Chapter 206: Prep For War; Intermission (P2)

With everything back in Demme settled for the most part, every essential person needed back in Aste and I marched off the next morning, packed with food graciously given to us by Lotar, or rather, the Spriggan.

It was a bit rushed, getting every single one of the Militia to march back to Aste, but it was done in the end, largely thanks to Juri screaming at the top of his lungs, threatening every single hesitant boy or girl with starvation and death by monsters should they delay his Lord a second longer.

He's such an effective leader.

Before we left however, there were two pressing matters I needed to attend to in person.

The first was relatively simple; Panda was having a bit of trouble healing, a bit of trouble getting his parts together.

At first, seeing the crude mess of his bones, guts and face splattered all across the blown-up Mansion, I wondered if it would even be possible to reconstitute him to whole once again.

But rather than give up on my Panda, I saw his ability to survive and explosion like Corpse Ignition invaluable. It meant he could tank several high profile attacks, perhaps even attacks from a Beta.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, for now, all I had to do was put him back together.

Stitching him back up turned out to be a task as simple as moulding mana. All I really had to do was…give him some of my mana.

The moment even just one dismembered part of him came in contact with my mana, it sprung alive, full of vigour and shot out to find and reattach itself to the larger body.

Within seconds Panda was whole and roaring once more.

Finding him tower over me, panting like a dog with far more power and nigh immortality, I figured I could make him even better.

And so I decided first thing we do in Aste would be getting him some armour and a blade large and strong enough for its mighty swings.

The next bit of business I had to take care of did not make itself as easy and painless as Panda did. Well, I'm not sure if Panda can feel pain but that's beside the point.

With Panda fixed up I headed back to the Tavern where those two have obediently stayed.

"Well, looks like you two have some sense after all!" I'd greeted chipperly.

The two in question, Red and Quen sit at the single standing table in the entire tavern, the owner nowhere to be found. I wonder for a moment if he'd been killed, but shrug it off, in the end it matters little.

"Not enough sense to not run away though." I continue, taking the third and last seat at the table, "You both heard me when I said I'd find you and I'd punish you right? You heard that, but something…stupid, possessed you to go ahead and do it anyway."

Red glares heatedly at me, her dagger stabbed into the table, an inch away from her jug of likely bad ale.

"Get to it then, punish us, you caught us like you said you would, didn't you?"

She had on a sickly look to her, like her cheeks could blow up with barf at any moment.

"You're still not healed, are you?" I tilt over, taking a look at her leg that lies aside from her like a dead log, "I guess Quen isn't that good of a healer is he, it's gotten infected, hasn't it?"

She doesn't say a thing to this, shivering visibly now.

"What did you do to us earlier? Whatever it was sped up the infection." Quen seems to have the gall to complain about this.

I sneer, "Well, you should have thought clearly about running away from a man like me when I specifically said not to. Oh and, that must be the curse, I suppose it being necrotic in nature it would find and fester on any open would, making it worse with each passing second."

I smile thinly at Red, "I can heal you, of course."

"But?" Quen asks and I chuckle.

"No buts, I need you, no, I want you. I want you two to do a simple job, a great job that would have paid well and given you brilliant social status had you simply…not run. But now you'll be guarded at all times and the curse I placed on you, on your hearts."

I lean forward, bringing up a hand blazing with green mana, "I can activate it at any time, from anywhere. Your hearts will turn to rot within minutes and the rest of your body will follow not long after."

I chuckle at the pained expression on his face, bloated, puffy, red with blood not pumping the right way. And then I wave my hand free of the mana and he breathes once again, although with great strain.

"Keep in mind that I'm looking forward to this curse being the reason you die, you see, the ritual for it doesn't quite explain what happens to the body afterward, I think you turn into undead. But would you be undead under my control or just mad monsters?" 

I grin as I get of the seat, "Summon Spirit; Healing Dire." In but a moment the Dire is fashion at my feet, seated quietly as always.

Seeing the familiar Dire Red spills out of her chair, her body slamming hard on the ground but that doesn't faze her, she crawls her way to the Dire and relief begins to wash over her face as the Dire does its thing.

Merely shaking my head, I look to Quen, "You might want to join in as well, your heart isn't in pretty shape right now." He startles at this and I add as I begin to leave, "Oh and make sure to head over to the gate tomorrow morning, don't make me send Panda after you…or worse, Shaco."

But that was nearly four days ago, and now, with Panda marching beside me and Red and Quen grumbling their sour fates in the back with much of the militia, I look out at the white plains before my eye, the brimming cold and the piling snow.

And I can only look on to Anselm and ask, "What the fuck?"