the situation only made it worse! Even only having been led by the nose, it still excites me! ...I can’t believe how easily she made me lose control...

...Lust or love. Lust is love? Love…? It’s not just lust, it’s being out-matched...

“ARGH. Forget this!”

Yeah. I already knew I cared for Kate, this isn’t a new feeling. For now, I need to get back to work and put that vixen to the back of my mind.

Hmph. The exact distance I can travel before anyone dies is unknown. Emily might probably know, but she looks to be still out, sulking about not being able to go to Aslogia with me... Ah. I’ll have AE look it up, I’ve been to the slave market, after all, the information was bound to have been there.

[** Displaying to optic-interface **]

Hmm, so the distance is dependant on the strength of the seal that was used to enslave the person. Useful to know, but I can’t find anything on a Dragon-type seal... In any case, because of the effects of the seal, I will ‘just know’ when one of my slaves is about to die because they’re too far away. As it’s not an instant death but more of a sort of countdown, it’ll be fine if I don’t bind Emily today. It’s a relief as with her off acting the spoilt child, I would have had to stay until she returned otherwise. I’ll just have to come back tomorrow to bind her. For now, I should ‘bind’ Millie and Hannah.

Having finished all my errands, stored all that needed to be stored, bound the girls, and resolved some more, personal requirements; all that remains to do before getting back on the road is arranging the delivery to Alexander for the majority of my potion stores. Hannah volunteered readily at the mention of this as I think she mistakenly believed this would stop her having to run the shop while I’m away. That won’t be the case though as I’m still leaving a few pots here in case we do get a customer or two. I keep reminding her that it’s unlikely we will have customers due to the way the city treats its non-human folk and my current lack of renown, but she still sinks down at my expectations of her. I leave her to mope about while I collect Sarah’s gold from the basement.

With partings casually exchanged, and avoiding the use of ‘good-bye’, Millie offers a prayer to Tian, a god whose name rings a bell for some reason, before waving me off. As [Warp] begins to activate, Kate shots me a crooked smile without meaning. The damn woman knows I’ll be thinking about that, which annoys me to no end...

Using [Warp], I return to where I had left Bella tending her horse. As expected, the group wasn’t there waiting on my return. I had been gone far longer than I planned and I did tell them to go on without me after all. Besides, with the sun only just above the horizon now, had they waited on my return, we would’ve had to camp here instead of Axxen.

Not a problem; I probably have about two hours of daylight which is plenty to catch up with them. Time to abuse [Warp].

By using line-of-sight, I should be able to ‘jump’ as far as I can see, then jump again quickly, like long-ranged [Flash] steps. If I only stop to down a tonic to refill my mana, then using this method, I should be able to catch up in no time at all. Easy!

It’ll also grant me mountains of skill experience for [Warp]. The only issue with this method is that I’ll have to watch out for toxicity build up. But that can be solved by finding something to drain along the way should the need arise. Toxicity is only an issue when I’m with the group, but out here, alone? It’s not something I need to think about. Well, let’s get on with this.

*Zip*

Inventory:

Mana Tonic x12 -> x9

Skills: Warp, Lv2 -> Lv4

Three mana potions and a lost number of [Warp]’s later, Axxen finally comes into view. Despite this ingenious plan, I didn’t manage to catch the team, nor make it to the village before the sun completely went down. Having travelled the last hour in ever encroaching darkness, I had to activate [Nighteye] to maintain my speed. I remembered to deactivate it before getting closer to the small village though, as I don’t want to experience first hand a peasant monster-hunt.

Describing Axxen as a small village is quite an apt description as the place is pretty much just a long dirt road with various small wooden, thatched houses dotted along it. There isn’t much in the way of amenities either, an inn come tavern, a smithery, and a butcher. I guess I should be thankful for that though, as I almost instantly spot our carriage parked beside the inn. I don’t see the horses though, so there must be a stable close by but not in view.

Slightly wary of leaving all the goods on the back of the wagon, I decide to store everything before proceeding inside to find the others.

