Casting [Hellish Illusion] didn't really hurt.

It was more like I just grew tired.

Whether this was due to me channeling an energy I had absorbed into my soul, and thus made a more natural part of me, or just a result of how Infernal Magic generally functioned, I wasn't sure.

Nazanin didn't look awestruck at what I'd said, but she was certainly surprised--and maybe a little suspicious.

"How did you do this?" the woman asked, even as the guards were rushing to run to the cliff's edge.

"I'm speaking to you through an illusion spell. I tested it out on myself, before doing all of this, and it looks like I can produce sights and sounds at the very least," I explained.

"I'm sort of new to using this spell. Apparently," I raised my left arm up and willed it to slowly appear to catch fire.

The sound of ignition was all too clear. The flames licked at my flesh, but I felt no heat.

"I can only obscure and alter the environment and existing objects," I went on. "I tried to make myself invisible, before I pulled that trick on the guard, but that didn't do anything at all, probably because I can't see myself. I also apparently can't make things invisible even if I can see them, which is a bore."

I closed my fist definitively and the false fire swirling around my forearm whooshed out.

[Hellish Illusion drains 5 HP.]

My HP bar ticked down further. I felt my body grow a bit weaker. It wasn't a massive drain of my strength, but it wasn't minor with my mere thirty-one points of health. I'd have to stop soon.

"I only get about a minute per cast. And I can't hide what you say back to me, so be careful," I said. "We need to talk fast; I don't want to use up everything I have in reserve."

Nazanin didn't flinch; I could see the thoughts working behind her intelligent eyes. "You were born to doing this?"

Did I want to lie? No, I realized, but there wasn't a lot of time to explain things.

"Since I was a baby, I guess," I replied. "But it's only now unlocked itself into actual spells."

The woman nodded, but was obviously somewhat skeptical still.

"I'm not a monster," I promised. "I'm just someone who got swept into this, just like you were, and I'm trying to get out."

"You don't seem like a child," she said flatly.

"I've had to grow up fast," I avoided the actual truth once more.

She took the words in. "I can see this. I'm sorry."

It was progress.

"I'm working on a plan, but I'm not sure I can do this all by myself," I revealed. "Will you listen to it? We don't have a lot of time for this spell to last, but I want to get us--"

I paused and looked around to the miserable looking women and children circled up in chained groups.

"All of us," I corrected, "out of here."

Nazanin sat herself up somewhat. Though she winced through the pain she was still feeling; I noticed that she was sweating profusely. "I will listen, spellborn."

Spellborn? Sounded like it referred to someone born with magic? I'd have to ask later.

My mind drifted to another concern.

I glanced around and saw the object of my interest running to join the rest of the guards now milling towards the edge of camp.

The first guard I'd killed with the ghostly apparition had managed to break a chunk of the earth off in his panic. I'd just meant to spook him off the cliff's face, but this was even better.

I could work with this.

"One minute," I communicated to her through the spell.

I reached out to the edge of my sight and forced the broken away chunk of cliff to magically waver and then appear to become solid ground once more.

I watched intently as two of the guards approached the cliff's face in a haste to check on their comrade. One was smart enough to stop short of the edge; the second, however, seemed to slip the moment he touched my illusion of stable ground.

I willed the sound of cracking earth to ring out and did my best to make it appear as if the ground beneath the shortsighted guard, which wasn't really there beneath him at all, was breaking away as he now too fell.

He screamed and I, presumably, added another kill to my count. From what I had glimpsed of the gorge, it had looked truly deep.

The rest of the group caught up to the remaining of the first two mercenaries next. I saw one among thing, I'm guessing what passed for an NCO, make a decisive show of ordering them back from the edge.

Their leader was the next man to come into the throng.

I wasn't going to be able to push my luck. I didn't need them to start thinking they were being sabotaged.

Two dead men in a night was an accident. Three might create suspicion. Besides, I didn't think anyone would be approaching the cliff's edge again any time soon.

[Hellish Illusion drains 5 HP.]

As the notification hit, I felt my body start to really feel the lethargy. It was just the start of exhaustion, but I knew I needed to stop casting soon.

Nazanin had watched the show I'd put on.

"Yeah, that was me too," I told her through the spell. "That leaves us with thirteen armed men left. I don't think I'll be able to get anymore tonight, though."

She looked back to me. "That would be wise."

"I'm going to try and whittle them down over time. I don't know how far we have until the next city, but," I paused, "they have to have enough food to get us to that place, at the very least, which gives us a buffer of food to figure out where to go if we can get rid of our captors."

"One of these people has to know about where we are and, if not, we can figure out a plan as we go," I said. "The important thing is that the sooner we get free, the less likely we are to reach wherever we're being taken and the more supplies we'll have to spread among ourselves."

"You think you can do this?" Nazanin inquired; I saw some doubt in her eyes, but not as much as before--and not as much suspicion either.

"Not alone," I admitted. "They won't follow a child and I might not get as many chances as I'd like to take the rest of these guys out."

"We might have more options though, but I need more information," I explained. "I can't really get it myself. That's part of where you can come in."

I glanced down to her leg. "I don't know you, but you seem capable. It's at least reasonable that we might be able to get these women to follow you if we get ourselves free. Not that they'll have much choice, but we'll need to avoid a fight over supplies if we can get them."

Without any weapons and with my lingering sickness, I wasn't entirely sure I'd come out on top over this hoard of tired slaves if they turned on me.

I glanced to the guards who were now starting to disperse at the orders of their leadership.

"But I don't think you're going to last much longer, or be much help to us, with your injury," I said. I could see the sweat of infection on her skin--I'd seen it before in the trenches of Atlia, one of the planets I'd been forced to fight on during the planetary rebellions back in my original reality. "It's infected too, or at least getting there and pretty badly from the looks of it."

