The next day Roxie, S'tance and wolf are riding along a platoon of guards all wearing more subdued colours and armour whilst each is equipped with a mace or axe, a pouch of salt and some article of silver, per Roxie's instructions.

The carts eventually stop, and they filter out into an alleyway, the group planning to infiltrate with the element of surprise. Wolf's group follow the guard captain as he leads them to a massive warehouse supposedly owned by a trader that, by their records, has never made a trade. They pile around a wall and the captain draws a doorway with some chalk and makes way for a guard with a book who holds his hand to it.

After a moment, the chalk outline depresses until it cuts all the way through with a muted grinding, then another guard steps forwards with a large tower shield and a glow of chi who shoves the door down then enters the warehouse to the surprise of the occupants.

Everyone follows after him with shields raised, Wolf and his group are the last to enter as the people inside are in chaos with some cowering, some running and some fighting against the guards. It doesn’t take long, nor any effort on their part to subdue the gang and question them.

“Where are the necromancers, where are the people you've been working with!” the captain shouts his question at the line of manacled gang members, evidenced by their similar tattoo on their ankles.

One of them speaks up “We don’t know, they have us bring food in and it’s gone by the morning”

“Captain!” the guard with the book calls out as he examines a wall “Got an illusion here”

The captain comes over as the mage finds and disables the magic, causing a large cascade of multi-coloured powder to fall from the reinforced steel door behind it. The captain then nods to the shield wielding guard who lowers himself, braces his shield and charges at the door with a trail of chi and kicked up dirt from spirit only to stop dead against the door that barely dents at his attempt. As the guard steps back, huffing a few breaths, the door creaks and the dent pops out.

Just as the guard crouches down to charge again, Wolf taps his shoulder and passes him “I got this” a latticework of arcing crimson springs to life to envelop him before he kicks the door, smashing it off its hinges and through the stairs above that made the roof of the passage down.

“Don’t worry, we got this” Roxie pats the shield bearer on the shoulder as she follows Wolf down with S'tance behind.

“You’re far from it, Roxie” Wolf comments as he leans into the room below.

Roxie snaps towards him “Hey!”

S’tance quietly says “You wouldn’t have been able to open the door either”

Roxie snaps back at S’tance “And like you could?”

“You’re just proving me right” Wolf turns around to glare at Roxie.

Roxie rushes forwards and pushes Wolf further into the room and out the way of a massive clawed hand that clamps into the doorway and pulls out a chunk of the brick. Waiting for them at the other end of a small antechamber is a pair of abominations, one is currently reeling in its arm whilst the other launches its one.

Without a word, Roxie dashes further in and draws her sword as she sidesteps the fist that is launched at her. Then a blur of steel and crimson passes her to meet the first. It reaches out, takes the abomination by the head, and folds it backwards on itself with a loud snap, it then spins around and brings an elbow into the face of the other, crushing it into the wall behind. Wolf stands between the two bodies, crimson chi wildly arcing across his body and armour that slowly fade.

He looks up to Roxie and only gives a nod before entering the doorway further in.

“The fuck” the words roll out of Roxie’s mouth as she follows not giving the two assailants a glance.

S’tance meanwhile pauses at the bodies until Roxie calls for him to follow.

They continue down another set of steps further into the underground, clearly going past the sewers until they reach a storage area where several crates of food are stored.

Roxie feels a breeze and turns around to find S’tance cleaning his sword as the vertically bisected body of another abomination that slips off the ceiling to slam onto the floor in front of the guard captain that’s followed by the shield and mage.

“Well…. Shit” he says as he stares at the crumpled body before tentatively stepping over it.

“You guys are starting to make me feel a bit inadequate” Roxie quips as they start moving again.

The next room is permeated by the smell of burnt meat, emanating from the corpses of several large creatures each burnt beyond recognition. Roxie steps into one of the pens and starts sifting through the congealed organs and meat to retrieve a large gemstone from one of the creatures.

“Anyone got an idea what this is for?” she turns around as she asks.

Wolf holds out his hands and catches the stone as Roxie walks over “Looks like a marker”

“I thought you were the expert?” the shield guard questions as he pokes another corpse.

“The Spawners don’t use magic, and definitely not gemstones, they'd be easier to track and stop if they were” Roxie roots around another to pull out a different crystal of the same shape and size.

“We can theorize later, after we apprehend the necromancer” Wolf pockets the crystal as he continues in.

