“Look, they’ll clear out in an hour or so.” Chianti waved her hands at the clump of UD soldiers combing through a section of forest half a kilometer away. “I think we should wait until they’re gone.”

“No.” Chip shook his head. “Every second counts, we have to go now. Just remember, no matter what I do, play along.”

He checked some tubes he had pulled out of his bag again before standing up. “All right, let’s go. Walk as arrogantly as you can. Solera and Guinness, just keep your heads down.”

Solera jingled his handcuffs nervously as he looked at the UD soldiers. The handcuffs were unlocked, and the plan made some sense, but he still felt apprehensive. No matter how he looked at it, they were walking straight into a group of enemy soldiers!

“Halt!” A man shouted. “Who goes-”

“ATTENTION!” Chip roared, derision in his voice. “Who is the highest-ranking soldier here?”

The man frowned. “That would be me. My name is Lieutenant Joff, from the Vespi Duchy.”

Lieutenant Joff was dressed in a flamboyant black armor that had talismanic etchings on it, much like Skadi’s tattoos, and sported a well-groomed handlebar mustache. He looked a bit too ornate to be a soldier.

“Very nice armor, Lieutenant Joff! It is a pleasure to meet you.” Chip sneered. “I am Elijah, scion of the Shatter clan, here to take a look at this Curse zone.”

A trickle of sweat ran down Joff’s cheek. Meekly, he began to speak.

“Pardon me, sir, but I am tasked with investigating this area for any signs of the Curse, and I am not allowed to let anyone interfere.”

“Well, I, Elijah, feel like interfering! Your superiors are my subordinates. What are they going to do about this?”

Joff shifted around uncomfortably. He could clearly see the Shatter insignia upon the gauntlets Chip, Macaw, Chianti, and Verreaux were wearing. Given how only the most important members of the Shatter clan could wear these gauntlets, this was clearly a line-up of top experts guarding a young master! If he questioned them, if he offended them, they could kill him without any trouble or repercussion.

“Stand down.” Chip said bluntly. His eyes and his voice had turned even colder than normal.

Joff had a pained look in his eyes. “Sir, you know how Curse zones are. I cannot consciously put your health at risk.”

Chip looked puzzled for a few moments, then smiled. “Oh, radioactivity.”

“S-sorry?” Joff stammered.

“I, Elijah, am not afraid of some Curse!” Chip sniffed. “Take me to where you think it landed, or, well, you know.”

“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” Joff turned around, gesturing towards a nearby soldier. He had given up any ideas of dissuading Chip. He wasn’t going to risk his position or his life over some desolate Curse zone.

Solera gaped in shock. Who would’ve thought Chip had it in him to do something like this? It seemed everyone was amused at this turn of events; he could see Macaw and Chianti holding back smirks and Verreaux maintaining a solemn poker face. Guinness was the only one to not react. As usual, he was staring off into space.

“Right here, sir. The tops of these trees are missing their leaves, so this is probably where the Curse would have landed, if it didn’t burn into nothing.” The soldier leading them bowed before stepping back.

“Haha, good, very good!” Chip began laughing maniacally. It was a bubbly, giddy laughter, something Solera never would have expected from someone as icy as Chip. After three seconds, tears started to trickle down his face as he laughed. Solera shifted around uncomfortably as he watched. Chianti’s eyebrow slowly began to raise.

“Uh…” Macaw coughed. “Sorry, lieutenant, the young master has his fits sometimes. It’s best to just indulge him.”

“Okay.” Joff nodded vigorously, some color returning to his pale face. “As long as the young master is all right.”

“Hahaha…” Chip wiped a tear from his eye, motioning towards Macaw. “Jora, please reward this man for his services.”

“...” His eyelid twitching in annoyance, Macaw took out a blue card and handed it to Joff.

“What’s your name, boy?” Chip laughed heartily as he took off his shirt.

“Uh…” The soldier stared confusedly at the stripping Chip before snapping back to his senses. “Jumpy, sir.”

“Jumpy, hm? Could’ve sworn I’ve met someone else with that name before, but we all know that’s impossible.” Chip laughed again. “Anyway, hold these for me, please.”

