Samantha picked a nearby spot against a tree to sit down and faced away from the corpse. She hissed in pain as she let go of the now-bloody knife. Every shallowly closed wound had reopened after using so much speed to kill her enemy.

She could feel fresh warmth on her chest and back from the trickles of blood seeping through the scabs where she had been skewered, but her right hand was in the worst shape since she had used it to strike. She was in no condition for battle, and would need to recover some of her strength before continuing on. Silas hopped tiredly over to her and laid down beside her, leaning against her left thigh and sharing his warmth.

“You’re really dirty.” he said matter of factly.

Samantha couldn’t help but chuckle weakly, “To be fair, I did die. It would be more surprising if I looked my best, no?”

He tilted his head so he could properly look at her, “What was dying like?”

Samantha shivered remembering the cold chill of death right before her vision went black, “I didn’t like it. It was scary, cold, and I don’t plan to do it again if I can help it. After I died though, something interesting happened…”

She proceeded to tell Silas about her experience in her dantian, doing her best to describe the concept of a library since he had never seen one before. She didn’t think that he fully understood everything she talked about, but he listened attentively anyway.

“Is that where I’ll go if I die, too?” he asked.

“I think so. The new bloodline skill we unlocked said your spirit will reside in my dantian if you’re killed. I don’t know if you’ll experience it the same way I did though.”

Silas gave a short huff of acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything more. They enjoyed each other's company in relative silence for several minutes as Samantha healed and Silas consumed more healing herbs to speed the process. When she felt strong enough to get moving again, she stood up with a pained groan.

Silas stretched once before following after her, “Where are we going next?”

Samantha pulled up a notification she had specifically been avoiding looking at, but couldn’t justify ignoring any longer.

*Ding* Congratulations, you have slain a cultivator of equal or greater rank!

Spire qi collection has been suspended. You have been granted first access to cultivate their refined energy as a reward for your victory. Temporary purified nexus will dissipate in one week if not absorbed, if you go further than 15 feet from the source after beginning cultivation, or once all qi has been processed.

This was not the first time she had seen this message–it was the same one she received after killing the Rat King. As much as she would like to pack as much power into her new core as she could before ascending, now wasn’t the right time to do it. If she began cultivating from the temporary nexus now, it would dissipate if she left the area before fully absorbing its power. She didn’t know how long that would take, and she couldn’t risk her family being attacked while she stayed out here.

Even though she would not be cultivating the area immediately, Samantha began to move Alex’s body away from the site of the temporary nexus. She was glad to discover that the fount was not directly tied to his corpse, and remained in place even after the body was removed. She did this for a couple of reasons. First, even though Alex certainly was no friend of hers, she still didn’t like the idea of cultivating over his headless body. Second, it would keep scavengers and other wildlife away from the site.

After she moved the corpse a good distance away, she finally responded to Silas’s question, “I’m a mess right now, and I still need more time to heal. I’m thinking we might as well search the safehouse to see if I can get cleaned up and if there are any supplies that could help us.”

Silas squeaked once before hopping in the direction of the safehouse, “Since you’re hurt, I’ll help you search.”

Samantha smiled at this small act of consideration, and went to pick up Alex’s straight sword before following after him. The good quality sword was very heavy by mortal standards, and was clearly built to be wielded by someone with Bronze ranked strength. The hilt and blade were slightly thicker than standard mortal weapons, and though the metal the sword was made of was devoid of obvious defects, it was also nothing special–perhaps a high quality steel. Although she was not terribly familiar with straight sword forms, she knew enough basics from her fundamental martial training to wield it effectively. It was better than walking around with the torture chamber knife or unarmed, in any case.

The only other small detour she allowed herself was fetching the spirit pearl from within Torak. She used the straight sword to cut it out of his body, and was pleased to find that it was a Rank 2-High core. After wiping it down, she handed the beast core to Silas to consume. He was the one who had defeated the Dire Wolf, after all. It was only fair that he took the spoils. He took the pearl of energy into his mouth and began absorbing its contents without complaint.

When they reached the safehouse, Silas immediately went off to explore some of the rooms she had previously opened. To give him more options on where to search, she opened every other room in the building before trying to find a suitable change of clothes, and maybe a bathroom to clean up. If she wanted to return to town without much fuss, she couldn’t look like she had just taken a bath in her own blood before rolling around in the mud.

Fortunately, there were several bedrooms with changes of clothes in them that she could pick through, and it didn’t take long for her to find a set of mundane casual clothes that were about her size. Then, blessedly, she found a room with a well pump that she could use to bathe with. After washing the filth off of her body, she changed into the fresh set of clothes and felt like a new woman.

“Samantha! I found something!” Silas chirped excitedly.

She followed the binding thread to Silas’s location, and was unsurprised to see that he was in the study. If anything of value was hidden here, it would be in Lord Braxand’s personal office space.

“Here! This book smells really nice.” Silas said, his nub tail wagging as he pointed his nose at a thick tome on the bottom of a bookshelf.

