Left and right, left and right, left . . . . . and right, wait, they were long past the street already!

"We should be good now." Nitarja sighed and finally stopped.

"What are you doing? That was our destination! There is something you are not telling me." Frei felt the tension in the air and his eyes darted all around them.

"I am sorry, I have been mistaken. I have underestimated how intense the competition actually is." Nitarja bit her lip lightly. "I think the people from the church were tailing us."

"But you said that . . !" Frei frowned at her.

"I messed up, fine?! It seems that joining one of the big shots will get us into even more trouble." She folded her arms on her chest and looked around as well for anything suspicious.

Frei began to think that Nitarja's understanding of the situation in the Arcane Universe was a lot skewed, despite having more experience compared to him, she had proven herself to be one shitty guide! He had a feeling she was like a secretary of a director who after experiencing working with him every day lived in an illusion that she could even replace him, but in reality, her understanding of the situation was far from enough.

"Do you mean The Church of Thurm?" He whispered after coming closer to her.

"Y-yes, maybe." She said quietly, lowering her ears.

"Maybe! You are talking about our necks! Come, we will go with the original plan of leaving the city." Frei walked on without looking back, they seemed to be almost out of the city anyway, the city wall not including most of the slums.

The only piece of positive news was that he could still use the abilities from before and the new body seemed to have improved his physique even more. He had no clues about the rest of the abilities, but something inside kept telling him that sniffing around too much would end up in a roller coaster ride he did not want to undertake just for a bit of power. He needed power to increase his security, if his pursuits meant too much danger, it defeated the whole purpose of gaining strength.

"Nitarja, tell me, what would the most bumpkin-like, poor mage from the countryside do? No secret organizations stretching across universes and shit." He asked, his voice calm again.

"They would look for big opportunities in the city and get killed?" She said matter-of-factly.

"No, a bumpkin-kin, the king of bumpkin mages Nitarja." He insisted.

"Such a person might use his greater strength to pull a plough on a farm or something? Hell, how should I know? I am basically just a slave prostitute from a city. What the fuck do you want from me? Think for yourself, bumpkin Mage." He heard her irritated voice from behind and felt . . .

"Do not kick me jeez, someone might see that and I will have to punish you." He turned around swiftly, but she was already out of reach.

"I do not know anything, make your own plans and lead the way master. I am an expert in blowing cocks, not strategy meetings." She waited until he had turned around again and followed him like a pet.

She was probably right, he held his hopes too high regarding her advice instead of solving the situation himself.

Forging ahead, Frei noticed that the road out of the city was in much worse condition than he had anticipated. There was almost no traffic at all by the time they passed the last couple of crumbling, wooden houses. They continued to walk towards a forest along something more akin to a forest pathway than a proper road, there was even a broken fence barring the way. Frei carefully passed the fence and looked behind him, but Nitarja stayed stubbornly unhelpful.

"This does not look like a frequented road." Frei threw his words into the wind.

"So bright, I wouldn't have guessed." Nitarja nudged him with her comment.

They walked on in silence for a while, watching the forest devour everything around them, until a far away voice broke the silence.

"Get away from me! Do not think you get under!" A female voice was carried through the woods from afar.

"Stay back, or I will squash you!" The voice turned more angry.

"Come, this is our chance! We can make a good impression by helping out!" Frei decided to use the opportunity to make some favors and rushed in the direction of the voice. He left Nitarja far behind and continued to bulldozer his way through the thick vegetation, running up a slope, he soon stood at the ridge of a steep hill and threw himself down the slope.

To his dismay, he had not been used to his broader frame yet and kept bumping into the trees like a drunkard, but he chose to ignore it until he heard the voice of the woman in distress right in front of him and realized that he had just bumped into something very sticky.

Well, the woman was strangely veiled and there seemed to be no one around to threaten her life.

There was also a weird hum all around him.

"Y-You! What are you doing on a private property? You have squashed my beehives!" The woman veiled in finely made nets that were apparently a protection against stings began to shout at Frei, but her voice calmed a little, when she realized that he was a Mage.

"Sir, you will have to pay for the damage caused to Lord Tagran." She folded her arms and stared at Frei while the bees kept trying to sting him through his skin that had been hardened by many abilities and the evolution on top of it.

"With money?" Frei asked in a small voice.

"With what else? Potatoes?" The women snorted. "Come with me, or face the wrath of our lord."

Frei gulped and began sheepisly following the woman. It should not be that bad right? How much could a single beehive cost? He would probably just roll his big shoulders and that Tagran guy would forgive him, maybe even offers him a glass of vine to make up for the bad taste of their first meeting. However, he kept his act of a timid sinner in front of the hag walking alongside him.

She would certainly receive what was due when the Lord would see her behaviour.

Or so he had thought.

"Darling, there is a wandering knight trampling our beehives, come and deal with him." She shouted when they arrived at a big wooden manor with no other people in sight.

"Eh? Is she his wife? Wandering knight?" Frei's thought process paused, his arrival would probably be less glorious than he had hoped for.

"Deal with him, I've got a situation here!" A distant voice responded and the woman growled something under her breath.

"Will you pay? Do you have money, right?" Her gaze turned sharp.

"I-I perhaps just. . S-See, I have actually been . . ." For some time, Frei kept shifting his weight from one leg to another, before another female voice interrupted his deliberations.

"Just get rid of the servant, what can a bunch of stupid bees cost? I can blow the lord's dick and we'll be even." Nitarja's winded voice carried over from some distance before her disheveled hair emerged from the bushes, the two pairs of eyes began to follow her immediately.