*Blink*

With that done, I head inside the inn which is indeed split into two parts. As you walk into the place, there's an open counter with an elderly woman sat behind a large book with a warm smile. Well, it was warm. The moment she spotted me, it became a cold blank stare. To the left of her is a staircase that probably leads up to the guest rooms. Directly to her right, down two widely long steps and onto a dirt floor, sits several long picnic style tables with several handfuls of men all sitting around chatting loudly. As my presence becomes noticed my more and more of the patrons, the good atmosphere fades to silence with all eyes on me.

“Good evening. I believe my companions booked a room?”

I smile at the elderly lady while enquiring. After a moment of silence, I realise she’s ignoring me--

“Fucking Elf. Granny, wan’ us to throw this earthen shit eater out for yer?”

At the closest table, a group of six men stand from their seats and walk towards me. The centreman, a towering giant, clad in thick leathers with his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword, spits towards my feet after barking.

Name: Nadeem ‘Hulker’ Jamal

Class: Adventurer

Sub-class: Rank C

Race: Human

Level: 24

HP: 100% MP: 100% ST: 100%

Uh-huh. I guess this is to be expected of rural villages and towns. That unclean lady from way-back-when did warn me of this… Well, truth be told, I’m a little pent up from the overly long day. Let’s embrace this as a chance to blow off some steam.

“Right, I’m honestly too tired to exchange quips, especially with ones unlikely to understand them. You want to fight, right? Let’s head outside and just get on with it so I can turn in.”

“Heh? Fight? There’s six of us--”

“Yes, I can count Nadeem, though I admit to being surprised that you can. Come on, outside so as not to damage the place. I’d rather not pay for your stupidity.”

I walk while speaking and gesturing for the men to follow me outside. Nadeem looks confused for a moment on hearing his name but follows all the same, gesturing his friends to do the same. No sooner do we all get outside, do they all draw their swords and begin to encircle me slowly, watching me closely.

...Let’s see then.

The easy answer here is to just use [Hellfire]. I mean, if I wanted to kill them all and burn the entire village to the ground, [Hellfire] is a clear choice. Obviously, I don’t want that outcome, but the fact I ‘could’ deserves mention. I guess these morons have never learnt to accurately gauge their opponents' strength before engaging.

Anyway, I digress; truthfully, I’ve only taken the bait to try out some of the more darker sounding spells I have in my arsenal. [Forbidden Commandment], [Shaken], [Dominance] and [Instil]. After all, I can’t readily use these in sparring matches; for trying potentially deadly spells, consequences would be undesirable. No, based on what I’ve read about these spells, and since using [Void Ripper] in the catacombs, safer to test them and their like on willing participants such as these unwise fools. I’ve learnt the need to understand the weapons at my disposal beyond trusting the woefully inadequate descriptions of scholars.

As I finish my contemplation, the six men also finish circling around me, and Nadeem folds his arms--

“Remember, you asked for this.”

Asked? Well, I skipped all the insults and went right to the fight, so I guess I did, in a way… Why am I even thinking about this *sigh*. I’ll chalk it up to the long day.

Nadeem nods to the man to my rear left who immediately charges in towards me, raising his short axe high and muttering something too faint to hear. Most likely a skill activation sequence.

Meh, “Too slow--”, I respond while turning to face him, quickly raising my right hand aimed at his general direction.

[Instil: Blinding Fear]

HP: 5440 / 5440 MP: 30,779 / 31,279 ST: 3626 / 3626

Five blackish purple strings stretch out from each of my fingers, rushing quickly outwards towards the charging man, suddenly warping around themselves into and tight, rope-like weave before screeching as they hurtle further forward and landing on the man's head. No sooner did the weave touch his forehead did he fall to his knees, dropping his axe to begin to clawing at his face with his leather gloved hands. The sudden thud as he collapsed to the floor had everyone, including myself, staring on with confusion for a moment. This didn’t last long though as a mere second or so later, the stomach-wrenching screaming started. Screaming so deafeningly loud and descriptive of agonising pain that it could not help but affect everyone watching, causing them to falter and call out to him. He’s called Larry. Not that it matters.