Roxie shakes her head and follows after, flicking viscera off her hands “If the Spawners are destroyed—” she enters the next room and spots an abomination, missing a hand, with its head in its lap “Then the necromancer is gone”

Wolf has already set to sifting through the piles of destroyed equipment at the end of the room, S'tance meanwhile has set to examining the body and the guards are staring at the gore covered operating table to side with a large, gold ringed, crystal suspended above it.

Roxie opens her pouch of salt to find it a dark grey “Yeah, long gone now” Roxie steps up to the body and shoves a silver knife into the neck stump before walking to Wolf's side to sift through the equipment.

“Looks like witchcraft supplies” Wolf musses as he uncovers a large metal trigram.

The guard captain steps up “What we’re they doing with this then?”

Wolf continues sifting through the parts of metal and glass “Spirit refinement”

“So a witch was involved, or they learned how to do it themselves” the guard captain muses with Wolf.

“I know an inquisitor who can find the coven this comes from. If you'll let him have this” wolf looks down to the captain who gives his consent.

The rest of the chamber is left as it is for investigators as the group make their way out into the morning light. Each holding a hand up shield themselves from the newly risen sun.

“This isn't good, is it?” S'tance asks as they stand in the street.

“What? The necromancer getting away. Or the fact that they've discovered the secrets of witchcraft?” Roxie asks as she paces along the paved stone.

S'tance thinks on it for a moment before giving a heartless laugh “Both”

“They don’t know witchcraft, it's too esoteric for them to just stumble across and be proficient” Wolf chimes in with his own thoughts “Roxie. What is their goal?”

Roxie sighs as she rubs an ear “The few times we’ve been able to ask, they just ramble on about the perfect body and how each of the—”

She's interrupted by a hundred roaring cries and the nearby manhole launching into the air. The group turns to watch as clawing hands start grasping at the opening and the paved stone of the street, each pulling up a mass of dirty bodies that surge towards the group.

Unfazed by the horde, Wolf steps forwards and stabs his hand into the stone below which begins to illuminate with a crimson glow. Then without a hint on effort, he flips the pavement between him and the manhole up and atop the mutants, crushing them under two feet of stone and dirt which quickly crumbles as his chi snakes back to his body.

Wolf walks forwards and looks down into the manhole, at the pile of bodies below before flying backwards and onto his back. Launching out of the hole is another abomination, clad in plates made of callous and a frame of bone.

It breaks into pursuit of the prone Wolf who calls out “Stay back” as he grabs another slab of stone and smashes it across the abomination’s head; the fragments arc with chi and reconstitutes into a club which is brought back around into the abominations guarding arm.

As it stumbles back, he stands and touches the end to the ground and swings it around with a mass of stone on the end which he uses to sweep its legs out from it, laying it out across the ground where he then slams the end into its chest, caving it in and killing it. It then lurches up and punches him in the gut, launching him a few meters backwards, mangling its hand and destroying its arm muscles enough that the damage can be seen under the skin.

The abomination slowly gets on its feet as it starts giving off a wrongness that causes the few on lookers to faint as the destroyed hand and muscles start weaving back into form.

Roxie quickly launches forwards and with a flash of her own chi and stabs the arm with a silver knife, causing it to stop healing. The undead groans and makes a slow swipe which Roxie ducks under, she then stabs a fork into the other and brings up her axe, getting a shallow cut into the callous.

She steps under its arm and makes another swing with chi infusing her arms which gets through the armour and severs the muscles, rendering that arm useless. The thing snaps around with another unnatural burst of speed, twisting its upper half independent on its lower and bites her, digging its teeth into her shoulder but not getting through her armour. Roxie pulls back and the head comes with her, leaving the body to fall. Roxie quickly pulls a handful of silverware and stabs the head in the neck, slowly digging further in until it stops and falls off, finally dead.

“Thanks, S’tance” Roxie nods to him before looking around, spotting the cause of the revival.

Sitting atop one of the roofs is a head, hairless and pale with its eyes and mouth stitched shut, trapping gems inside. As quickly as she spots it, it rots, fading into ash and its gems cracking into powder.

Roxie gives a hiss of annoyance and goes to Wolf, ignoring S’tance who’s prodding the corpse “Hey. Not too banged up?”

Wolf finishes taking off the bent in plate and reveals a massive bruise on his stomach.

“Hey, we match” Roxie chuckles as she points to her own.

