Part Twenty-Four

With no other choice, I settled down to wait for Alicia to return. Gwen had yet to awake, and Gwyn had passed out again, so I was basically alone right now. Because of that, I needed to stay alert for any monsters trying to break into the house. An attack now would be extremely bad.

Hm? Oh Kalia? She’s still torment-. I mean, petting Regis. Poor guy looks dead inside, as if his soul has left his body. Or so he’d like me to think. He’s not exactly subtle. All those glances at me are just giving him away. He was the one who didn’t run away fast enough, not me.

Hopefully she’d snap out of it soon, or I was going to have a very bad day. While Rapid Recovery had gotten me back into fighting shape temporarily, my wounds hadn’t been fully recovered. I was sure my ribs were still cracked, and my body was cut and bruised all over from going through that door. I’d been somewhat numb to my injuries until now, so the sudden influx of pain was rough.

Looking for something to distract me from it, I began casting my gaze around the room. Aside from the twins sleeping, and Kalia still being weird, there wasn’t much of interest here, aside from a bookshelf. Figuring that I had little to lose, I made my way over to it and looked through what was there.

Hm, a couple encyclopedias, a collection of history books, and several Shakespeare plays. Nothing I’m really interested in. Ah well, it was a long-shot that a random house would have anything I was willing to read. Guess I’ll just wait it out the hard way.

Giving up on reading to pass the time, I went back to my chair, sinking into it with a sigh. Boredom was always my greatest enemy, and I hated having to wait around like this. I was much more comfortable being the one to make people wait than the one who had to wait. Which is a pretty thing selfish to say now that I think about it. Still didn’t change what I thought, though.

*…*

It was at that moment that I felt a slight tingling in the back of my mind. I tried to ignore it at first, but it became quite insistent very quickly. It wasn’t until I remembered my familiar that I realized it was trying to get my attention. I quickly beckoned it to reform, and once it did, it became readily apparent that something was wrong.

*…*

The Spirit seemed agitated, and a great deal of something was coming over our link, though I wasn’t sure what. Urgency, maybe, or consternation or hesitation, or something. But it became clear what was up when I asked.

“You’re…about to Evolve? And you needed permission to do so?”

*…*

“I…guess that makes sense. Hm, okay. Do your thing.”

The second it had my agreement, the Miasma or mist or whatever it was that made up its form condensed to a single point and fell to the ground. It kinda looked like a solidified ball of the gunk the Spirit was birthed from.

A few seconds passed as I felt mana fluctuate within the solidified Spirit, after which it began to evaporate, returning to its previous form. Or something similar.

Dread Specter

Rank: E

Status: Bound – Familiar

Description: An infantile Dread Spirit. Specters are the second stage of a Spirit's growth phase, and a highly important one, as this is when they develop their Cores. A Spirit’s Core is its heart. Without it, it will die. The more Grudge and Miasma a Dread Specter eats, the more robust its Core will become.

It….it looks like the shadow creature, only much, much smaller.

Before, the Spirit had looked just like one of the projectiles cast by [Rot], but now it had grown much larger and denser. Its shape was still relatively spherical, though it was now the size of a beach ball, but it no longer looked like a ball of mist. Instead it appeared to be a ball of darkness, though that one red light still shown from within.

*…*

And it wasn’t just its appearance that had changed. The level and variety of emotion it held had also grown, to the point where I now knew that the Spirit was very happy about Evolving. I couldn’t tell if this was a good thing or not, as its resemblance to the shadow creature had thrown me off. So I told the Spirit to disperse itself so I could think.

So…was the shadow creature….a Dread Spirit? It kinda makes sense. If all those Undead were the result of something it did, then it being a creature made from Grudge and Miasma makes it easier to understand. It may have been trying to generate Miasma to help it grow. And maybe it’s not exactly hostile? Yeah. Yeah! I mean, it could’ve all been just a misunderstanding on my part. Wouldn’t a powerful being like that just possess a threatening aura? That doesn’t mean it was trying to threaten us. I think.

If the shadow had actually been a Spirit, and not a monster, that could explain why it hadn’t attacked us. While I didn’t have any direct confirmation of this, I figured that Spirits were probably something separate from monsters since you could create them with magic. But then again, who really knew at this point?

Having come to a reasonable conclusion, I opened my eyes and raised my head, only to realize that Kalia was inches away from me. Looking up to see her so close to me had been shocking, but what she said next was even worse.

“…Want a hug?”

“………What!?”

“I shaid, want a hug? That’sh what I do for my younger coushins when they’re feeling glum. I givshem a big ole hug!”

“…Wow, you’re really drunk. This is…something else. Uh, no Kalia. I do not want a hug.”

“Well I shink you do! And what I shay goes, mishter!”

