Chapter 5: Change

Her body hurt. She ran and ran but she couldn’t escape it. Her very blood screaming at her to kill and devour. She didn’t want to. The two females looked delicious. They truly did, but she didn’t want to eat them. Her body was in pain, incomparable to what she remembered when she first awoke. Thousands of spears, jagged and keen, dug through her skin with every passing moment. She could only run, screaming through day and night, a red light flashing underneath her skin with every step, every beat of her accelerated heart. She didn’t want to eat, but her desire consumed her.

Skill [Blood Oath] has @($!^&#^$*)!%(@#%

Her mind was devoured by her own Skill. She couldn’t think or move, her body held hostage by an unknown force. Her body ran, faster than what her body should have been capable of. Her body couldn’t handle it, the muscles obviously exceeding their limits and started rupturing under the extreme strain. Blood poured out throughout her body, forming a river of blood trailing behind the mad figure. Her body came upon an area filled with hundreds of lives, a local town located far in the countryside. Its inhabitants at rest with few guards as no one in their right mind would ever decide their remote location and subpar fields were worthy of attacking. But whatever controlled her body didn’t care.

A mass of blood moved through the night, slaughtering the villagers in their sleep, dying sheets in red and consuming their bodies before moving to the next. The night grew cold, still. Not a single voice or hint of life came from the village the following morning. A small time merchant arrived at the village a few hours later, only to his surprise to find nobody in the fields. He checked the insides of the houses but could only see red sheets in each of the houses, as if everyone had just vanished. It was only to his delight when he discovered that all the belongings were now considered ‘ownerless’ as he confiscated anything valuable from the houses and quickly left before others stumbled on his strange happenstance.

The village was then found by a group of countryside adventures questing for fame and fortune. The four members of the group only managed to report this piece of news to the nearby Hamon City days later, which was then quickly relayed to the Imperial capital of Balros. A prosecution force was sent out to the village, but any tracks or clue that might have been left behind had already faded at that moment, the only evidence left being the red sheets and rotten floorboards. They could only speculate the motives of the culprit, but with a lack of knowledge they were unable to conclude so. But none knew of the true culprit, who was currently laying down in a pool of blood hundreds of leagues to the east, right on the outskirts of Viscor, City of Craftsman and Commerce.

“Oh mother of-!”

A young woman carrying a basket to gather herbs for her concoctions had found a naked body outside the forest. She knew that no one would ever commit a crime in the city under the watchful eyes of the Watch, but this was simply too much. Leaving a body outside in the open, and fresh too, she could see blood flowing out from the body, spilled out far enough for her to step in it had she not been paying attention to the ground. Only when she saw the slight moving of the chest did she realize it was still alive. She dropped her basket, her herbs spilling out onto the ground soaking in the deep scarlet blood. She ran to the body pulling out a glass from under her robes and quickly poured out what seemed to be a potion from a bottle she pulled from who knows where. The bright red liquid sloshed around the glass as it was put near what seemed to be the mouth of the body. The body tried to resist, but the weak resistance was no match for the Alchemist as she forced the body to drink. Only after a few moments does the blood finally stop pooling around her, visibly at least. The body was still covered in blood and weak from the loss thereof. The [Alchemist] picked her up and carried her back into the city, albeit with shocked looks from the other residents and an attentive glare from all the members of the Watch. Gazing at her from their various posts across the wall and towers.

She moved through the endless streets, twisting and turning through them unblocked by the foot traffic due to anyone spotting her quickly moving out of her path. The elderly looked at her dismissively, mothers covering the eyes of their children as they asked about what she carried, and others within her line of trade watched her disapprovingly. She didn’t care, she had a life to save and nothing can stop her.

