“Lavro?” Sanders asked incredulously, taking a few steps into the canteen. The large, stocky man had caught his attention for only a minute, talking animatedly amongst a group of three other men, barely even touching their food.

“Huh?” The large man, Lavro, looked up for a second.

“Fuck me, it’s Lavro,” Sanders said to Daven before walking over.

“Sanders? Sanders!” Laro exclaimed, standing up and jostling himself off the bench, wrapping up the stoutly, but shorter, man in a giant bear hug.

“It’s… It’s been, what, two years?” Sanders said, pulling away but keeping a firm grip on Lavro’s forearm. “You’re here?”

“Aye. It’s been that long? Wh-Why don’t ya take a seat. We’ve got a lot to talk about. Boys, this is Sanders-”

“Daven! Get your arse over here!” Sanders called out as he sat down, a smile on his face.

“One finally appeared?”

“Aye. We were prepping for a normal storm and then, next thing I knew, the fuckin’ ground just opened up!” Sanders said to an enraptured audience. Daven was quietly eating, satisfied to finally eat some real food after nothing but [Heal].

“Ya lucky you didn’t die. Hotton had one show up a couple months ago and it turned everything to shit. For the month after, people here barely even left their houses!”

“Hotton has a demon nest?” Sanders said quietly, latching onto a vital piece of information.

“That it does. Destroyed a good chunk of the village before the Dominion arrived to contain it.”

“It still there? Spittin’ out demons?”

“Last I heard, but hasn’t been an issue for a while.”

Sanders nodded, valuing this information.

“What about Trotton? Heard anything from there?”

“Nothing serious. No families running away in panic,” Lavro said, shaking his hands in mock fright. “Fuckers don’t attack cities. I was actually planning on travelling to Trotton before, well…” He looked around himself. “I got a tad tied down here,” He chuckled lightly.

They continued talking, catching up, seeing what was new in their lives for a good bit longer. Not much more useful information was found out, apart from the fact there was no Dominion nor Chosen presence here, as to be expected anywhere without a demon presence.

Afterwards, Sanders and Daven excused themselves, needing to leave and meetup with their party. Goodbyes were shared, willful hugs and pats on the back, and then they were off, walking out of the patrol house back in the direction they came from.

“Think she’ll be happy with this information? You sure spent a lot of time talking in there.” Daven said.

“Hopefully. She’s a strange one, for sure.”

Daven laughed, thinking about their self-appointed leader.

“She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met before. Lefie too, as well. Are all tarnys like that or only them?”

“Probably all of them. Who knows what that lifestyle does to you,” Sanders grunted. His tone lacked contempt or distaste–as flat as someone stating a fact.

“Yeah. I don’t know what it is about Riza, but… I don’t know. Like I have to obey her. She’s just this… force,” Daven said, gesticulating with his arms. “I’d hate to have to fight her.”

Sanders grunted in agreement, not having any more to add on.

“You’ve been here before?” Lefie asked from beside Meren in the driver’s seat.

“Once. When I was little. Dad had to fulfil an order and the customer wanted it hand-delivered to him here. Spent a whole week perfecting it. The store should be nearby…” Meren said, scanning the buildings down the street.

Her memories were foggy so she had asked for some directions, Lefie bouncing along after her.

“I think that’s it.”

It wasn’t a particularly large shop. A few shelves lined the walls, tables the ground, and a small, rotund man perched on a stool too high for him, hunched over a book. His quill scrawled along the pages, dipping back into the ink as he continued to write.

“Er, hello,” She called out as the pair walked in, startling the man as he nearly fell off his seat.

“Ah! Hello,” He said, looking down at his thick tome, quickly finishing up what he was doing before standing to attention. “Welcome! I’m afraid the shelves are a bit barren at the moment; haven’t had time to display what I’ve got for sale, yet, but there are things for sale! Just tell me what you’re interested in.”

He rubbed his hands together, showing off his bejewelled fingers. In fact, his whole attire was bespoke, clearly tailored to his form and with a collection of fine fabrics and bright colours.

“Do you have a map?” The man’s face immediately brightened.

“A map? I’ve been trying to get rid of this one,” He talked as he rummaged in the backroom, hidden from sight. “My apologies; it’s not the best quality. It’s from an apprentice cartographer, so there’s a fair few errors… ah!” He called out, sifting through bags and crates before returning, rolled up back in hand.

It was a simple bit of parchment, with tatty edges and rolled up with a string holding it together.

