Chapter 131: The Last Knight

"So, what now, boss," Bertilak questioned as he glanced to the still unconscious Carmine getting her head gently patted and stroked by the very girl who had nearly left him permanently disabled in the left hand.

A snort and roll of eyes came from Parc at being called boss. It felt like it didn't fit him, he was far from a boss of anything yet but he supposed that now that he was paying Bertilak a wage of pure ingoted platinum now made him the thugs technical boss. "For now you can tell me about who it is your working for. Who sent you here?"

"The Crown, bunch of ambitious idiots who think they're the right full monarchs of Vacuo. They sent us here to set up a proper mine here before heading back to Vacuo."

"And who is 'they?'"

"Gillian and Jax Asturias, twins and the 'rightful monarchs of Vacuo,' ex-hunters, blah blah blah. Only real one you need to care about is Jax, Gillian's a problem as well but Jax is more of a bastard then his sister. His semblance is some bullshit mind control thing. It's a freaky feeling, you just hear this whisper in your ear, and you can't help but follow what it says." Bertilak mimed the feeling by bringing his hand to the side of his head and shook it slightly.

'Another mind controller? Sounds fun,' Parc patted at his satchel with a tense frown where the three golden orbs from his now destroyed Teigu were taking up space. He had done a few experiments with them, simple things to see if he could still make use of their abilities. His only success being when he dipped the orbs into a mana potion after which he could summon the chains and use a weakened version of the mind control it had, only it lasted for a short amount of time as the orbs would devour the potion in half a minute tops. What he'd come to figure out was that the gauntlet acted like a form of intermediary between Parc's will and the orbs. It would process his orders and energy and send them to the orbs. But now that he lacked that intermediary, he was unable to make full use of them.

"And Gillian? Her semblance?"

"Aura siphon, another bitch of a semblance. She can suck out your aura in ten seconds and will use you like a battery for her brother. Its slower at range but get up close and let her touch you and you're a goner. Personally, I'd advise you stay far away from her unless you've got a decent supply of aura on you. Which," Bertilak shrugged, "I somehow doubt you have much of."

He didn't have a single drop in his body… yet. He still had that Aura unlocking pill in his satchel he could use to get it 'up.' A silent chuckle came to Parc as he realized it was basically just a viagra pill except the only thing it was getting up was his aura and not his second head. Not that he had problems getting it up. Evidence of which was the dripping white fluids between Carmine's legs.

"That's something I can easily fix," Parc crossed his arms and nodded.

As they were about to continue their conversation a door to one of the few still standing buildings creaked noisily open and two armour clad men walked out. One of which was fiddling with his belt pulling the leather through the loop before pushing the pin through a hole to keep it set and unmoving.

"Can't believe she was a virgin," one of them laughed noisily slapping the back of the other. "Haven't had one like that in a while."

In return the one who had been fiddling with his belt began to laugh, "I know, to bad the brat croaked. You think Carmine's gonna punish us?"

"Man, I don't care if she punishes me. Just being near those tits will make the pain go away," the other groped the air with a lascivious smile on his face.

Meanwhile his companion had been drawn to a halt, behind his helmet his eyes had grown wide at the sight of a corpse laying on the ground not far from where they were standing. Soon being drawn to the sight of Bertilak and Parc stood staring unblinkingly at the two, just behind them the very Carmine his friend was fantasizing about was laid on a black-haired girls lap. Said girl ignoring them both instead focusing on tending to Carmine's hair.

"God what I'd do to spend a night with that ass…" at not getting a reaction from his friend, the air groper turned back, "nothing?" he asked seeing his friend gulp nervously, "she's uh, right behind me, isn't she?"

His friend shook his head, and muttered, "worse… I think?"

The groper mechanically turned his head back only to be met with black feathers and the jagged tip of a dagger entering the slits in his helmet.

"Oh shi-" the other one nearly swore but was silenced when a loud boom burst from Bertilak's mace as its pistol attachment fired off a highly explosive round into the mans chest, somehow not causing him to burst into numerous pieces instead leaving a bloody and burned boy in the wake of the dissipating smoke.

"Well that happened," Bertilak mumbled as he holstered his mace on his back.

"Is that all of your troops?" Parc asked.

"How many did you kill?"

"Twenty-three plus this guy." He sent a light kick to the corpse at his feet.

"Yeah, that's them all. Bloody hell." Bertilak groaned rubbing his eyes, "you really are perfect for Carmine, y'know that?"

"Yeah, I heard." Parc pulled his dagger from the head of the man and cleaned it off with a wipe from his satchel of holding. Glancing back to where the men had come from, he began to walk towards it, prepping himself for the horrible sight within.

The door itself was still hung open letting Parc gain just the smallest glimpse of the drab and rackety innards of the building. Entering into it he was quickly greeted by the fresh stench of semen blended with the soft nose of freshly spilled blood. It was subtle, exceedingly so but his nose was perfectly capable of sifting through the stench to find that hidden beneath. It wasn't something he was unfamiliar with, his time in the world of Akame ga Kill having gotten him all to accustomed to such vile smells. Even the sights—as horrible as they were—felt less grotesque to him, it didn't shift the sorrow he felt for the victims but it also didn't affect his slumber.

Pushing into the following room from the entrance hall Parc was greeted with the stripped body of a young girl at the centre of the room. Unmoving laid with her back to the floor, her body dashed and dripping with sickening fluids. Her chestnut eyes blank like those of a dead fish. Her bushy tail was frayed and the fur flattened from where her assaulters had crushed it for their sick amusement.

Sighing to himself Parc slowly approached the body, digging through his satchel to pull out a blanket to throw over her body. Coming to kneel by the girls body Parc reached out to her face to stroke her eyelids shut.

But just as he did, the girls body shifted, her deadened eyes filling with pure hate and her expression sharpened with rage as from beneath her she pulled a knife stolen from one of those two corpses outside. Her arm shot through the air bringing the dagger on a collision course with Parc's chest uncaring if he was a threat or not. Only wanting retribution for what had happened to her.

Once again, just as he had done with Carmine not minutes earlier he quickly caught her wrist with one hand only for the girl to swiftly toss the dagger into her other hand and jab it towards Parc's gut earning a raised brow from him. Still it had turned out ineffective to Parc as he was able to simply grab her other hand and twist her around forcefully pushing her to the floor and knocking the knife from her hand.

She attempted to struggle, to kick and bite before settling down near full minutes. Any energy in her body dissipating and muffled whimpering's began to come from her, soon shifting to full blown weeps at her futility. "I hate you… I hate you…" her fingers curled to balls and she screamed "kill me! Just kill me! That's what you monsters want isn't it! You took everything from me but my life! So take it!" she turned her head, cheek pressing into the ground her teeth with sharpened canine on full display on her muck covered face. "Just… just end it already…"

"I don't think so," Parc loosened his grip on the girls arms and pushed himself off her, taking a few steps away while she grew confused. Not comprehending the sudden loss of weight on her back and the knee digging into her back being gone. When realization finally came to her she slowly lifted herself to her knees, sat with her legs in an M with her hands still pressed onto the floor. Meekly staring up at Parc who was looking down at her nude form with soft eyes.