The Alchemist ran into the back room of her own dimly lit shop, carefully laying the body on a table she had just cleared earlier in the morning before grabbing tufts of herbs from the many shelves and potted plants randomly placed about, moving to her worktable covered in glassware and tools. She began throwing the herbs into a mortar and began the grinding them into a fine powder. She grabbed more herbs and other ingredients from her surroundings and started melting them in a vial over a lit flame, letting the heat diffuse over the entire mixture. She grabbed a glass and filled it with water, throwing the powder that she had just grinded earlier and stirred. The clear liquid had turned into bright green color and she started sipping from the glass, clearly enjoying the refreshment she had made. She had always been an oddball, even by the viewpoint of other alchemists. She should teach them a lesson or two about who’s the oddball. Now where was she? Ah! The potion!

She took the vial that was left on the fire for a bit too long and splashed the murky brown substance into another bowl of which she started stirring furiously.

“Can’t let my precious materials go to waste.”

She said as a grin appeared on her face. The substance started to solidify within the bowl, the final product being a rather large amount of brown paste. She took the bowl and moved towards the body left on the table. Only after looking closely at the bloody mess of a body does she see that it belonged to a young girl, she assumed that her height would only reach up to her thigh. What could have possibly happened for her to end up in that state?

Various thoughts swirled through her mind about her mysterious patient as she started applying the paste onto the girl’s body. The lower portion of her body seemed human at least, but only when she reached the face portion did she see the ears. Though they weren’t uncommon around these parts but a half-elf was still a shocking sight nonetheless. Of course, she didn’t know that her assumptions about the child’s race were wrong but she still smiled regardless. After all the paste had been used, she walked back to the front of the shop before she realized something was amiss.

“My herbs!”

She ran back out of the shop as quickly as she ran in, and started dashing down the streets unburdened. The city’s residence simply moved out of her way as if this were a common daily occurrence, leaving a certain devil alone in the backroom of an apothecary.

The girl had only just woken up, her body still in pain and in tatters from what had happened before. All she remembered was the unbearable hunger clawing at her mind, and anything after was left blank. She woke in the unlit room, though she could see perfectly even with the absence of light. She found herself lying on a table covered in some kind of stuff which made her want to itch her body all over. But she couldn’t move. Her body still refused to listen to her commands. The best she could do was twitch a finger but nothing else.

Panicked, the girl started to flail about, except without the movement part. She couldn’t move, a prisoner trapped within her own body. Her mind raced to find a reason where there was none until she found her world flipping upside down.

*CRASH*

Her body woke up while she was flailing around and had actually done what she ordered it to, flail around. She fell from the table landing with the top of her head hitting the ground first. Her bottom half whirling around had actually bumped into a shelf with enough force to knock it down. The shelf toppled over on its back, landing on the ground with a loud crash and the clattering of broken glass spreading across the floor.

Alarmed voices were audible from the streets and a loud series of footsteps moved towards the closed store.

“ISBETH!”

A large man in both stature and muscle opened the door to the back room. He brought with him a gloriously big stick as a weapon, his eyes squeezing to make out what had happened in the dark room. The dim light from outside poured into the room, allowing him to spot reflected light from the glass shards scattered across the floor.

“I swear if you die on me before paying me back, I’ll kill you again!”

The man charged into the room before tripping over something soft. He fell to the floor and landed with an even louder crash than the shelf before him did. He groaned, turning over to see what he had tripped over.

In the dim light, he could see the face of a young girl with scarlet eyes. Her snow white skin shined with an unearthly glow and below…

The man covered his eyes at such a shameless sight. There was a naked girl covered in brown goop and blood in the back of Isbeth’s shop. Her tastes were quite… exquisite before but this was taking it much too far.

The two awkwardly sat in silence, the girl peering at the odd man before her wondering why he wasn’t attacking her as he did before. Her body tensed prepared for the slightest movement from the man before loud resounding footsteps and an angry voice could be heard from the front of the shop.

“ROY! TELL ME NOW WHY YOU DECIDED TO BURST INTO MY SHOP AN- Oh.”

The Alchemist known as Isbeth stomped into the back room to see the sight of a grown man on his bum with his eyes covered. The girl she had saved before was on the ground as well, her scarlet eyes veering to lock onto hers.

“Oh.”