Wolf smirks, then starts chuckling himself and shakes his head at Roxie “Yeah we do”

“Did you steal cutlery from Maxus?” S’tance asks as he finishes his inspection of the body.

“Where else was I going to get silver knifes from, that dwarf didn’t have any” Roxie stands with her hand on her hips.

He holds up a fork “But these too?”

“They’re sharp” she just shrugs, eliciting a laugh from Wolf.

“C’mon you two. Seeing as nothing else has jumped out at us, it’s safe to head home. Let’s get paid and take a break” he stands up and jerks his head for them to follow “You’re also returning any silverware you still have”

A week later and Roxie is heading home with a large pouch of coins and a guidebook for Yggdrasil in her hand, leading S’tance and Wolf across the various bridges across all the way to her home.

“You’ll love it. Don’t have all the plumbing of Maladom, but everyone’s nice and we have the amenities” Roxie chirps at S’tance as they near the village gates.

S’tance shields his eyes from the sun as he looks to the village “Sounds nice”

“I’m honestly not sure, you sounded like you were describing paradise instead of a frontier village by the way you were talking” Wolf speaks up from behind, also gazing at the village in front.

“hey—” she shrugs concomitantly “It’s where I grew up”

“I thought you grew up in Besholm?” S’tance asks, as they stop at the gate.

Roxie bangs on the wooden gates and shouts at it “Hey!” then turns back to S’tance “That’s where I was trained”

A harpy looks over the fence before gasping and disappearing, quickly pulling open the gates for them. They try to make their way into town but get stopped regularly by every villager who wants to greet Roxie, asking her how she is and to tell them what she’s done. Eventually, Roxie notices how long it’s taking and asks one of the guards to guide Wolf and S’tance to Elder as she takes her time to talk to everyone.

As they fallow behind his guide, Wolf asks a question “What are you?”

The guard gives a light chuckle “I’m a Faulz. We were one of the servant races, you guys never saw us because we did all the labour whilst our cousins did the greeting and worked with the gods personally” he turns around and taps his ram horns.

“My apologies” Wolf nods to him.

“It’s alright—” he gives a noncommittal wave behind him “Plenty of races you never heard from here on out, although your mostly just gonna see harpies and spiders here, and those Manticores but you already met with Roxie”

“Met is word for it” S’tance chuckles to himself, joined by the Faulz.

“Well, he’s inside. Just keep your eyes on the floor, he keeps himself pretty low to the ground” the Faulz opens the door to the main hall for the pair.

Inside is the usual large array of tables and benches but with the addition of an extra floor made entirely out of cobwebs with pieces of furniture suspended by the thick roped strands. All of the seats, both on the ground and in the air, are occupied by Beasts and Titanoids alike all contributing to the uneven cacophony of conversations.

Wolf follows S’tance who weaves to the back of the hall where various notably small chairs and tables have been setup with a bright pink harpy and a large manticore walking between the various seated children.

S’tance walks up and taps the manticore on the shoulder “Hello, miss Meladon”

She smiles and jumps up to two legs to give him a hug “S’tance, how are you?”

He smiles back and reciprocates the hug “Uhh, I’m good. We're here with Roxie, just finished a job so were taking some time off”

“Oh that's good” she hops off and leans to look at Wolf “And who's your friend here?”

He steps forwards and says “I'm Wolf”

Meladon quirks an eyebrow “Just Wolf?” he nods, to which she slowly responds “Right?”

“Were here to meet with the elder to discuss out living arrangements here” He slowly turns to meet the aged spider who quietly descended on a thread.

“We should have some houses availa—” he’s interrupted by the door slamming open and another manticore trotting in with Roxie struggling by the scruff of her neck.

He stops in front of Meladon and drops Roxie “Looks who’s back!”

Roxie smacks him on the nose which causes him to flinch, dropping her “Dad!”

Wolf awakes to the sound of a small tinny roar, he then pushes down the head of his dragon clock, silencing it. He gets up and starts his mourning routine, push ups, a run and breakfast.

“Morning Wolf!” Roxie turns from one of the side roads offering a cookie.

Wolf takes it and slows down for her “Good to see you. You’re hunting a mana beast today correct?”

“Yeah, the hunters spotted it yesterday near a cave” Roxie points out into the forest behind the palisade.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Wolf asks without concern.

Roxie gives him a look “Yeah I know what I’m doing. Got an orichalcum sword, don’t touch the thing and I’ve been practicing my meditation”

“Good. Don’t want to die being ambitious” He takes a bite of the cookie “This is good”

“Trilly baked them” Roxie gives a knowing smile.