She kneeled down and pulled the book titled “Anatomical Study of Beasts in the Southern Plains,” from the shelf. The book was unusually heavy, even considering the amount of pages it had. She opened to the first page and quickly began to thumb through the contents. She passed by the impressively detailed illustrations without reading further, only pausing briefly when a spirit beast she didn’t recognize was described. She turned hundreds of pages until she reached the last quarter of the book, where she found that the pages would no longer fully turn. It was like the first half of the page closest to the spine was glued to the page beneath it, all the way through the last inch of the book.

Samantha carefully tore the pages apart, trying to see what the stuck together portions held. It was when she saw her first glimmer of gold that she knew for certain that something was hidden here. With slightly more gusto, she tore the pages apart and found a solid gold bar set into a perfectly carved out section of the page block. The rectangular bar was about 6 inches long, and about an inch thick, with a ‘50’ stamped into it. She recognized it to be a trading currency valued at 50 gold pieces, typically used when merchants made deals with each other for easier transport of large amounts of wealth. That wasn’t the only treasure she found within the book though. Silas’s nose had been spot on.

Samantha pried a glass vial from the pages and looked at the shining white pill with disbelief. How much wealth did Lord Braxand possess where he could just leave 50 gold and a sublime healing pill underground in the forest? She bet that this wasn’t even his only safehouse.

Samantha put the trade bar in an inner pocket of her robe before placing the bottle in one of Silas’s most secure vest pouches, “Here Silas, you hold onto this. This one is for dire emergencies only, understand?”

“Like when you’re about to die again? Or maybe turn into a raisin?”

The concept that Silas sent did not exactly translate to ‘raisin’. He had actually sent her the image of the cultivator desiccating during his failed attempt to saturate his body with qi–but ‘raisin’ was a much more palatable interpretation.

“Yes, exactly.” she confirmed. “Did you check through the other rooms already?”

“Yes. This was the only one with a good smell.”

Samantha began a quick visual scan of each room on her way out of the complex, since Silas probably wouldn’t have recognized high quality weapons or armor as valuable. When she confirmed that there was nothing else she could use, she and Silas exited the safehouse and began to return to the city. Luckily, Silas’s sense of direction was impeccable, and he easily recalled the path Alex had taken to reach this area. With his expert guidance, the city walls were in sight within the hour. This was just enough time for her passive healing and Silas’s to close her reopened wounds and return her to fighting shape.

Given that it was still the very early hours of the morning and coming back at this time was unusual, Samantha was prepared to submit herself to the questioning of the city guards before being let in. As she approached the gate, however, she could hear the alarm that signified a spirit beast incursion blaring into the night. She increased her pace, worried that her family could be in danger.

When she reached the foot of the wall, she noticed that there were no visible enforcers patrolling the area as they normally would be.

“Hello! I need to be let inside!” she called up loudly.

A stressed-looking woman poked her head over the side of the wall and stared down at her, “No entry tonight! Can’t you hear the alarms? There are spirit beasts rampaging through the streets!”

“I’m a cultivator! I can help!” Samantha urgently explained.

The woman looked at Samantha, then to Silas, then back to the city, before returning her gaze to Samantha. She seemed to be debating something in her mind.

Samantha was already preparing a plan to sneak in if she wasn’t allowed inside, but was relieved when the woman finally shouted, “I’m forbidden from opening this gate for anyone. Can you get over the wall yourself?”

Samantha scooped up Silas in her arms and activated Swift and Cloud Step to help her vault over the side of the 20 foot tall barrier. Compared to when she last did this after returning from her cultivation quest, it felt almost too easy. Once she gracefully landed next to the wall guard, she realized with some surprise that she was mortal. The situation in the city must truly be serious if they were staffing the wall with mortals instead of cultivators.

“Where is the breach at?” Samantha questioned.

“That’s the thing–we can’t find a breach! They appeared out of nowhere and they won’t stop coming. It’s not like other times either where a herd of them wander close to the city and attack together. These are beasts that would not normally be found together in the same environment.”

“Is there a particular area of the city that’s affected?”

The woman pointed towards the center of Yivesh, “Follow the fires. Last I heard there was a group of Firestorm Bears burning entire blocks to the ground. Your best bet would be to group up with a squad of Enforcers and follow the orders of their Unit Commander.”

Samantha nodded in thanks then jumped down from the wall, smoothly absorbing the impact with her legs and running in the direction of the Southern Business District. Before she did anything else, she needed to check on her parents.

She made it to Cray’s Creations in record time. On the way to the shop she had seen several injured mortals and cultivators being transported by healthy individuals, but did not encounter any raging beasts. In addition, while the alarm still loudly rang and the smell of smoke was on the wind, she did not see any fires.

She knocked loudly on the locked door of the shop until one of her parents rushed down to open it and usher her inside.

“Where have you been?” her mother scolded her as her father re-locked the front door, “We’ve been worried sick after you didn’t come home from training!”