Frei attempted to mouth the word wife at Nitarja in a way she could clearly see him, but she did not seem to get the right meaning behind his action as per usual.

"No, forget it Frei, you will get nothing, only the lord." She walked slowly closer to the two.

"What was this all about darling?" A burly man emerged out of the manor, his body frame similar to that of Frei's, sweat dripping down from his forehead, as he had probably been working just a second ago.

"Just some bees Lord Tagran." His wife gave him a stiff smile.

"Why are you calling me that? You are my wife, no?" He looked at all of them questioningly.

"Of course darling, this young lady was just about to pay you for the precious beehives the two of them destroyed." She smiled at Nitarja in a way a killer smiled at his victim and Nitarja gulped, slowly moving half of her body to be covered by Frei.

"You mean your stupid bees that keep stinging everyone's ass in the forest? Good riddance!" The Lord laughed and his wife's smile turned sour immediately.

"Darling! What do you mean?! Bees are vital for healthy plants! And what about the honey?" The women almost stomped her foot in disapproval.

"There are no crops in the woods anyway and most of the honey has been eaten by the animals as usual. Come with with us, the best way to salvage the situation will be to have something to eat and drink. You do look hungry." The actions of the Lord fit his whole persona, as he did not look like someone to pay attention to appearances.

"Gladly, we are lucky to meet such hospitable, good people." Frei praised them and all of them slowly walked inside the manor, where the two quickly readied the meal they had been about to serve. Frei found odd that there were no servants, but they just might be on errands in the city. Lord's wife brought a soup that smelled strongly of meat and shortly, Frei dug into the meal ravenously.

The pair smirked at each other, clearly satisfied that their guests were happy.

"Ah, I am sorry, I have forgot to put out the fire." The wife was about to stand up, but her husband laid a hand on her shoulder briefly.

"It is ok, honey. I will do it." He stood up instead and walked into the room next to the dining room.

Frei did not pay much attention to them and enjoyed the food, the last meal he had was .. wait, he was actually hungry! It was a novel feeling considering he had been able to survive on just soul juice when he had been a demon. All his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a dull pain in his head and he felt the world spin around him. His body fell to the ground and his confused gaze laid upon the Lord who was right behind him, holding a hammer in his hand.

"Do not kill him, we need to find out from what hole they have crawled out." The woman barked from the other side of the table, from where he could hear choking noises. When his eyes focused better, he could see that the wife was strangling Nitarja with a wire, the tool reminding him of a garrote. Luckily, Nitarja had managed to put her palms in the way of the rusty wire and was still struggling for her life.

"Those bitches!" Frei whispered and in the next second, many of his old abilities exploded into action, [Supernatural Physique], [Demonic Transformation], [Demon Claws], [Stealth], [Strength of Stone], [Hardened Skin], [Steel Skin], [Poison Resistance], [Corrosion Resistance], [Energy Resistance], [Steel Bark], [Venom], [Plant Form], [Growth], [Penetrating Vines]

He was lucky that he had some of the passive ones active all the time, otherwise he would have been taken out and with him unconscious, there would have been no one to help out Nitarja, who apparently had been marked to be put down right away. Frei's body immediately transformed into something that could hardly be put into words. His demonic form was more robust than it had used to be, with thick plant-like tendrils growing out of his body at odd places, the color of his skin had patterns of green, blue and red as the traits of [Mage], [Demonic Transformation] and [Plant Form] merged into something barely compatible, turning him into a humanoid monstrosity of muscles and tentacles.

He immediately helped out the flailing Nitarja by piercing the wife's neck with one of his tentacles the sharp point of which was harder than steel thanks to all the boosts he had active and turned to face the Lord, who had already summoned a brightly glowing azure greatsword, something that had not surprised Frei as it was a similar ability to the one the two Mages from the past displayed.

"What the fuck are you?! What monstrosity have The Sigil cooked up this time?!" He launched a flurry of slashes after he had been able to overcome his shock, as Frei was currently something out of the worst nightmares.

"Sharp." Frei immediately felt pain as one of his tentacles was cut off, but his speed was better now and he managed to dodge most of the slashes and even parried some by striking the flat side of the sword, deflecting it to the side.

"You will need more than that old man!" Frei launched an overwhelming assault, [Thorns] flying out of his hands along with [Black Bullet] that was able to pierce his adversary's skin, but was clearly not strong enough to penetrate far. The thorns were deflected by the Lord's skin, having not enough kinetic energy, they just fell to the floor. One of the tentacles gripped the Mage's waist and the [Thorns] growing on it forced their way into his body, spreading their [Venom] inside.

"Abomination!" The Lord shouted and quickly cut all the tentacles that tried to repeat the move only to be slammed into the air by [Rock Spike].

"What? He managed to block it?" Frei praised the Lord's agility, not that it would help him for long. He used [Telekinesis] to hold him in the air for a second longer and followed with another tentacle assault from six sides at the same time.

It was something totally unavoidable and the Lord soon fell back to the ground, his body riddled with injuries, venom flowing out of his wounds.

"W-What monstrosity, what blasphemy." His last words escaped his lips.

Frei looked quickly at Nitarja only to find her holding her bloody hands in front of her, as she shivered in shock.

She did not look very good.

"Great." Frei could not make sense of the situation, but he had to help Nitarja first before searching for clues about the murderous couple.