Kalia tried to lunge for me, but I merely held her off with a single hand. Even injured, I was more than strong enough to hold her off, especially in her inebriated state. Granted, we never would’ve been doing this is she wasn’t drunk, soooo….

Huh. Can we actually say she’s drunk when she hasn’t drank a single drop of alcohol? I know she’s acting it, but does it count? Hm, I’d have to look up the definition or something, though this isn’t really relevant. I’m still going to tease her mercilessly for this later.

“Come here! I jush wanna hug ya! Thatsh all!”

“Again, I don’t want to hug you. And why are you so set on hugging me anyway?”

“Caushe I am!”

“Haaaah, I hope Alicia gets back soon.”

“Is it caushe you wanna hug her!? And, and shtare at her butt more!? And, and, and-.”

“Ooookay, that’s enough out of you. Finish that sentence and I’m taking you back to the pound.”

“Whash am I? A shtray dog? I’m not a dog! I’m a kitty!”

“…Okay, this is getting stupid. It was fun for a bit, but you need to sleep whatever this is off. Go lay down and take a nap while I wait for Alicia to return, along with the last bit of my sanity. Also, your speech is getting worse the longer you talk.”

“…You’re mean.”

“And you’re drunk. There’s a lot going on today.”

“I’m not drunk, you’re drunk!”

“Oh great, now we’ve really played through every cliché. And if you two are awake, I’d like some help dealing with the drunkard.”

“Oh, hell no. I ain’t gettin' anywhere near that girl after seein' this.”

“I concur. Seeing this side of Kalia has raised several doubts in my head. Besides, you seem to have her well in hand for now.”

“Tch, bastards…..has anyone seen Regis?”

“I believe he’s long gone. Finally being subjected to Kalia’s affection seems to have been enough to send the little fox into a bout of intense panic. He’s most likely hiding somewhere he thinks Kalia won’t find him. That, or he’s looking for food.”

“It’s probably the latter. Damn fox is a glutton.”

“Don’t talk about Reggie like that! Hesh a good boy!”

“Yes, you made that quite clear earlier. Though you only think that since you don’t have to feed him. Based on how much and what he eats, I’m ninety percent certain he’s actually a monster of some sort, though I can’t prove it.”

“Shtop talkin’ crazy! Reggie'sh a good boy, and I won’t hear otherwishe! Yer jush jealoush that yer not ash cute ash him.”

“Haaaah, Alicia, where are you?”

I’d had it with drunk Kalia. This whole thing felt like a bad joke someone didn’t know how to end, so it just kept going and going, getting more and more tedious with every sentence. The only positive was that comedic timing hadn’t decided to make an abrupt entrance, allowing me the chance to eventually talk Kalia down. In the end, I gave her the Cloak of Shadows to use as the world's snuggliest blanket, and that placated her enough that she fell asleep.

That was exhausting. Thank god for the Cloak and all its done for me….. you know, I could be wrong about this, but I think the only items I’m still using from the Nightmare Labyrinth are the Cloak and my Warrior’s Bracelet, though I’ve kinda forgotten about the later. A lot of the other stuff I got has either broken or I’ve replaced it since then. Well, my magic bags as well, but that’s beyond the point I was making. I’ve used and lost a number of good stuff since then.

With the drunkard safely snoozing, I turned my attention back to the pair of jokers who’d been watching my ordeal. The two of them seemed fine, so surely I was allowed to dig at them a bit, right?

“Hey guys, I’m back.”

Unfortunately, Alicia came back before I could, taking my opportunity for revenge away. Though now I had a patsy for if Kalia woke back up. Also, I decided then and there that if we ever held a drinking party of any kind, we’d never let Kalia get drunk. She was not fun to deal with.

***

Alicia explained to us what she saw, including the fact that both the Draconian and the Cyclops that killed it were now dead. I didn’t ask what had happened, as I’d probably have done something similar if I could’ve. She’d removed a potential threat, and there was nothing wrong with that.

She also told us that there were similar battles occurring elsewhere in the suburbs, showing that whatever was going on here was quite violent. The number of daily monster deaths throughout the whole city must’ve been in the thousands easily, if not the tens of thousands.

Aside from the occasional Undead, there’s nothing to connect this place to what was happening near London. But at the same time, I can’t help but be suspicious. It just doesn’t seem normal. None of this meshes with what I’ve witnessed over the last five months. I don’t know, and it scares me.

With Gwen and Gwyn still hurt, and Kalia in no state to do anything right now, we decided that it was best to retreat, at least for the moment. Once Kalia recovered from her Mana Exhaustion, we could then decide what to do with the rest of the day. Something I felt we should be grateful for. Death could come way too quickly around here.