“No Chosen wanted it but, here you go,” He said, untying the string and unfurling it on the table. “This what you’re looking for?”

Hunching over, Meren quickly appraised the map. The patrol house had a large map, hidden away in one of the offices. She had seen it a few times before. This one had some differences but she couldn’t remember the specifics. Most places and locations felt familiar so it seemed pretty good.

“I’m happy with this. How much do you want?”

“Well… I have to say…” He tapped his chin, as if in thought. “Fifteen wern.”

“What about ten? You did say you’ve been struggling to sell it.”

“Fine. You can take it off my hands for ten,” The man replied after a brief pause. He rolled the map back up, tying it, and gave it to Meren who promptly deposited it in her bag hanging from her waist.

They purchased a few more things as well, although it was all of Meren’s money. Luckily, she had amassed a fair sum over the years.

Rope, additional bags, additional sleeping rolls, and flasks were just some of what she bought. She even bought a small journal to write in, at Lefie’s request which turned out to be at Riza’s request instead. Neither of them knew what it was for.

In addition, the man–Sallin, he introduced himself as–was a wealth of information. He was well travelled, peddling his wares in neighbouring villages and even the nearby city if he had some good stuff to sell.

He had arrived back only the day before, after taking a circular journey around Trotton. Apparently, the Chosen had cleared many places out of warriors, leaving only those with demons on their doorstep with a sizeable reserve.

There were also Dominion stationed there as well, maintaining the demon outbreak, somehow.

Demon nests tended to cluster. When one suddenly appeared, there was an increased chance others nearby would as well. That’s why many people were actually moving to Trotton, even without any demons attacking their village.

From the sounds of it, to Meren, not many individuals had much trust in the Dominion or the Chosen to protect them if and when demons would attack. She couldn’t blame them; not even the Dominion could’ve protected Litchendorf.

Business concluded, they thanked Sallin for his help before going on their way. They piled their new equipment into the back of the wagon and clambered on board once more, Meren taking the reins and pretending to control the horses to not draw attention to themselves.

“I have a suspicion where we might be going,” Meren commented, leading the horses towards the giant, Ancient tower.”

“Hmmm. I wonder if you’re talking about Hotton,” Lefie replied lightly.

“The Dominion presence might be a problem. Any idea how we’ll deal with that?”

“No, and I doubt Riza will ask them nicely if we could go in.”

“Why is she so wary of them, anyway?” Meren asked. The question had been on her mind for a while now.

While Meren wasn’t a big fan herself, she just didn’t think they were that good at their jobs. Riza, however, was running from them. Wary, cautious, frightened. However you wanted to describe it, Riza did not want to even be in the same place as them.

“I’m not totally sure. I think she just doesn’t like how controlling they are. Before she could even speak the language, she was put to work, nearly killed, and then sent to fight demons every day to level up! Not once was she asked how she felt about it all.” Lefie huffed, growing more agitated as she spoke.

“Speak the language? Wait, are you not actually sisters? Was your village not actually destroyed?” Meren asked hurriedly. She hadn’t thought that even that was a lie as well.

“Well, yeah.” Lefie’s face suddenly lit up. “I think that’s it! Riza wanted us to look differently. I think she believes the Dominion would punish us for leaving them. Is that something they’d do?”

“Maybe? Honestly, they’d probably just put you back to work. It’s not like they can kill you,” Meren shrugged. “And looking differently? If she didn’t want to be recognised, wouldn’t she choose a new name as well?”

Meren’s eyes widened with what she said.

“Is your nam-”

“It’s Lefie. I guess… she didn’t think about it?”

Didn’t think about it? Meren chuckled at the absurdity.

“Guess that’s something she’s bad at. That, and people. It’s funny; a giant demon doesn’t faze her but the moment I just ask a simple question about her actions, she starts shaking.”

“Hey! Don’t be mean,” Lefie grumbled.

“Sorry. It’s just amusing to me. She needs a bit more confidence in herself.”

“Hmmm,” Lefie vocalised but didn’t say anything.

“And you too. You don’t have to do everything she says. Riza isn’t right all the time,” Meren said, emphasising the name.

“I don’t do everything she says. I just… agree on a lot of things and disagree on some.”

“Well… okay. I guess I’m in the same boat as you, anyway. And Riza’s alright. She seems to know what she’s doing a lot of the time–more than some people I know, anyway.”

“She’s incredible. Without her, I would not be alive today.”

“Seems we both have that in common.”

“Love you.”

She didn’t even wait to hear the response, hanging up the phone instantly as her shoulders slumped, a massive weight off her shoulders.