“I don’t have much time to explain, but this beast incursion isn’t natural. I need to find the City Lord and inform him of what’s really going on. I’m sorry but that’s all I can tell you–any more will be too dangerous.” Samantha said, setting Silas down on the ground. She then began climbing the stairs to get to her room so she could change into her Laminar armor and fetch her spear.

Her parents ran up after her as fast as they could, her father calling up, “Well, what can we do to help? Just because you’re a cultivator now, doesn’t mean that we can’t help, right?”

“Can you help me with this armor? I need to get out there as quickly as I can.” she offered, struggling to latch some of the harder to reach straps. She decided against wearing either of the other two armor pieces that Lord Braxand had given her, fearing that she would be associated with his house and attacked on sight once word got out about what he had done.

As her parents helped her don the various armor pieces, Martha asked, “What else can we do?”

Once the last piece was fitted, Samantha fetched her personal coin purse which still contained about 20 gold even after her training, expenses, and other purchases over the last week. She put the bag into her mother’s outstretched hands, “Take this money and buy out the alchemy shop’s entire stock of low grade healing items. Pills, elixirs, poultices, tinctures, whatever they have. Make your way to one of the emergency shelters, but don’t let any cultivators know that you have healing items or else they’ll take them from you. Pass them out discreetly to any mortals who are injured and stay safe. Oh–and if Reynold tries to raise his prices because of the beast incursion, you tell him that I will be back to deal with him personally after the situation is resolved.”

Martha opened the bag to count the coins and raised her eyebrow at the amount of wealth she had just been given, “If we’re gone, who’s going to man the shop? Looters might take everything if we leave it undefended.”

Samantha pulled out the gold trade bar and handed it to her father, “I’d rather the shop be looted and you be safe, than either of you getting hurt. You can rebuild the business with this if it really comes down to it.”

Aldon and Martha’s eyes widened in astonishment, and they asked in complete unison, “Where did you get this?”

Her father tried to give the bar back, “We can’t possibly accept this, Samantha. It’s too much. This represents… 10… 15 years of successful business for us! This would be enough money to not only restock the shop, but open a second location in a nice area.”

Samantha refused to take the bar back, “Hopefully you won’t have to use it. This is just a precaution if, as you fear, looters raid the shop in the chaos. Now please, can you do this for me?”

Her parents acquiesced, bowing their heads low to her in a show of gratitude, “It will be done.”

When they raised their heads, both of them had tears in their eyes.

“When did my little girl grow up? I’m proud of you.” Aldon praised.

They both embraced her, and Samantha felt her own eyes getting misty in the emotion of the moment.

“You be safe too Sam–as safe as a cultivator can be, anyway. I won’t forgive you if you get yourself killed, you hear?” Martha said, wiping her eyes as she pulled away from the hug.

Samantha inwardly cringed at this declaration. She hoped that they didn’t ever find out that she had already technically died.

As she was heading out the door with her family and Silas in tow, she realized that Silas’s stock of medicinals was probably low now. It wouldn’t hurt to get some extra healing items for other cultivators who may be injured either.

“On second thought…” Samantha started, and her parents paused in the street, “...let me go with you to the alchemy shop. I should get some things for myself as well, and things will go faster if I’m actually there when you’re making this big of a purchase.”

Her parents agreed, and the four of them made their way down the street to the local alchemist Reynold’s shop. Similarly to Cray’s Creations, the door was firmly bolted shut.

Samantha banged on the door loudly and repetitively, “Reynold, It’s the Crays! Open the door!”

She caught a glimpse of the man peeking out at them from around a corner before hiding again, “I can see you, Reynold! Open this door or I’m opening it myself!”

The portly mustached man waddled around the counter with sudden urgency, “No! No, I’m coming.”

The door opened and the four of them stepped inside, Reynold locking the door behind him as soon as they stepped over the threshold, “I only have enough food for myself and my family. I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

Samantha was about to say something, but her father stepped in before she had the chance, “That’s not why we’re here Reynold. We’re here to buy healing items from you.”

The alchemist took a moment to process the words before a glint of greed sparked in his eyes. Wanting to nip that in the bud immediately, Samantha took control of the conversation again.

“I know how much these items cost, and I will be buying out your entire stock. The cost of production, plus a 10% profit. There will be no price gouging and no negotiation. Get your inventory out here right now–people are dying every moment that we stand here.”

Reynold looked as if he were about to protest, but Martha stepped forward with a fire in her eye that could strike fear in the heart of any warrior, “Move, Reynold! You heard our daughter!”

That admonishment seemed to kick him into gear, and he proceeded to gather every healing item in the shop. Samantha took the higher ranked concoctions for herself, stuffing each of Silas’s pockets full to bursting. Her parents stocked a bag with the rest of the items.

Samantha spent more than she expected, as the alchemist had a shockingly vast selection of items for purchase and his stated production costs were slightly bloated. Still, neither party could complain too much about this transaction. Samantha saved precious time since the shop owner cooperated promptly and kept his prices reasonable, and despite his initial protests the alchemist ended up bringing in around 30 gold in one fell swoop. It was a happy compromise.