Wasting none of the time their hesitance bought, I gather mana and draw a large spell circle--

[Forbidden Commandment]

HP: 5440 / 5440 MP: 26,779 / 31,279 ST: 3626 / 3626

I pull the blue spell circle round, through the air and pointing it to Nadeem before releasing the spell. Five black rings immediately begin to form around him, one at and for each limb, and one around his neck. Suddenly he’s thrown two metres into the air, and his limbs pulled outwards like a star. Three words suddenly echo around in my mind all at once--

“Bind”

Bind, Disable, Sacrifice. Without having the chance to think, I subconsciously chose 'bind'.

The black rings tighten around Nadeem's limbs and begin to glow red--

“The, the fuck is this! Let go of me… It, it's hot? S-Stop. Stop this! Y-you, you win alright! Just stop-- AAAHHHHH.”

Nadeem’s screams are only dwarfed by the poor bastard I used [Instill] on. The now red rings seem to pulsate, alternating between a deeply dark and brighter light shade of red. The pain Nadeem looks to be experiencing appears to be being inflicted depending on the tone of red.

The remaining four men, having apparently seen and heard enough, all scatter as quickly as they can. Choosing to abandon their friends and flee through the dirt-pathed alleyways between buildings and into the woods on either side of Axxen. They obviously believe it safer to take their chances with the forest nightlife than continue to fight me. A rational choice I guess, though I still have two spells I want to try out… Maybe I should give chase?

“A-Aburi?”

A familiar voice snaps me back to the moment… I may have let my curiosity get the best of me here. I guess it was evident with all the screaming that everyone would come and investigate.

“Ah, Risk. Don’t mind me, just dealing with a small problem.”

Hmm… How do I cancel [Instil]?

“So we see.”

“Why is he screaming like that--”, Bella stops mid-sentence to take a sudden breath with clenched teeth, making a loud hissing sound as she catches a small glimpse of Larry’s face, “What the fuck Aburi!”

The man I instilled with fear had been pulling at his face for a while now, but since my attention was turned to Nadeem, he’s managed to remove his leather gloves and gone to tearing into himself full throttle. It’s gotten to the point where I think it might be more merciful to just kill him outright than let him live with what little is left of his face. He’s even managed to pull out one of his own eyes, it sits not far from me, looking up in a haunting manner.

As the moonlight breaks free of the overcast sky, it illuminates a scene that would make even the sturdiest of stomachs turn with its pale luminescent light. The ground around Larry, in all directions, is stained with large splatters of thick and gloopy red blood that’s been turned bright crimson by the waning moons silver light. Chunks of flesh sit closer to him, also thrown in all directions by the poor bastard as he continues to throw himself around, scraping and mangling his face with his bloody broken fingernails.

The man’s screaming has become more terrifying too, as he croaks in a high pitch that’s often gurgled by the considerable amount of thick blood that keeps flowing over his mouth, as it occupies every corner of his mangled face…

I don’t know why I didn’t before, but only now do I smell the heavy iron stench that only blood holds is weighty on the air. A scent so suddenly strong and overpowering as it fills my nostrils, that it even turns me to breathing through my mouth. It’s odd. Being a creature that needs blood to survive, the smell shouldn’t bother me, but it does… It must be by human nature shining through.

Oh, ‘Blinding’ fear.

A sudden realisation. I get it now. He’s being shown visions of something so terrifying, he’s trying to tear out his own eyes to stop it. Well, not a spell I should use lightly again. Consider the lesson learnt.

AE, we need to cancel the spell.

[** Spell will expire in twenty minutes **]

…I see.

Knowing the man won’t last that long, I knock him out with a heavy blow to the back of the head. Truthfully, I should just kill him as there’s no way this one won’t hold a grudge, but with everyone watching, I can’t really do that… Guess I’ll try and heal him and hope he has the common sense to let this go, though nothing can be done about that lost eye.

*Blink*

I force Larry to drink the potion by holding his nose, or what remains of his nose anyway, as I stick two fingers over the blood-spitting holes where his nose once was--

“Aburi, what about this one? I think he understands he picked the wrong opponent.”