The phone slipped between her fingers, her grip loose, and clattered to the dirty floor, landing between two bricks covered in dust and mud and decay.

The entire floor was piled with bricks and sheets and metal, old, broken electronics as well. Whatever section was unbroken, that is. Debris littered both this floor and the other five directly below. From one corner, she could even see the very bottom.

The phone jumped with vibration, a loud buzzing sound replacing any ringtone. She didn’t answer, leaving it to time up only to be replaced by another, incessant buzzing.

Sitting there, feet dangling over the edge, feeling the wind whip through her thin leggings… She felt alive.

She chuckled. Ironic.

It was a pain in the arse to climb all the way up here. A tetanus filled hellscape of rusty pipes and collapsing buildings. There was another floor above her but she didn’t dare climb any higher lest she’d be victim to an uncontrolled descent.

Orange bloomed on the horizon, peeking between buildings. Towers laced the expanse before her, all decrepit and partially destroyed. Tons of water damage. It was late in the day and her legs were weary from all the walking, running, and climbing.

“Beautiful,” She said, thinking aloud. The gorgeous, natural sunset backdropping industrialisation itself. A poignant message could be made by someone more poetic than herself.

She merely took in the atmosphere. So high up, so far away from another living person, the only sounds she could hear were the wind rushing through the holes in the walls, the annoying buzzing of her phone, and that of her own breathing. Calm. Regular.

Even leaning out over the edge, her fingers gripping onto a shallow, metal hatch in the floor, her heart remained calm. No rush of adrenaline nor spike of fear. She was in control.

Eventually, the phone stopped jumping around, the final buzz resounding dissonantly. She must’ve given up on calling.

Not much of the light remained. Her hand reached for her phone before pausing, failing to find the strength to take it.

Goosebumps covered her bare arms, the chill of the evening air getting to her.

The ground was so far below.

Opening her eyes, Riza let the memory flood through her.

Feels like yesterday.

Sitting on the highest walkway encircling the tall tower, her legs were on either side of a railing, dangling over just like before.

She leaned forwards, resting her head on the railing as she looked down.

Even higher.

Lefie and Meren and Daven and Sanders were off, running around the village, gathering information, and what was she doing? Climbing a building and then reminiscing about the past.

But yet, something drew her to the edge, a pull she could not resist. The void called for her. All her fears and emotions and responsibilities were all the way down there, so very far away.

It was like she was weightless, floating above the clouds–not literally, of course.

Could I survive? She thought, checking her health. 284. She peered down. Unlikely.

Except, it wouldn’t be a permanent death. It’d barely even be a death. I’d drop to 0 health upon hitpoints and then back up to 20.

It was a strange thought, that she could walk away after a fall like that.

The very first time she consumed a parasite, she struggled to keep conscious throughout the pain. It wasn’t even the first time she felt as though her body was broken all over.

Then it happened again and again and again, fighting the colossal demon. Slashing at her, biting at her, chucking her all over the place like a ragdoll. It’s disorientating, experiencing the momentary lapses of consciousness as the body rapidly reconstructs what little it needs to survive.

And, strangely enough, she was starting to get used to it, towards the end. The pain was always temporarily, barely lasting a few seconds, the attacks always enough to kill rather than maim and injure. [Leech] revitalised her, draining the pain away and leaving her with just the residual aches.

Could anything even kill her, anymore? At fifty parasites and counting, it was a fair question.

With a start, Riza climbed to her feet, slipping under the rail to emerge on the other side, holding on tightly to the railing behind her back.

Feet on the edge of the blue, metal walkway, she straightened her arms and leaned forwards. She wasn’t tired, her enhanced stamina taking care of that problem. No risk, as long as she didn’t let go.

Thrilling would be the best way to describe it. Hanging onto the mere edge. Riza let go with one finger on both hands, sliding forwards ever so slightly as the rest of her fingers compensated.

Down below was a clearer section, lacking many of the makeshift, wooden boxes and mostly just a few concrete rooms attached to the side of the main tower. Good clearance.

Another finger, her hands struggling to hold on now. She slipped further over the precipice, facing the void itself.

One final, deep breath.

She let go.

The wind came rushing past her as she dropped, her clothes flapping strongly, whipping against her skin as she fought against the frigid chill.

Her arms flapped and waved out of control, out of instinct, legs trying to walk on nothing as she tumbled.

It felt like an eternity passed in a mere few seconds, every image, every feeling, permanently engraved into the grooves of her brain, before darkness hit but for an instance.

