Kaldalis led the somber procession back to Cotanaku. Balrim, being the only healer, apparently had the lowest Vigor stat, and so Garyung had to carry him for a little while. They could have waited, but they all wanted to get out of here. Onirioago’s followers seemed disinclined to engage with them now that she was dead, and Kaldlais didn’t want to give them time to rally, in case they decided to respond to this with violence.

Kaldalis was able to take his mind off the gravity of the situation on the walk by acknowledging that defeating Onirioago had rewarded him with experience points. Ludonarrative dissonance helped him feel less like a murderer by taking a wrecking ball to his immersion. She was an enemy combatant, and more than that, was a virtual creation. As much as he thought of her - and Heluna, and Gavinkim, and everyone else - as a person, it was a little delusional. They were videogame characters.

The experience points he’d received from Onirioago was enough to get him to level 15, which he tried not to think too hard about. If using a War Weapon to kill an NPC was literally the most efficient way to get exp, he was suddenly beyond terrified of the idea of someone like Voker getting his hands on one. A self-centered dickhead like that could justify eradicating an entire town for the sake of experience points.

Being level 15 would let him unlock another spear ability once he capped his skill out, but it would be a while before he got there and found out what it was. But Kaldalis did have something that demanded his attention now. Apparently he’d reached the point where character customization became a factor. His character panel revealed that he had a choice between three class abilities to add to his arsenal. As they walked back through the jungle to get back to Cotanaku, he revised his options.

Stalwart

Reduce all incoming damage by 3% at all times. Stacks with other similar bonuses and cooldowns.

Shrug Off

Gain temporary hit points equal to 50% of your maximum hit points for 30 seconds. Damage dealt to these temporary hit points inflict no knockback or flinch. 90 second cooldown.

Reprisal

Reduce incoming damage by 10% for 30 seconds. Damage absorbed by this ability is dealt back to the attacker. 120 second cooldown.

Considering the options, he felt himself drawn towards Stalwart initially. Flat damage reduction, permanently active, would likely reduce the most numerical damage over the whole time he was in the game. It would apply to all the attacks he suffered, even if he was ambushed. But he discarded the idea immediately. The actual reduction was very low, and as much as it would help to bring all his incoming damage down, he always felt like he was in more danger of getting bursted down than he was of losing a battle of attrition. Attrition was the game he was already winning. He didn’t need any help winning those kinds of fights.

Reprisal grabbed his attention next. It was the only option that offered to increase his damage output, even if it would mean intentionally taking damage to trigger it. His personal output was so low that every little bit would help. He thought back to the last boss fight in the dungeon they’d done. The giant beetle monster had been hitting him for about three hundred total damage. Dealing back 10% of the hits he took from the boss would have inflicted… 30 damage? It wasn’t much, but it was basically half of the sixty-some damage his own attacks had been dishing out in the same fight. Even without the extra damage, it was still half of his Endure cooldown’s damage reduction for three times the duration. He almost selected it before his accountant brain started to chime in. Intentionally taking two hundred and seventy damage in order to deal back thirty was not a winning trade, and in terms of raw damage reduction, it was actually less effective than Stalwart, due to its prohibitively long cooldown. And the wording on Stalwart implied that Reprisal’s damage reduction wouldn’t stack with Endure, or future cooldowns he might earn.

Meanwhile, Shrug Off didn’t seem to have any downsides. Giving him a huge shield on top of his hit points was a solid defensive ability, and would stack with other cooldowns where Reprisal might not. And being able to keep his feet in the face of enemies’ blows would help, since he relied so much on his ability to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge around attacks. Its value would be unmatched while playing solo, too, as it would effectively be on-demand healing for over a thousand hit points, even if they were only temporary. The only cost of picking Shrug Off was that he wouldn’t have access to the others, so he wasn’t going to get something that would actually be percentage damage reduction. The long-term usefulness of Shrug Off would depend on how well his HP scaling matched the damage scaling.

Considering they were transporting the corpse of someone he had killed, Kaldalis felt like it would be in extremely poor taste to try and ask if he could respec in the future after choosing an ability. With an effort of will, he selected Shrug Off. It was just the most attractive option to him for now, and he could hope - or even dream - that his HP scaling wasn’t going to hose him in the long term.

The walk to Cotanaku was otherwise uneventful. It felt fitting that they didn’t get harassed by monsters. This was a funeral procession, not an adventuring party. Just the same, they moved carefully and cautiously, keeping Gavinkim at the center of the group, with everyone arrayed around him to screen for would-be attackers.