"It might be best if you join them," I explained. "They need the manpower now. Don't do it tonight, mind you, but in a few days."

"They can heal you, right?" I added the question; I didn't think the mercenary captain would be willing to buy out a sick warrior's contract if he just thought she was going to die during the trip.

"I believe he has to be able to," Nazanin said.

"Or else he wouldn't buy you out," I replied.

I glanced to my reduced health bar. My Intelligence score was keeping a close count on the remaining duration of [Hellish Illusion] without me even really having to make the effort.

"So here's my suggestion: you get yourself the help you need," I offered. "Then we work together to get all these innocent people out of this situation."

Nazanin studied me then. I knew she needed time to think, but I didn't have much time left myself--

[Hellish Illusion drains 5 HP.]

I felt my body grow shaky and a sweat formed on my brow to mirror Nazanin's.

"You might fail," she whispered.

True.

"We might," I admitted. "But, even if we do, you're clearly willing to die rather than be a part of this mess. What's the difference if it gives you a better chance to get out?"

My mind worked on how to convince her.

"I saw what you said to that guy," I added, referring to her declaration that she would not help take away these people's freedom, "I know you want to help everyone here just as much as I do."

I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath to steady my mind then. It hadn't been bad at first, but my spell was taking its toll now.

"I can't keep this up much longer and the guards won't be distracted enough to let us talk after this, even if we whisper and keep things simple like you're doing," I admitted.

"I need an answer," I said. "Are you just going to let everyone here lose their freedom?"

"There will be trouble with this," she said and grabbed her collar to tug on it, as if to make her point.

"The collars aren't just normal iron are they?" I asked. "The jewel in the middle does something. They wouldn't just waste the money on it for flair, right? Is it magic?"

She confirmed it in a whispered reply. "There is pain to it."

I took the information in solemnly. "Who controls them?"

"The merchant wears the ring of power," she said very, very quietly.

"Alright," I replied. "Then we definitely do need to get yours off you and get you close to the slavers."

[Hellish Illusion drains 5 HP.]

I had to grab my knees to struggle through the wave of vertigo.

I ended the spell right then.

[Your Spell Efficiency has increased by 5.]

[Mixed Wit increased Spell Efficiency by 1.]

"That's it," I said aloud. "That's all I have."

"Will you help me?" I whispered.

Nazanin looked down to her leg, studied it, and then gazed over all of the freedom deprived people.

"Yes," she said. "I will help you."

It could smell the blood--strong was the scent, but just barely. Its body had slept so long it ached.

There had once been so much food in its lush home.

It didn't know what had happened, but the world itself had shriveled. Life too dried out. Prey became sparse.

Reproduction, its strongest drive over even food and survival itself, had become all but impossible.

It had slumbered long, but, even in this state of stasis, it was now nearing a sustenance deprived death after these long ages of sleep.

But it smelled it now: a suitable living creature was so close to its burrow.

Its body twitched. Its mandible crunched. There was no longer any use in waiting.

It crawled. The rock tunnel, only a few centimeters wide in width, felt much longer than when it had first dug it.

Its many legs struggled to carry it through the dirt and stone.

Only the prey and survival drive pushed it further.

It must reach it: food, life, and hope for its species. Instinct compelled it.

Its oblong head finally met fresh air.

The cold sucked all of its body heat out. It felt itself shudder. It was truly a painful experience.

But, it could feel the heat that radiated off of the meat that was so near now. It could smell the warmth on the wind.

Now, the need not to freeze motivated it to push faster from the rock and onto the chilling earth.

With all of its remaining strength, it forced its way to climb atop the meat.

The first contact with the flesh felt divine to it. The warmth entered its rubbery underbelly easily between its thin chitin links.

It had craved this feeling. It felt the urge to feed grow even stronger, but it resisted the compulsion; this body was not to be prey--even its currently limited mind knew that would be a shortsighted mistake.

Small, countless legs carried it up to the control nexus of the creature's body.

An opening was not hard to find, it could taste the warmth of the meat's insides and simply followed the heat to its source.

As it slipped into the meat's mouth, it allowed itself to enjoy a few select bites of flesh. Just enough to fuel what would come next.

Carefully, after having its brief fill, it forced itself to crawl further down the esophagus of the meat.

The creature's insides were still faintly moving. The meat was, thankfully, not fully dead yet. This was good; it could work with broken flesh, but not if it were already decayed.

As it made its way down the flesh passageway, the rhythm of final heartbeats passed through the small, now wet, feeler hairs that lined its segmented body. It knew it was close now.

When it found the source of the heartbeats, or as close as it could come to them, it started to bite and tear its way from the flesh tunnel of the throat.

Biting, ripping, feeding, and simply tunneling and expelling when the amount of flesh that needed to be pushed through became too great to process. It made its way to its goal.

The blood organ, the heart, it was careful to only make the smallest of holes to enter its innards. It would repair the damage soon nonetheless.

It settled itself into the completely faltering body part. It curled and allowed its body to form a circular ball. The creature stilled then.

It was small a first: a light flared from its body.

The heart twitched.

Another flash.

The organ shuddered.

Another shock.

The heart started into a rhythm once more.

It began to secrete a small film from in-between its links into the valves of the blood organ.

Soon the fluid would contact with the still warm, and now flowing, blood. The eggs within it would feed and spread throughout the meat.

A network of its offspring would form in the dying carcass. The brain would be reached and the dying body would be given new life.

It would become host and its mind would become the colony's own.

The creature shivered in pleasure as it continued to release its brood. It was pleased. It had long missed the warmth of flesh and the ecstasy of birth.