He took out the expandable tubes from his bag and handed them to Jumpy. “Jumpy, I heard plebeians like to play in the mud. Is this true?”

Chip began to take off his pants, causing Chianti’s eyebrow to shoot all the way up.

“I-I think so, sir.” Jumpy mumbled. “Why do you ask?”

“Just making sure I’m not crazy. I feel like giving it a try for myself.” Chip took a tube from Jumpy, untying it and releasing a pink liquid onto the mud below. He then began to take off his undergarments.

“Ah, young master…” Chianti spoke, a tinge of extreme annoyance in her voice. “Did we really come here for this?”

Solera could tell that she was speaking directly to Chip. Actually, Solera wanted to ask him this same question.

“No, of course we’re not here to strip.” Chip laughed, stripping entirely naked. “It’ll just be me doing that.”

He lied down and began to roll around, smearing mud all over his body.

“This isn’t crazy at all, right? Plebeians do this all the time, right, Joff?” Chip laughed, standing back up and taking another tube from Jumpy. He doused this green liquid all over himself.

“Ah…” Lieutenant Joff was speechless.

Macaw coughed again. “Deepest apologies, lieutenant. Really, I, uh… never expected something like this to happen.”

Chip spat some blood out of his mouth onto the mud. Instantly, the mud started roiling about like boiling water.

A soldier’s eyes widened. “Blood magic!”

“Devil!” Another soldier shouted, drawing his sword.

“Good guess!” Chip laughed.

The mud turned into an oily black liquid that shot into the air, solidifying into a metallic lance that went straight through the soldier’s head.

The first persons to react were Chianti and Verreaux. Their swords stabbed through the nearest soldiers as they were reaching for their weapons.

“I hope you know what you’re doing here!” Verreaux snarled as he swiped at another soldier.

Solera gaped in astonishment at Chip. The metallic black liquid flowed on the surface of his entire body. This was clearly blood magic, a lost demonic art!

“Don’t worry, guys. I’m no devil.” Chip laughed, flicking his hand. The black stuff shot out from his arm, turning into a flurry of black spikes that impaled a whole group of soldiers.

A slash appeared out of thin air, slicing a UD soldier in half. Next to him, the tree also began to topple over. The last soldier tried to run, but a flying dart sprouted in the back of his head, causing him to fall down, dead.

Chianti whipped her head around, staring at Chip in astonishment. The black stuff shifted a bit, turning into a hooded black robe. Chip’s eyes were closed, but Solera could see his eyeballs rolling around underneath his eyelids.

The robe grew a belt, and then changed color several times. The hood melted away, turning into hair that merged seamlessly into a collar that simultaneously grew out of nowhere. Had Solera not just seen this transformation take place, he never would have believed it had happened.

“Chip, you better explain yourself.” Verreaux’s mouth was a hard line. “None of us are fans of the Halo cult, but when they say blood magic is only used by devils, they’re not kidding.”

“Nonsense.” Chip had a dark look in his eyes. “Blood magic is just a method to synchronize items with yourself. It’s only forbidden because the Halo cult had disputes with the Blood clan.”

“But the Blood clan was a clan of…” Verreaux frowned. “You have a point, Chip. The Halo cult does like to call its enemies devils. What is that strange thing you got, anyway?”

“It’s an exosuit. Unlike most human technology, this does not use power. It uses blood to function.” Chip said calmly. “If I had not found it within a day of the Curse, it would have dissolved into nothing. Even now, it is extremely weak, and needs to regenerate.”

Chip chewed his lip for a moment, before kneeling down on the ground. “I am indebted to you all for helping me obtain this. You are truly my comrades.”

“Cool.” Macaw came back from looting the corpses, waving the card he had given to Joff at Chip’s face. “If that’s true, why did you make me give that guy my money? What kind of comrade are you?”

“Hey, come on. This is the first time I’ve seen Chip not have his head stuck up his ass. How can you just ruin the moment like that?” Verreaux began laughing.

“... I realize you guys are joking.” Chip sighed.

“It wasn’t much, Chip. Just help me find a decent guy, and we’re even.” Chianti smirked. “Let’s go back to camp. All the Duchies’ hotshots are probably piling off to that Blessing to fight over the siehnti, so we should be able to escape without too big of a problem.”