Samantha left as soon as she loaded up Silas’s stock, trusting her parents to finalize the details and make it to a shelter on their own.

In the short time that she had spent gearing up, it seemed the situation had significantly worsened in Yivesh (though the carnage had still not neared the Southern Business District). The closer she got to the city center, the more destruction she came across. At first it was just damage to buildings and the occasional spatter of fresh blood. Then, she came across her first body.

The clatter of galloping horse hooves caught her attention in the whirlwind of shouts, cries, and alarms. Black smoke that stung her eyes and nose was thick in the air, but she could still see the silhouette of an approaching riderless steed. Fearing that this would be her first encounter with a rampaging spirit beast, she pointed her spear towards the prospective enemy and prepared for battle.

A wild-eyed Verdant Stallion emerged from the smoke, bucking and kicking at something below it. It then stomped downwards with a sickening wet crunch. At that moment, Samantha noticed that the stallion had not always been riderless. Being dragged underneath the horse as dead weight was a man with one foot stuck in the stirrup–at least, what was left of him.

His mangled body was covered in hoofprints, and looked uncomfortably like mincemeat in several places. As the Verdant Stallion continued to gallop down the street, each time a part of the man’s body brushed against its back leg it became spooked and began bucking and stomping again. Almost miraculously, the man’s head had somehow avoided being crushed thus far, though it was obvious from how the skin was scraped from his face in certain areas that he had been dragged quite a distance. She recognized him as the High Copper cultivator who she had been hired to confront on behalf of the mortals at the Southern Business District.

Upon seeing her, the Verdant Stallion immediately charged to attack her. It saddened her to need to kill the beast, but it would be a danger to others if she left it alone now that it had no human partner. If a cultivator’s bond died, they would sustain damage to their cultivation base. If a bond’s cultivator died, however, they would lose some of the sentience and progression granted to them while bonded. In cases where the surviving spirit beast was too low a rank, the death of their cultivator could return them to a completely untamed state, such as now.

Samantha held her spear firmly and struck at the Stallion’s Chest. The spear struck true and plunged deep into its torso, but instead of withdrawing–as most prey animals with a sense of self preservation would do–it continued its charge. Seemingly unaware that it had been injured at all, it snapped and bit at her with a ferocity that would be a credit to any aggressive predator. It kicked wildly trying to clip her with a hoof, and turned its vine mane into thorn covered, whip-like appendages that sought her face and neck. Samantha noted that this attack behavior was extremely unusual for this species, as most Verdant Stallions first sought to flee before being cornered into a fight. If they became extremely injured, such as now, they even had a special agility boosting skill to help them escape. But this animal was not following this pattern at all. Something was off.

Silas jumped into the fray and rammed a sharp set of forked antlers into the side of the Stallion. He then used Thump to rip his antlers free and prepare for another strike. Finally, the horse retreated and the pressure on Samantha eased. A gaping hole was left in the center of the beast’s chest, and it poured its green ichor onto the cobbles below. Samantha was certain that it would try to activate its escape skill now, but it seemed to be preparing for another charge again instead.

Samantha ran forward with her 22 Agility and decided to press her attack instead of waiting for it to come to her. The beast gave no ground to her assault as she plunged her spear into its body time and time again and Silas harassed it with scratches, stabs, and blows. Even as it was clearly weakening and dying, it never stopped trying to maul her. Although it was not an overly difficult fight, and Samantha only had received minor injuries from misjudging the sheer mass and tenacity of the creature, she was bewildered by its behavior. She wondered if this beast had been affected by the enraging powder that Valena promised to deliver to Lord Braxand somehow.

As Silas unceremoniously started digging around in the fresh kill for its spirit pearl, Samantha checked the beast for clues. She noticed a stream of red liquid coming from the nostrils and almost discounted it as blood, but then remembered that Verdant Stallions bled green ichor when injured. She rubbed a minute amount of the mysterious liquid between her fingers and discovered that it seemed to be made of a fine, gritty, crimson substance. What had Lord Braxand done in the short time since he had left the safehouse?

“I got it!” Silas announced, holding a small blue pearl in between his teeth.

A nearby roar caused her to return to a state of high alert and forced the present questions out of her thoughts. A pillar of fire rose into the sky a few blocks away, and Samantha began running towards the sight, “Try to absorb it as fast as you can, we have another fight coming up.”

She fully intended to run directly towards whatever had caused the burst of flame, but progress was much slower than she would’ve liked. With each street she passed there was someone injured that needed her help or squads of Enforcers fighting back beasts while protecting the mortals they escorted to safety. She even saw a group of mortals working together to kill a Spitting Viper, and had to step in to prevent all of them from being blown up by its self-destructive acid attack. She barely managed to kill it before it fully activated its final ability, and shuddered at the thought of what would’ve happened to those poor souls if she found them only seconds later.