An overwhelming pain wracked her body amongst the grass as she struggled to nullify it with [Heal], biting down on her tongue to subdue the screams of agony.

Unbearable to intense to numb in a couple of seconds, her dislocated bones shifting back into place, pierced skin knitting itself together, bruises and trauma smoothing out and lessening.

She didn’t get up right away, laying face down in the dirt, waiting for the throbbing of her heart to recede back to normal levels, for the adrenaline to drain away, for her body to return to its regularly scheduled calmness.

[Meditate] was running throughout with only the [Heal] shutting it down. For those scant, few seconds, the icy hand of fear gripped Riza before dissipating.

Eventually, she managed to stand back up, dusting off the dirt and grass from her clothes best she could.

Checking herself over, there were a few nicks, holes, loose strands of fabric but otherwise, not much new damage. What constituted armour was fine.

Checking [Parasite], she was indeed down to 49, her body none the worse for wear.

And then, a few seconds later, she smiled, unable to control herself. Looking up, she could see the exact walkway she was hanging off just seconds earlier, tens, or maybe even a hundred, metres up.

I really did that. Holy shit.

“As for me,” Riza began retelling what she had learnt. “That’s a water tower,” She pointed towards the large, Ancient structure. “Pipes run from it throughout the village, providing water, plumbing.”

“Just like in the bunker?” Lefie chimed in.

“Yes. There’s a water keeper called Jannin. He said his family has been maintaining the tower for generations, repairing it and what not. He wanted me to take a look at one part that got damaged by the storm-”

“He asked you to look at something he’s been repairing for generations?” Meren asked incredulously.

“I don’t know why. I guess he took one look at me and thought I could help. Anyway, a bit of talking got me this,” Riza said, pulling out a journal.

“That’s the one you got me to buy?” Lefie asked.

“Yes. Basically, it took a bit of convincing but Jannin took me to some Ancient writing when I said I have access to linguistic skills-”

“You do?” Meren said.

“Not yet. Apparently, that writing could be valuable and he didn’t want to let it leave the room–which, by the way, is secure as fuck. There was an electronic lock which required a code to get into so there’s a generator working as well. The tower is grossly underutilised!”

Blank faces stared back at her, not sharing in her enthusiasm.

“Okay,” She drew out the word. “I copied down the writing so when I eventually get an undead with linguistic skills, I can begin to work out the language. I doubt this is enough so be on the lookout for any more Ancient texts in the future.”

“And that’s all you learnt?”

“The city’s also connected to the water tower. Trotty or something.”

“Trotton.”

“Yeah. The plumbing goes all the way there. Didn’t find out if electricity did as well.”

“Electricity?”

“It turns lights and water on!” Lefie delightfully answered, smiling at Riza, presumably proud at remembering that information.

Riza smiled back, not bothered about expanding upon that.

Instead, she cleared out a little space on the wagon and withdrew the map from a bag Meren had bought.

“This is the surrounding area, right?”

“Yes. There’s Trotton,” Meren stated, pointing towards the civilised sprawl in the centre of the parchment. “All of these are surrounding villages,” She continued, tracing a circle, “And the rest of these are villages further out. That’s Litchendorf,” She pointed towards the edge of the map, where a quaint little village was placed.

Unfortunately, all the place names and words were beyond Riza, her literacy basically non-existent.

“Which is Hotton?” Meren dutifully pointed it out.

“Good. From what you’ve gathered, Hotton has a demon nest. None of these other places do and these are too far away for the news to spread. And cities don’t get attacked by demons?”

“Aye. They’re safe havens for a reason.”

“I guess they go for the easier targets. If the map is accurate, the journey from here to Hotton should take about two days. We’ll assess the Dominion situation there before deciding whether to try our luck with the nest or go elsewhere.

“Rest up and prepare yourselves for the journey ahead.”

Riza was impressed with her team’s efficiency. Just one day spent in Sottoldorf and they were already on their way. Time extraordinarily well-spent; Daven and Sanders even had [Well of Spirit] level to level 10 meaning all that was left for them was the stubborn [Well of Essence].

For Riza as well, [Essence Monarch] climbed to level 4. That skill was progressing along nicely, it seemed.

The journey to Hotton was much like their previous journey; it was fairly uneventful. There were no nearby woods for demons to hide in, and much of the land was ploughed and sown with seeds, wheat taking up most of the countryside.

Riza thought that a combination of being a satellite village for a city and the massive water tower resulted in such plentiful farm land.

