Chapter 296 - The Price Of Annoying A Living God

After another very passionate… "Cuddle" session the two lovebirds got hungry and decided to have some lunch downstairs before they walked out of the inn and stood face to face with… a whole squad of guards, one of which included the guard captain who Julia knew, as he saw how close Mercury and Julia were he showed a frown before he spoke to Mercury

"Adventure Mercury, the city lord has requested to meet you"

Mercury nodded after he gave a long sigh, his cane tapped along the cobblestone as he walked down the streets along with Julia that followed along claiming she would represent the adventurer's guild, Galvin, the head of the guards agreed after some hesitation, on the way to the lord's mansion Julia whispered to Mercury

"Galvin used to pursue me… He's a volatile man be careful"

Mercury nodded, soon they arrived at the lord's mansion and was brought inside under the guard of even more guards, only these guards seemed to be the elite as Mercury could sense that they were well trained, Mercury could not read anything from their expressions, soon they were bright to an office where the town lord sat and worked behind a sturdy desk, he looked up from his documents when Mercury and Julia walked in along with the guards and showed a smile that didn't seem quite right to Mercury

"Welcome, you must be Mercury… And Julia too, always a pleasure, please sit down"

Mercury sat down on the couch while Julia remained standing with her arms crossed over her chest, Mercury spoke

"I am most honored to be called by you, the town lord, but I am short on time… May I know what you need from me?"

"Well first off I intend to offer you thanks for defeating the golems that showed up yesterday… You have my heartfelt thanks"

Mercury nodded as the town lord continued

"With that thank comes an offer, I would like you to join the town guard"

Mercury narrowed his eyes slightly before he refused

"No thanks, as an adventure I value my freedom too much"

"I see… that's unfortunate, well then onto my next question… Why was the golem's targeting you specifically?"

Mercury felt a chill go up his spine but kept his poker face as he spoke

"I don't believe they were though?"

The town lord narrowed his eyes before he raised his hand, Mercury heard the sound of swords being drawn behind him before he managed to speak however Julia spoke

"This is ridicule towards the guild, how can you threaten an adventure like this in my presence!?"

The town lord glanced briefly at Julia before he spoke

"Silence whore, you will speak only when spoken to"

Julia became furious but Mercury raised his hand to signal her not to speak and spoke for her as a strange light glowed in his eyes as the word 'immortal' repeated itself inside his head

"Speak to my woman like that once again and I'll make you taste death worse than you can imagine"

The town lord became furious and slammed his fist into the desk

"How dare you speak to me like that, guards execute this man in my name!"

Mercury narrowed his eyes as suddenly the room froze, or rather was forced to freeze under Mercury's presence that emitted an insane amount of bloodlust as he let out a near beastly growl, the word "Immortal" was sounding out inside his head with increasingly intensity then he spoke in an eerily calm tone

"You just made the last mistake of your life"

One of the guards managed to break free from the bloodlust and slashed down at Mercury with his sword

"...[Metal domination]"

The sword, made of steel froze mid-air as a grey domain spread out with Mercury in the center, then the armor that the guards wore tightened slightly and loosened slightly as Mercury breathed, then he raised his hand and tightened it slightly making the armor on every guard in the room tighten, slowly as he looked at the terrified town lord as he spoke out again

"[Lesser metal weaving]"

The steel that made up every drawn sword suddenly came alive and quickly formed into orbs that then floated over to Mercury before he pointed at the town lord, the metal orbs then floated over, as they did they formed into long strips or bands as the weaved around the town lord tying him into a cocoon, leaving his head exposed before they became solid again, Mercury then stood up and spoke to everybody in the room

"I and Julia will leave town today, any attempts at stopping us will result in death, of course, you are welcome to test me… that is the nature of mortals after all"

Mercury then gave a nod before he grabbed Julia by the hand and walked out of the office with her… As Mercury walked down the hallway he heard a yell from the office

"KILL THEM BOTH! AND GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!"

"Welp… [Lesser metal weaving]"

Then a truly harrowing scream came from the office as the metal cocoon tightened around the town lord, giving him a slow and painful death, by now Mercury was about to be back to his normal self as the word "Immortality" had stopped repeating itself inside his head

"Let's get out of here…"

"...Agreed Mercury, we need only to stop by the inn and my room in the guild before we leave this town… The inn is closer so we'll stop by there first and pick up your stuff, alright?"

"Sure, let's go"

The two of them ran out of the mansion and out onto the streets, but oddly no one was following them so the trip to the inn and Julia's room in the guild was smooth and soon they walked towards the walls with their luggage

"Sorry about all this Julia…"

Julia took Mercury's hand with a smile before she spoke

"I am your woman right?"

Mercury showed a smile and gave her hand a squeeze before he spoke

"Yeah, you bet you are"

Julia's smile was akin to a blooming flower as she responded

"Then you don't have to be sorry about anything"

Mercury felt touched and promised himself to treat Julia even better than he already had been so far, then they turned a corner and came within the view of the gates

"Let's do this…"

"Sure"

Julia took her two-handed magazine-fed crossbow off her back and checked it briefly while Mercury tapped a finger on his cane making some of the cobblestones fly up from the ground before they were sharpened into arrows, then they turned the corner and found… Everything looking normal, one of the guards walked up to them in a non-hostile way and spoke

"Can I see your ID?"

Mercury narrowed his eyes and asked

"What about the lord? Aren't you going to follow his orders?"

The guard showed a smile and spoke

"You know I got a daughter, about 3 years old… She's just the cutest"

Julia asked

"What are you getting at?"

The guard stopped smiling before he spoke

"The lord died of natural cures, show me your ID and move along"

Mercury nodded and the arrows made of stone dropped the ground before he fished out his ID and showed it to the guard that nodded before he spoke

"Please never come back… You too, Julia"

"Sure"

"...Fine"

Mercury and Julia walked through the gates before both of them sighed, then Julia grabbed Mercury's arm and snuggled up to him as she spoke in a pitiful voice

"Now I am all alone in the world…"

Mercury showed a smile as he spoke

"No, you're not… You got me, don't you?"

Julia showed a smile

"Yeah, that's true… I am your woman after all"

"Hold it right there!"

Mercury and Julia looked back towards the gate and saw Galvin standing there, he was a little out of breath and took a few moments before he spoke with a frown on his face

"Mercury…"

Mercury raised his finger from his cane slightly ready to tap it to invoke a spell, Galvin caught his breath before he spoke again

"Take good care of Julia"

Then he turned around and walked back towards the gate confusing Julia and Mercury that soon showed a smile before he spoke to Julia

"Let's go"

"Yeah… Where to?"

"East… I want to get out of the desert soon and see some real trees"

"Then let's go"

After quickly going over to the dead golem and picking up Mercury's half-melted sword the two of them began heading east hoping to make it to the next town before they ran out of supplies

'Well we'll be fine, we're both adventures used to living off the land… At least I hope Julia is…'

Mercury looked over at Julia that looked back at him with a sweet smile on her face

"Oh well… Then… You know the rest dear!"

"Yes Mercury, let's go!"