As much as she wanted to stop and help everyone that was in need, the best she could do in most cases was offer her healing supplies to those that could best defend the groups from danger. She needed to keep reminding herself that she had a goal that only she could complete, but it was incredibly difficult to leave behind people who she knew for a fact that she could help. Thankfully, she was far from the only cultivator fulfilling their obligation to help the mortal citizens, and more than once saw her peers risking their lives to bring people to shelters.

When she finally neared the site of the fiery pillar she heard a familiar voice screaming and shouting in panic. Samantha entered a full sprint but decided against utilizing Swift, seeing as she only had 20 qi in her pool. She kept hoping that the 20 qi she had reserved would return to her at any moment once Lord Braxand completed one of her tasks, but the crafty man had clearly found a way to delay his meeting with the city lord without triggering the Geas.

As she rounded the corner, she saw that most of the buildings in this area had been knocked down, burnt, or both. The culprits were easy enough to determine just by looking. The first thing that caught her eye was the freshly gutted carcass of an enormous firestorm bear. Steam rose from its deep orange and red fur, and she could tell that if it were standing on all fours it would be taller than her and over three times as wide. Tiny–the High Copper cultivator she had first met in the black market–was struggling to hold off a smaller looking firestorm bear while wielding an oversized, curved saber. It stood on its hind legs and swatted down at the large woman with heavy blows, but she refused to back down even as blood flowed freely from several deep gashes.

Behind the woman was a badly burnt man–a Low Bronze cultivator like herself–writhing on the ground in pain. His mouth was open in what seemed to be a scream of agony, but the rasping sounds that came from his throat suggested that the burns he suffered were not limited to the outside of his body. The man’s metal armor looked to have fused into his skin in places, and the deep rents in his blackened flesh weren’t even bleeding anymore due to being cauterized by the heat. Samantha was shocked that he wasn’t dead already, and suspected that he wouldn’t last much longer.

She ran forward in an arcing path, approaching the bear from the side so as not to accidentally startle Tiny. Once in position, she worked together with her old acquaintance to defeat the raging beast. Samantha drew the bear’s ire by peppering it with blasts of her Low Bronze killing intent, giving Tiny some much needed breathing room. Silas hit the bear in the hind leg with an antler shot, crippling its movement and bringing it down from its imposing standing position. From there, the three combatants took turns distracting the large predator while the other two snuck in quick blows. It took about a minute to wear the beast down to the point where Samantha was able to finally land a fatal blow to its lungs with her spear.

As soon as its corpse hit the street, Tiny ran over to the burnt man and gently cradled his form in her arms, “Please, Felix! Don’t die! I’m right here–I’m not going anywhere, alright?”

Tiny placed a kiss on an unburned section of the man’s face, and tears fell freely from her eyes as she let out a broken sob.

Hearing the man’s name, Samantha’s mental meridian connected to one of her memories from the Gutter. The only “Felix” she knew was the Peak Copper that was hired to prevent people from winning the grand prize in the underground tournament. After they had dueled, she remembered that Tiny had openly flirted with the cultivator while she was in the recovery tent. Surprisingly, despite nearly taking her head off during their duel, he actually was a nice guy. He apologized to Samantha for the injuries he caused her, paid her his winnings from the fight, and decided to move on from the illegal duels to finally advance to Low Bronze. Judging by how Tiny was interacting with him, it appeared that her advances had worked and they had become a couple in the weeks since Samantha last saw them.

Felix weakly reached up one hand to try and wipe away Tiny’s tears, but his breathing was becoming more and more erratic. He was going to die soon if she didn’t step in. The problem was, none of the healing items Samantha had purchased would be nearly enough to repair the extensive damage he had sustained. Unless…

She only hesitated in her decision for a split second.

Samantha fetched the sublime healing pill from Silas’s vest, then rushed over to the couple before practically shoving the rare medicinal down his throat. The powerful healing energies washed through the man like a cleansing rain, and once his condition stabilized the two women quickly worked to remove the portions of melted armor that had fused to his skin. It pained them both to reinjure the man as he healed, but it was a necessary evil to ensure that everything recovered properly.

After several minutes of monitoring, Felix practically looked human again. It was obvious that he would not be in fighting shape for a day or two, but he would no longer run the risk of dying. Samantha called Silas over so she could give the pair more healing items, and as he hopped over she noted that his cheeks were abnormally large. Seeing her attention, he ‘smiled’ at her and revealed a fresh beast core stuffed into each cheek.

Samantha huffed a small laugh of amusement at her industrious bond, then pulled out two moderate grade healing elixirs from his vest, “Here, Tiny. Take these too.”

She handed the vials to Tiny and the woman took both of Samantha’s hands into her own, as if in prayer, “Thank you. I–no–we both owe you a life debt for this. We will find a way to pay you back, somehow.”

“You don’t owe me anything. I helped you both because I wanted to. Do you have a safe place to go while you heal?” Samantha inquired.