Four times, people emerged from the jungle at them. Kaldalis recognized them as members of Onirioago’s troop of goons, and no matter how they approached - ready to attack, stalking for an ambush, or demanding an explanation - they were universally stunned by the sight of her corpse being marched back to town. Some fled, some wailed in anguish, and some got that same look of haunting despair that Dalgaard had, dropping to their knees.

Kaldalis hoped that the ability to instantly mollify them without having to physically subdue them would calm him down. Instead, it was unnerving. What had Onirioago done to them? What had she said? It was like they viewed her as a god, and this proof of her mortality was breaking their tiny little worldview.

“What exactly is our next move?” Balrim asked at length, when it was apparent that they were going to make it to Cotanaku without further interruption.

“I don’t know,” Kaldalis said. “We need to get to the council before we know.”

“Well, let’s think it through before we get buried in conversation,” Balrim continued. “What are our goals? What are we trying to accomplish?”

“There’s no way to know,” Kaldalis snapped, shooting a glare back at the talsar. “The magnitude of what we’ve done is too big to plan around without someone more informed than we are.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Balrim shot back, crossing his arms. “We took down a threat to the town.”

“A threat to the town that was still a Zaran citizen,” Garyung said with the quiet despair that made it clear that it was his problem more than anyone else’s. “With a new Zaran town just next door, this isn’t a decision we can make for ourselves.”

The ridges above Balrim’s eyes that served as his brows arched up with shock and surprise. For a second he seemed about to protest, but he held his peace after a moment’s consideration.

Kaldalis felt like a monster for that. He’d taken a life - permanently ending a person’s existence - and he was worried about the political ramifications. His disregard for the deed weighed on him more heavily than the deed itself. There was no way of telling what the long-term effects would be, and he was right to be concerned. Even without thinking about the implications for relations with Zara, what if Onirioago was integral to the overarching plot of Rundan? What if she was going to have information that he was supposed to barter with her form in a later part of the story? What if this trapped them all in a dead end down the line?

Finding himself even entertaining thoughts about those matters gave him a nauseous feeling. Wasn’t it heartless to be focused on how her death would affect him personally? He didn’t think he was morally obligated to mourn Onirioago of all people, but he should have at least been able to think about the loss her death represented without instantly making it about himself.

As the group emerged from the jungle towards the gates of Cotanaku, they tightened up their formation around Gavinkim. Even without speaking, they knew it would be best to keep word of what had happened from spreading around, and the group used their formation to shield Onirioago’s body from view.

Kaldalis almost jumped out of his skin when Courbois seemed to materialize out of thin air beside him.

“What happened?” she asked quietly, giving a loose look over the group. “Where is she? She didn’t show up here, but-”

Kaldalis shifted aside and gave her a brief view of the cargo Gavinkim was carrying.

“Holy shit,” she whispered. “What happened?”

Kaldalis gestured for her to follow. “I don’t want to tell this story more times than I have to. You can hear it when the council does.”

Courbois fell into step alongside the group, and they made quick time to Cotanaku’s town hall. They didn’t let themselves relax until they were inside the building, and as soon as they were all within, Garyung closed, locked, and barred the front door.

“Word of this doesn’t leave this building for as long as possible,” Garyung said, leading the way to the back towards the stairs that would go up into the council’s meeting room. “If Zara is going to hear about this, it needs to be from us, not the rumor mill.”

“We have to move fast, then,” Reno pointed out, “all her little miniony folks know. We’ll have to stay ahead of them realizing how big of a political snafu this is.”

“Shouldn’t be hard,” Myrin muttered, “since they all seemed to be struck dumb by the sight of her.”

Garyung led them up the stairs and towards the council meeting chamber. Even before they arrived, Kaldalis could hear raised voices.

“We have to consider the possibility that they were telling the truth,” Ikzoz bellowed, shouting over the commotion. “If they were, and she has him, then we have an obligation to-”

Garyung silenced the argument simply by walking into the room. Kaldalis was right behind him, and as he entered he saw that the whole council was gathered here. They all looked between Garyung and Kaldalis with obvious relief. Onirioago’s minion must have passed on her initial demands, and then left them to discuss their response. They had thought Garyung was a hostage, and were discussing paying the ransom right as he walked through the door. That would be a relief.

That relief - and the moment of calm within the room - only lasted until Gavinkim came into the room behind them.

Dropping Onirioago’s corpse dramatically onto the meeting table.

All hell broke loose.