Isbeth was the kind of person to forget even the most recent things, and she had clearly forgotten what she had in her back room for a moment. She eyed the room to see one of her shelves collapsed on the ground with glass shards glittering in the light. A cunning gleam could be seen in her eyes.

“Roy!”

“Yes Isbeth?”

“You are lucky that that shelf was only for storage! You better be paying me back for it!”

Isbeth snapped to the man as he stood back up from the ground. He walked to Isbeth stick in hand, the two could be seen as a rather comical pair as the giant of a man was a full two heads taller than the woman.

“First, I didn’t break them. Second, you still owe me for all the goods I lent you.”

Isbeth made a rather nasty grin as she replied back to the man towering over her.

“Then it’s settled. You owe me money and I owe you money. Now we’re even.”

Isbeth walked past the stupefied man and towards the girl lying on the ground, scarlet eyes still staring at them even while they were talking.

“Wha- But that’s not how it works!”

The man said as he turned on his heel, confronting Isbeth once again. Only to be shushed by the Halfling Alchemist.

“Quiet, you will disturb my patient.”

Isbeth reached out a hand towards the girl on the ground, offering her hand to the girl to help her stand. But the girl didn’t know of this and tried backing up, she tried jerking her entire body away from the strange hand but she couldn’t. Her body was still weak and her tensed muscles no better. She fell onto the ground after colliding with the leg of a table in an uncoordinated mess. Her muscles couldn’t move as she told them to, resulting in the rather painful episode she had experienced.

“Now now, I’m not here to hurt you. The restoration paste is still in effect so I advise staying still. After you’ve recovered a fair bit I’ll be bathing you alright? Can’t have you covered in blood like that.”

Isbeth consoled what appeared to be a frightful young girl. Discussing how she would care for the lost child as if she were her own. The man behind her, Roy, watched the scene with a rather disgruntled expression, his eyes wandering anywhere but towards the naked child.

“So, where’d you find her?”

“Outside the gates, you can’t believe the state I found her in. Her entire body was leaking blood, too much blood I’d say. An entire pool of blood formed before I found her. I took her home and now we’re here.”

Isbeth said as she moved her hands to the young girl’s face, caressing the bloody face before lifting her up and placing her on a cushion on a chair in the corner. The girl’s expression was rather miffed as she wanted to break free but couldn’t. Though, to an outsider’s perspective, the girl looked rather cute despite all the blood and restoration paste caking her body. Of course, it was a sight only Isbeth beheld as Roy still to his best effort avoided the direction the girl was in.

“Now, if you excuse me, I have some explaining to do with the Watch. They seemed rather pissed that I dragged a bloody corpse into the city for no apparent reason. How boring those fools are.”

Isbeth smirked an unnatural grin, Roy sighed at the unladylike display.

“Look, it’s your own damn fault that this happened. You should know better than to do this.”

Isbeth suddenly snapped back around and glared at Roy.

“Then are you saying I should’ve just left the dying girl there? If I hadn’t done what I did, I’d practically be a murderer!”

The two started bickering over the entire situation, blowing it completely out of proportion. The girl in question though simply stared at the two. Her body was in pain but it wasn’t as horrible as it was before. If she had known the cause then maybe she would have been able to prevent it, but she didn’t. She just sat there, watching the two bicker for a while before they both left the shop, leaving her alone again. Forgotten. The only thing she could do was to wait for their eventual return, as a warm feeling she never felt before grew in her chest in the meanwhile.

Name

Unnamed

Age

11 Days

Race

Lesser Devil (Scarlet)

HP

18/45 (+.015/s)

MP

96/96 (+.027/s)

SP

32/32 (+.015/s)

STR

15

INT

23

WIS

13

CON

13

AGL

24

LUK

3

Current Ailments | Muscles: Torn | Recovering

State: Recovering

Skills

Level

Proficiency

[Demonic Vitality]

1/10

48.4%

[Hunter’s Eyes]

2/10

87.6%

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[Twisted Fate]

N/A

N/A