“We do owe you, and I won’t take no for an answer. As for a safe place… nowhere nearby. Felix and I live in the center of the city, which is where the attack started. We were trying to get away from the worst of it when we ran into these bears and you know the rest. These beasts were more ferocious than most anything else I experienced in my travels–something’s wrong with them. It’s unnatural.” Tiny answered.

“I experienced something similar when fighting a Verdant Stallion–it was way too aggressive.” Samantha replied, before smiling wryly at the older woman, “Also… you moved in together? Congratulations.”

Tiny blushed, and Felix lightly punched Samantha in the leg from his still-prone position.

“She… she wore me down!” he rasped quietly.

“What can I say? My charms are irresistible and his will was weak.” Tiny retorted, still wiping the remnants of tears from her eyes.

Though the words they exchanged were teasing, Samantha could tell that they were said with playfulness instead of being mean-spirited. The interaction brought a smile to her face, and reminded her of the lightheartedness her parents often showed to each other.

“Can you tell me anything about what happened? I’m heading to the city center to give important intel to the City Lord. It’d be helpful to know what I’ll find when I get there.” Samantha asked.

“I wouldn’t recommend going there–most cultivators are just trying to evacuate. The place is overrun with Forest Basilisks and they’re taking out people left and right. They aren’t directly killing anyone, but there are dozens of folks left paralyzed and helpless in the streets. Last I heard, a Mountain Hydra was sweeping the area and getting fat off of the poor souls. Being eaten alive whilst unable to move at all is a fate I wouldn’t wish on even my worst enemy. I’m sure it’s not the only Spirit Beast feasting either.”

The news about the Forest Basilisks was quite shocking to Samantha. The 2-3 foot long flying lizards were solitary creatures that normally didn’t bother humans. Their venom could outright kill smaller forest creatures (which was their favored prey), while larger creatures would instead be weakened and eventually paralyzed if they received a large enough dose. That there were so many of them rampaging at once was near indisputable proof that this was not an accident, but a planned attack by someone. The only family with the resources to release so many exotic Spirit Beasts into the city was House Braxand, and Lord Braxand had to have known that this event would be traced back to him. Samantha could only imagine that the Geasa she placed on him had forced his hand to do something so blatant.

The appearance of a Mountain Hydra in the midst of this chaos was something that would surely draw out the City Lord. Those beasts were rumored to grow to the size of a house, but she had never seen evidence of such a specimen herself and doubted that Lord Braxand could’ve snuck one of that size into the center of the city without notice. Regardless of its size, though, such a creature would be a challenging opponent for even Mid Bronzes. Their scales were as tough as stone, they healed rapidly from damage dealt to them, and they had at least two heads which attacked independently. Typically, a cultivator would need to ‘kill’ all the heads to take the Spirit Beast down for good, which is part of what made the creatures so dangerous. If she could find where the Hydra had gone, she would likely find the Ruler as well.

“Where was the Mountain Hydra last seen?” She questioned.

Tiny didn’t immediately respond, and seemed reluctant to give her further information.

“I swear, I don’t intend to fight the thing! I just need to know where the City Lord is, and he’s probably battling the Hydra. I won’t be dissuaded from going, but I would like to spend as little time wandering aimlessly in the thick of it as I can.”

These words seemed to convince the woman, and Tiny grudgingly reported the last known location was somewhere near one of the high end shopping markets.

“Thanks, I’ll head there right away. As for you two…I may have somewhere you can go. My parents own a shop called Cray’s Creation in the Southern Business District, and I know since I just came from there that the fighting hasn’t reached that part of the city. I can tell you where the spare key is hidden, and you can stay in my room on the second floor. My parent’s retreated to a shelter, so if they come back you can just tell them I let you in. I’d also appreciate it if you scared off any looters that look interested in the shop’s inventory. What do you say?” Samantha offered.

Tiny and Felix exchanged a brief look, then nodded to each other.

“The Southern Business District isn’t too far from here, and protecting your family’s livelihood from being robbed is the least we can do after the help you just gave us. I haven’t been to Cray’s Creations before, so just give me directions and a description of the storefront and I’ll go straight there.” Tiny said.

Samantha proceeded to give brief, but detailed instructions on how to get to the shop and find the spare key. Once Tiny had confirmed that she had all of the information correct, Samantha helped Felix onto Tiny’s broad back so she could easily carry his still-healing body.

“Travel safely!” Samantha called behind her as the two parties parted ways.

Samantha made a beeline for the shopping center that Tiny had described and continued to give medicine to the wounded she encountered on the way. Her guilt increased with each group she had to choose to leave behind to fend for themselves, but pressed onwards towards her goal. She felt partially responsible for this horrible situation. Although logically she understood that what Lord Braxand had done was not her fault, she struggled not to blame herself. Perhaps she could have worded the Geasa a different way, or perhaps she could’ve found another solution to her captivity…but nothing came to mind.

Once she reached the shopping district, the trail of bodies and destruction the Hydra had left behind wasn’t hard to follow. Before long, she heard the sounds of a battle.

“Stay back! Give room to the Lord!” one voice shouted.