Riza’s amassing of critters continued as well as an impromptu education in reading and writing by Meren.

Now that she had a book and some charcoal to write with, Riza was eager to learn the language. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm didn’t directly translate into knowledge, nor was Meren that good of a teacher. She had delved right into the deep end, explaining a bunch of vocabulary but not grammar, sentence structure, or even the basic graphemes.

So, Riza took control of her teaching. Start very small, she knew. Firstly, the alphabet. Or, as it turned out, the syllabary, because of course this language wasn’t like English.

She had Meren pronounce the syllables and then wrote them down, letting Riza copy them over and over again to build up recognition and muscle memory.

From there, very basic and simple words to get an idea of how the syllables worked together. There were no etymology lessons involved, and the relationship between syllables was merely what were prevalent in words.

After that was basic sentence structure uses the vocabulary Riza knew. This, of course, would lead into a dissection of tenses and grammar but that was for another day. Frankly, Riza had made very little progress. Her instincts with everything was profoundly ‘English’.

That concluded the first day but the second day was much like the first. Overnight, a lot of information had somehow drifted out of her brain, requiring Riza to go over a lot of what they’d been over the day before.

Nonetheless, she powered through as best she could, taking frequent breaks to maintain focus and enthusiasm. She could at least read some words she had never seen before, and understand the most basic of sentences.

Meren and the guys continued to spar whenever they took a break, and [Well of Essence] refused to level. Another inconsequential day as the village of Hotton drew closer and closer.

The fields of wheat had transitioned into grass during the first day, having made a fair distance away from Sottoldorf. Now, instead of wheat popping up, the ground was obviously farmland but unsown and barren, no agricultural life at all.

As the village came into view, tell-tale signs of destruction were evident. The outermost houses were barely standing, rooves broken and walls crumbling down. Even the road was severely beaten up.

To their sides, the fields slowly filled up with corpses as they travelled. White, demon corpses littered the ground, not as numerous as Litchendorf but a dangerous amount nevertheless.

Blackened and burnt fences stood in lines, projecting outwards from the village.

And then the cause of it all came into sight, obscured by the gentle mound of a hill. Riza had stopped the wagon as she hopped off, quickly walking up the hill and seeing the crater for herself.

It was a similar size to Litchendorf, albeit both that one and this were utterly dwarfed by the first one she saw. Why the different scales? She didn’t know.

No demons were dead in the immediate vicinity of the hole, and the closer they got to the village, the denser the corpses were. A few looked like they had made it past the fences, but not many.

Riza noted the conspicuous absence of human corpses.

The wagon was still moving forwards, albeit at a slow pace, when Riza rejoined them.

“Our information seems to be correct. There’s a demon nest here and it looks like the latest storm might have irritated them.”

“Fuck. More dead,” Meren commented.

“Not necessarily. I saw no corpses and this wasn’t the first time they appeared?” Riza said, looking towards Daven and Sanders, the latter of which shook his head. “So there’s Dominion nearby.” She turned back towards the crater.

“And it looks like they didn’t manage to get far.”

“I don’t know about that,” Meren said, looking at the destruction of the village itself. “I guess we’ll see.”

“Ever seen anything like it before?”

“Once,” The tall woman said, crouching down before the sunken face of the giant demon.

No visible wounds. Dead mere strides from where it emerged. The rest of her little team were off in the village, gathering information, but she had wanted to see the creature up close first. See if it was the same one.

It wasn’t. Different breed, a different number of limbs and heads. The only similar feature was its size.

“Did you manage to kill it?” A timid looking woman dressed in the distinctive clothes of the Dominion asked beside her.

“Barely, and it was a group effort,” The armoured woman replied, smiling at the memory. “They’re both a good and bad sign.”

“H-How so?”

“Well, if you see one, you’re fucked if you can’t kill it. One the other hand, if the demons are throwing these at you, they’re desperate. It was about a year ago, in Hanglon province when I saw one. After we killed it, no more demons appeared in that area for a while.”

“Are they like… guardians? For the demons?”

“Beats me,” The warrior said, standing up. Her armour covered her from head to toe, with even her face obscured by a visor. Such expensive equipment clearly made the shorter woman anxious, and she couldn’t deny deriving a certain level of joy from the fact.

“What’s interesting about this one is, I can’t figure out how it died.”

“They’ve finished collecting information, Guardian Adewyn,” The timid woman spoke, her voice level and calm as she relayed the facts.

“Excellent! I am dying to hear what they’ve got to say.”