Chapter 76 - New Allies (1)

"Remember that I will collect my debt when the time comes." said the deep voice to Arya as he opened his eyes.

"I'm never getting help from that bastard again." thought Arya as he was finally given back full control of his body. However it felt like all his bones had been broken, crushed, and pasted back together.

Although there were no traces of the injuries he had incurred from the fight against the beast last night, it still felt like he had been hit by a truck.

*"Master?" asked the beast with a confused expression.

The beast felt like his master's power level had substantially lowered, and his once domineering presence could no longer be felt.

Arya quickly pulled out his dagger and began chanting a spell as soon as he saw the beast standing in front of him.

"Child of water heed my call, bring about a chill to freeze my foes." chanted Arya as a beam of ice shot out of his hand and hit the beast in the face. Arya then quickly followed up with a stab to the beast's abdomen as well.

*"I see. This is what master meant." said the beast as Arya's trifle attacks deflected off the beast's body.

The form in which the beast Arya had lost against last night was substantially weaker than his current form. At this moment Arya couldn't even so much as put a scratch on the beast, and if the beast wanted to he could easily kill Arya with the flick of his wrist.

But he didn't. The memory of his master still plagued his mind.

*"Master I will gather the forces like you have commanded me. Until then I wish you good luck on your journey." said the beast before turning into a shadow and disappearing from the cave.

"What the hell was that about?" thought Arya as his heart finally calmed. He didn't understand one word of what the beast had said, but it didn't sound good.

"F**k, the journal!" shouted Arya as he finally remembered the fight that Arcem's corpse had with the beast.

When Arya reached the remains of Arcem's mangled corpse he found the journal in a terrible state. Many of its pages were torn, and its cover was missing.

"Why can't anything ever go right for once?" thought Arya as he picked up Arcem's satchel and began walking towards the town of Alclara.

His horse was nowhere to be seen and the only thing Arcem's horse would be good for was dried meat.

Arya had walked for nearly 5 hours, completely depleting all the supplies in Arcem's satchel, before finally reaching Alclara.

"Welcome traveler, h-how can I help you?" asked the owner of the inn that Arya had walked into. The old gentleman behind the counter had beads of sweat running down his face, clearly something was bothering him.

"I would like to book a room," replied Arya in a dry voice, like he hadn't drunk water for days.

"U-uhm, what kind of room would you like?" asked the man as he slowly looked at his register to see if there were available rooms.

"I don't really mind. Any room would do, I just want a meal to be sent up to it as soon as possible," replied Arya fed up by the innkeeper's slow service.

"And can you hurry up, I don't have all day," said Arya hoping to make the innkeeper go faster.

"R-right this way, follow me." said the man as he led Arya to his room. "Your meal will be sent right away s-sir." said the innkeeper before leaving a bit too quickly.

Arya didn't care, he was too tired to wonder why the old man was acting the way he was.

Of course, Arya didn't have a mirror and was too tired to examine himself so he had no idea about the state he was in. His white hair was colored red with blood, his clothes were in taters and the satchel he was carrying had more holes than it did fabric.

"Your food is here sir." said a woman as she brought Arya's food. Arya woke up and quickly devoured his meal before going back to sleep.

After sleeping for 12 hours he finally woke up, it was already late afternoon and he decided he would go have a bath. When Arya finished bathing he looked at himself in the mirror.

"I'm taller?" thought Arya as he realized he had grown by a few inches overnight. it was the result of his demon possession, as his body tried to adapt to holding in the power of a demon.

Arya's body looked even more muscular than it did before, now he could easily pass off as a slightly short 10-year-old if he wanted to.

Arya went back to his room and counted the amount of money Arcem had left in his satchel. "Three gold coins, fifty silver, and 100 bronze. And the room costs about 3 silver per night, I must say Arcem was rather loaded wasn't he? I would probably be able to buy our old house seven times with this money." thought Arya with a smile on his face.

The smile quickly disappeared as a wave of sadness filled him. "What's this? Why am I thinking about them all of a sudden?" thought Arya as the memories of his family members flooded his mind.

"That's it, continue to feel despair." whispered the dark figure in Arya's mind.

After Arya cleared up his mind he decided to go shopping for clothes since his were currently in a rather sorry state.

"H-how can I help you sir?" asked the fat short store clerk of the clothing store Arya had entered.

"I would like to try on some clothes my size," replied Arya while looking around.

"I'm sorry sir, but the clothes here are rather.. expensive." said the store clerk in an arrogant tone as he looked at Arya up and down, noting his tattered clothes.

"It's okay, I have money," said Arya as he pulled out a sack of coins and handed the man several silver coins.

The man wasn't sure which rich aristocrat had let his son walk around in such a sad state, but he was happy to help a paying customer.

Arya walked out wearing rather expensive clothing, he looked exactly like a noble would, attracting the attention of all those he passed on the street.

Together with his long white hair, and rather charming looks, Arya could very easily have anyone he wanted had he been a tad bit taller.. But the women of Alclara didn't care, all they saw was a walking piggy bank ripe for the picking.