“You there–find battle elsewhere! The Ruler has the Hydra contained!” another voice called simultaneously.

Samantha had found him.

As she approached the scene, a tall, broad man in gleaming metal armor stood in her path. The aura he gave off told her that he was Mid Bronze, and she recognized the coat of arms filigreed onto his helm and chest as the symbol of the palace guard. He held his large Halberd–an imposing weapon that looked as if someone had expertly melded an axe and spear onto a long pole–horizontally in front of him to further block her way, “The fight here is too much for you, but your help is needed elsewhere in the city. The Lord has this area under his control.”

Not wanting to waste time, Samantha got straight to the point, “I have urgent information for the Ruler about who is behind this incursion and their goals. Please let me through!”

“The Lord is engaged in battle. Whatever you have to say can wait until after this crisis is dealt with.” he stated with thinly veiled irritation.

Frustrated, Samantha tried to convince the guard, “This entire thing is a trap! This incursion was meant to draw out the City Lord from the protection of the Palace wards so that he would be vulnerable to a mental attack!”

These words visibly shook the guard, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion, “What’s your name cultivator, and where did you hear such a thing? Who would dare to enact a coup upon our honored Ruler?”

Afraid that she was going to reveal too much, but not seeing another way to convince the man to let her pass, Samantha admitted, “My name is Samantha Cray, and I overheard Lord Braxand making plans with an alchemist named Valena. I’m telling you, the Ruler is in great danger!”

“Valena… the court alchemist?” he asked, surprised, “And the head of one of our most noble Houses?” His shock turned to outrage, “You dare accuse your betters of treason? Do you have any proof of these claims?”

The guard’s posture turned hostile and he took a step towards her. Samantha took a step back. This was not how she wanted things to go.

*Ding* The Geas you placed on Godric Braxand V…

“You must immediately, and with the utmost haste, present yourself in person to the City Lord of Yivesh.”

…has been fulfilled. 20 reserved qi released. 15 qi refunded.

Samantha suddenly heard a loud voice proclaim, “I, Ol’ Man Whisper, was the one who set this entire thing in motion! I was tired of the Ruler’s restrictive policies against arts and practices that could’ve made all cultivators stronger and increased our cultivation rate…”

Samantha was horrified to find that she had not made the Geas as inescapable as she thought. She realized that she hadn’t specified that Lord Braxand had to use his own identity during the confession.

“...Initially, I worked with the Court Alchemist Valena to craft an enraging powder that would drive any spirit beast into a frenzy. I had planned to bring in several herds from outside the city to attack Yivesh and entice you to come out from behind the defensive wards of your palace. I put this plan into motion, however, I was placed under a Geas that would force me to confess to my plans before the herds could arrive here. This caused me to change tactics, and I had to resort to utilizing a stockpile of dangerous spirit beasts I had spent years secretly gathering and breeding…”

During this time, the fighting had quieted and she could no longer hear the sounds of battle. The guard grabbed Samantha by her upper arm and began pulling her alongside him, “What is the meaning of this? You will answer to the City Lord immediately.”

He dragged her into an open square of the shopping center that was about a city block wide. It was difficult to tell with the extensive destruction in the area, but it seemed like this used to be a small resting area or park with the remains of a fountain, benches, and neatly manicured landscaping.

An utter mountain of a man–who must have been nearly 7 feet tall–stood over the twitching body of the 20 foot long Hydra with one foot resting on its only remaining head. The other two snake-like appendages had been violently hacked off with his massive 2-headed war ax. The once-proud Spirit Beast’s lizard-like body was covered in thick, interlocking, gray scales, but that didn’t seem to be any deterrent to the huge tortoise that was digging through its chest cavity in search of a Spirit Pearl.

As Ol’ Man Whisper continued to confess his plans, Samantha was drawn to the sound of his voice and located him on a nearby rooftop overlooking the square. He was unrecognizable.

The long white hair that had previously clung to the sides of his head had been roughly chopped off–making him almost completely bald. His beard received a similar treatment, and from this distance looked uneven and patchy. He was missing several teeth, and his clothes looked like they had been ripped and covered in mud. The scraps of fabric hung loosely from his body, effectively disguising the muscled, wiry physique that would’ve possibly given him away as a cultivator. His back was hunched and he looked unsteady on his feet, and he was using some sort of old stick as a prop to hold himself up. He truly appeared like he was just some crazy old coot, spouting nonsense.

It seemed the City Lord was of the same opinion, and an amused smirk was plastered across his face as he listened to Ol’ Man Whisper drone on and on.

“Lord! This girl claims to have information regarding who’s behind the incursion and their motives.” the guard said, tugging her forward and presenting her to the Ruler.

The Ruler turned his attention towards her and looked her up and down once, “Well? Spit it out. You aren’t going to tell me it’s that insane beggar over there, though, are you?” He laughed as he finished speaking, the idea preposterous to him. Samantha winced–that was exactly what she came to do.