“Truthfully Risk, I have no clue how to stop the spell I cast on him. It’ll end when it ends. At least he’s bound in a way that prevents him from tearing his own face off.”

“...True...”, Risk comes closer and inspects Larry, “Hells mercy… What did he say to you to make you do that to him?”

The rejuvenation potion is working but much slower than I’m used to seeing. I guess the level of tissue damage here is as bad as it looks. I’m a little surprised at Risk’s nonchalant demeanour, though I take it to mean he’s seen or done worse.

“Not enough... If I’m honest Risk, I learnt this spell and saw this as an opportunity to test it. I had no idea it was going to cause, well, this. The book merely said it would invoke the desired emotion. Whatever the spell showed him, caused him to want to rip his face off. I can’t argue that it was effective, but yeah, I won’t be using it again any time soon.”

Risk kneels down and leans in close, turning his voice to a whisper.

“Take it he’s not getting that eye back?”

I nod, slightly hesitantly.

“Then might be best if he succumbed to his injuries and we go searching for the bodies of his dead friends.”

Better dead than future potential enemies... I get it Risk, but with everyone's eyes on me, with Katherines innocent and already disturbed eyes on me, I can’t…

“I don’t disagree but--”

“Yeah, I get it.”, Risk looks to Katharine as he speaks, “Guess I’ll go take a little walk.”

He really does get it.

“By the way, there’s a surprise waiting for you in our room.”

“Oh?”

“Emily. The lass was hiding in one of the crates. Found her not long after you left. Thought you’d want to deal with it, so we continued on with her.”

I can’t help but involuntarily sigh at his words.

“I’m not surprised, truthfully I should have seen that one coming.”

“We all should’ve. Anyway, I’ll be off, don’t wait up.”

“...Thanks. Be safe.”

Risk waves with his back to me as he continues off and into the woods. As he disappears behind the trees, a loud thump from behind me draws my attention around to Nadeem once more.

Somethings… definitely not right.

Nadeem sits slumps over on his knees with his face barely visible and completely silent. What little I can see of his face is pale and thick blue veins lay visible on the skin’s surface. The red pulsating rings have entirely returned to black but seem to still remain on each of his wrists and neck. Reddened skin lays on either side of the circles showing signs of irritation.

“...Na..deem?”

I feel myself call out, somewhat hesitant, towards him. Something about the situation has me tense. As I do though, I notice my breath, condensed into a visible cloud. I immediately shiver, feeling the cold air right to my bones--

“Heh...he...heheheh. Heheheh. Hahaha hohoho heehee ho...Na? deem? Is vessels name? Hohaha, see. I see! Hehehe. Then we are Nadeem! Yes?”

An eerily high pitched and comical voice comes from where Nadeem hunches…

What? No really. What?

“AH HA!”

Nadeem springs up to his feet, pushing his joints out in such an unusual way that the sound of breaking bones ring in my ears. The display only made worse as he suddenly springs towards me. Each fast-paced step is contorted, angled so unnaturally that I cannot believe how someone could move in such a manner without keeling over in agonising pain. But the sound, its oddly rhythmic yet gruesome at the same time as his bones crunch and crack under the weight of his forced, unnatural movements. Strange though, something about him doesn’t feel threatening at all...

“That! Another offering?”, Nadeem hovers over Larry and me, his face now clearly visible, “No...not bound? I am...confused? YES, hoho! I feel CONFUSED! Ha, I do! Elvian one...no...not right...Dark one? Hmm--”

If I doubted before, one look at Nadeem’s face has wholly resolved that. Something has clearly taken possession of Nadeem’s body and is using it to converse. Nadeem’s face is as wildly contorted as his movements from before; His eyes, looking outward of each corner. Half a smile, half a frown. One brow raised one set stern. I really don’t know what to make of it...

“Aburi”

Nadeem, apparently no longer Nadeem, tilts its head in yet another bone cracking movement upon hearing my name.

“Aburi...is you? No. You name is… Name is…! Why? Why no name come!? CONFUSION! Is confused! ...Fine. Is fine, Aburi is you. I Deter. Fine offering Aburi, not Aburi provide. Name price!”