“Need to thank her” He looks over the cookie before taking another bite and accepting the bag of the rest.

She laughs and shakes her head “Is that all you need to do?”

He mulls the question over “I’m too old for her”

“She's about sixty, twenty years over prime. You’re not too old” She puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m one hundred and fifty-seven” He says flatly.

Roxie snorts “You're really not too old”

Wolf gives a small smile in return as he takes another bite.

They continue through the village to its edge where a large arena is set. It's currently hosting S'tance, who's facing off against four Fault and a harpy, each wielding wooden swords and attempting to hit him but only manage to be parried and shoved to the side.

Roxie jogs up to the rough fence and leans over “Hey, S'tance! Where are those throwing knifes of yours?”

The others pause to let him respond “In my room. On my side desk”

Roxie jogs towards the nearby house as Wolf waits and watches the fights, giving pointers as the opponents fail even when they all go in at once.

S’tance resolved that by switching positions with one of the others, getting out of the encirclement and quickly striking half of them before slowly taking out the rest. Roxie returns and they continue to the main hall where they get breakfast before breaking off to gear up.

They trek through the forest, following the marks left by the hunters to the mana beasts lair. As they get closer, it’s influence on the forest becomes clearer as the plants take on strange hues and shapes, defying the forests natural biology.

The plants turn from strange to otherworldly outside its cave, resembling reaching limbs and flowing flesh instead of benign vegetation. Roxie stops Wolf and creep’s forwards, unsheathing her Orichalcum sword as she does so. She stops by the opening to the cave, closing her eyes and focusing.

After a second, the beast charges out; standing on four legs and resembling a panther covered in feathers all in solid and consistent blue. Its aura of manipulation extends far past Wolf to bring the forest to a standstill as it searches for something.

Roxie springs her ambush and lands a deep cut into the beasts’ side, pulling some of its glow into the sword. The beast leaps away and climbs up the hill, pulling dirt and stone onto itself to form a suit of armour. Roxie pulls a knife from her side and throws it, managing a glancing blow which causes nearly all the armour on that side to fall off and more of its glow to come off.

Roxie arcs with purple and leaps to meet the beast as it reels back, making an overhead swing that contacts with its head, absorbing the extremity and causing her sword glow orange with heat.

The beast, again falls back, forgoing armour entirely by throwing it at her which she blocks with a chi infused wing. The beast leaps and swings at Roxie which she counters by ducking under it and taking off its limb.

The beast fails to catch itself and skids across the ground, warping the dirt and stone as it does so until it bursts, nearly catching Roxie as it melts the ground a few meters around it leaving only a rough divot and a solid orb of mana.

Roxie leaves her sword stuck in the ground to cool before carefully dropping another knife onto the orb which harmlessly pings off it with no transfer.

Sighing, she picks up the core and pockets the knife before walking off to retrieve the other. As she searches, Wolf steps up to the sword and presses an empty battery which stops its glowing as Roxie returns.

“Hey, where do you get those?” Roxie asks as she grabs the sword.

Wolf places it back in his pouch “Magic shops”

Roxie just looks at him for a moment, not doing anything until she says “Of course”

They return home with Roxie happily humming to herself and looking over the core.

As they entered town, Wolf asked an important question “What elements are you focusing—”

She was gone, little trace other than a few turned heads. Sighing to himself, he made way to his residence, asking the harpy next door to him to be told of any news.

The news came in the night; Roxie had been brought over to the hospital after being found unconscious and covered in blood. Wolf calmly walks to the hospital and up to Roxie's side. Whilst she's been cleaned of blood, her wings still drip it.

He grabs one and carefully pulls it open, earning himself an ineffectual bat over the head by a shocked Tiltain who then pauses to stare at the revealed patches of light blue currently growing across her wings webbing.

“Did Roxie's birthplace or Besholm have any ambient mana?” He asks as Damien starts opening the other wing and wiping away the blood.

Tiltain and Meladon share a look as she answers “No? Look, if you know something that could help our kitten!”

“Her soul has probably had the equivalent of an allergic reaction” Tiltain let’s go and turns to face the pair.

“If that's the case then I can...” Damien trails off as he puts a hand over Roxie's collar bone and closes his eyes.

“Y'know, I don’t like falling asleep and waking up in a different bed” Roxie grumbles as she wakes shortly after.

“”’Kitten!”” her parents leap and start hugging and fretting over her.