“That ‘beggar’ is Lord Braxand in disguise, and everything that he’s saying right now is the truth! I forced a Geas on him to make him confess to his plans to overthrow you, and this is the result. You need to arrest him immediately, and get to safety! He’s planning on launching some mental attack on you since you don’t have mind protections outside of the palace.” She explained, trying to make the words sound feasible and reasonable.

The City Lord looked at her with a mixture of doubt and suspicion. She shivered as some unknown art passed through her, and the Ruler’s expression turned into a deep frown, “I have met with Lord Braxand several times, and that man looks nothing like him. And you expect me to believe that you, a newly minted Low Bronze, managed to force a Geas on an experienced High Bronze like Lord Braxand? It’s simply not possible. I have determined that you believe what you’re saying though, so I will not imprison or punish you for lying to me.”

Seeing her window of opportunity rapidly closing, Samantha said desperately, “I was only able to force a Geas on him because of his shattered Vortex Mark! In his youth, he refused the hidden cultivation quest to ascend and was punished by the system–he was vulnerable to the utility art because he could not receive notifications and had no idea I placed a Geas on him until it was too late.”

This statement caused the Lord's eyebrows to raise, and he seemed to inspect her with a new seriousness, “That is not information that most people would know.”

“...It was then that I hired Samantha Cray to break into the warehouse district and rob Harold Greene’s alchemy lab, stealing the potions that were intended to advance you to Low Silver...” Ol’ Man Whisper continued, unbothered by their side conversation during his monologue.

“Hey! Didn’t you say your name was Samantha Cray?” the guard accused.

The Ruler turned his attention fully back to Ol’ Man Whisper, examining him closely. That information about the stolen elixirs definitely wasn’t something just anyone would know about.

“...and so I incorporated this Geas into my plan, turning this confession into an elaborate ruse to distract you until my agents are in position and I give them the signal–which is this!”

*Ding* The Geas you placed on Godric Braxand V…

“Once in the presence of the City Lord of Yivesh, you must loudly, clearly, and thoroughly confess your plans to overthrow him.”

…has been fulfilled. 20 reserved qi released. 15 qi refunded.

Lord Braxand hurled an object roughly the size of an orange down at the Ruler with blinding speed. Instinctually, the City Lord swung his axe to smash the object before it could hit him, but when the weapon made contact the object exploded. The sound of shattered pottery rang through the square as a cloud of fine red dust was dispersed in a wide area due to the incredible force and speed of the axe-strike. Everyone present was covered with the powder as it continued to slowly settle to the ground.

Samantha held her breath and tried to shield her eyes to protect herself from the effects as much as she could, “Don’t breathe, Silas! Silas?”

Her binding thread that acted as a line of communication between them suddenly felt…fuzzy and indistinct. It was still clearly there, but she could no longer feel Silas’s presence. Before she could fully process what was going on, the Ruler extended his hand towards her and a powerful shockwave of force blasted her backwards and off her feet. The entire ground quaked as the area that she had just occupied–as well as the rest of the square–was pummeled with powerful, long-ranged attack arts. Samantha scrabbled wildly for cover as she hit the ground and explosions shook the air around her. She could see her spear–which she had dropped when she was struck–lying several feet away. She crawled towards the weapon as screams of pain filled the air and an assortment of debris fell from the sky.

“Protect the Lord! Rally!” a woman’s voice cried.

“Death to the tyrant!” a group of voices shouted.

When she finally reached her spear and looked back, she saw with horror that nearly half of the palace guards had turned on their fellows. To make matters worse, the City Lord was frantically fighting off his own bonded spirit beast as it sought to kill anything near it indiscriminately. The only person that she did not see in the crazed fray was Ol’ Man Whisper. If she had to guess, he was waiting for the City Lord to use up his qi reserves in the current fight, get injured, or possibly lose his bond and become weakened.

Seeing a mass battle between true Bronzes was terrifying to say the least. They blasted apart walls and destroyed the streets just through glancing blows of their combat arts, and Samantha had a hard time following their quick movements even with Hyperfocus active. She would be killed immediately if she tried to involve herself with this fight–she had to find another way to help.

Silas was nowhere to be found, but she could tell that he was still alive and moving away from the area very quickly. She suspected that he had been affected by the poison powder like the tortoise was, but knew that with Poison Connoisseur he would eventually shake the effects. With the head start he had and the speed with which he was moving, Samantha didn’t have confidence that she could catch up to him in a reasonable amount of time. Even if she did manage it, that wouldn’t help the Ruler fend off his attackers.

Though she wasn’t an alchemist, she suspected that every poison created had some sort of antidote to go with it. After all, it would be foolish to create a powder to enrage beasts within the city but have no way to reverse the effects if something got out of control. She needed to find Valena and force the woman to give her whatever would cure the spirit beasts of their frenzy–then she could hopefully rush back and restore the bonded Tortoise to sanity. After that, she could pursue Silas and do the same for him if he hadn’t already cured himself with his ability.

Since she knew Valena was the court alchemist now, Samantha knew exactly where to start looking first.