It’s confused? I’m even more so. What the hell is going on? AE, you got anything on this?

[** Dark Sage of Agamenty's book **] [** Skill for use with Rite **] [** Bind **] [** Enslave flesh to torment soul. The captive soul becomes commodity **] [** Disable **] [** Slowly rip flesh from captured target and damages soul **] [** Sacrifice **] [** Detonate flesh, turning blood to acid on detonation and losing captive soul **]

...Oh, fuck me! I thought this was one of Zero’s library spells! How bloody stupid can I be! This just gets worse by the minute! ...Oh, well I guess that does explain [Instil]’s effectiveness though… Though it does explain why my memory of the description was vague; enforce the will. Though might it also mean ‘design of force’, now I know the Aslogian’s duality trick. Still doesn’t really make sense though… Wait--

“I haven’t cast [Rite]. Why are you here?”

“Hm?”, It cocks it’s head again before responding, “New? Not seen? Contact? Yes, contact! Introduce Deter! ...Hi?”

It attempts to make Nadeem bow while donning a full and creepy, toothy smile with blooded clenched teeth. I can’t help but turn my head away from it to face towards the onlookers at the...door?

“Them?”, Deter notices my gaze, “Them blind! Not see! Not see us! No… Time...Stopped? Yes, stopped!”

“Well… Sure, okay. Not the strangest thing to happen tonight. Fuck it, accepted. Like everything else that’s happened to me for the past eighteen days, why not.”, I feel myself mutter while climbing to my feet, “Moving on then, tell me what your offering for Nadeem’s soul.”

Okay, yes. Do I feel bad for Nadeem, yes. Yes of course I do, but feck all I can do about it now! What started as an innocent little experiment on some drunk thugs has completely spiralled out of control! At this point, why not roll with it and see where it leads. In for a penny, in for a pound right?

“Offering? I offer? ...I no offer. Aburi, not Aburi ask! How works hoho. Yes, how it works heehee.”

...Oh? That so. Then I have an idea to be done with this madness, after all, it seems to control time.

“Rollback time to before I entered that Inn over there.”

“Rollback? Back...time? Hmm. Rollback… Yes! Yes, can do… All ask? All of Deter? Good soul. Cheap. Too cheap! Aburi, not Aburi certain of ask?”

“Yeah, I’m certain. I’ll take additional store credit if available though?”

“Store credit?”

It violently cocks Nadeem’s head in the opposite direction, forcing it to make another bone breaking sound before pausing, as if pondering.

“Ah! No credit!”, Deter jumps up and down, flailing Nadeem’s arms around like dead weights, “Not work! No!”

“Okay, Okay. Then just the rollback will do.”

“Hehe! DONE! Tasty soul! Mine now. Not back. Not giving!”

It raises Nadeem’s hands and uses them to make an oddly loud and echoing clap. As the sound rings out around, pulsating through me, I’m suddenly lifted up into the air as everyone around me begins to move backwards at an ever increasing speed. I even observe myself fighting and Larry tearing his face off in reserve...

“Bye Aburi, not Aburi. Hohoh. Again! Call again...soon! Hehe.”

With Deter’s words hanging on my ears. A weird sensation takes over all my senses. As if my vision, hearing, and essence were being sucked up into myself before flowing back out, inverted. The experience wasn’t painful or even odd, just new and never felt alike before. When done, I find myself on the back of the wagon, prior to storing all the crates.

“Feels like a dream--”

Verbal me spouts out, only to be interrupted by a woman's scream and concerned calls coming from the inn.

“What the! Nadeem? Nadeem!?”

The harrowing commotion coming from inside the Inn confirms that nothing of what happened tonight was a dream. As if I could dream something so insane and vivid in the first place. Obviously, Nadeem was still taken despite time being rolled back. I’d be lying if I didn’t expect that outcome, but there was no harm in hoping right? I… I should feel guilty right? But I oddly don’t? I do feel exhausted though.

...Perhaps the guilt will come later.