Chapter 93: Machine

FieryKathy

We are in the middle of cuddling when my sis talks to us from the hallway. “Ami, Sam, Hilda says she’s going to log in in a couple of minutes.”

“Okay, thanks for the info.” I call back to her, taking a small break from cuddling up to my girlfriend. 

“Alright, we’ll be logging in shortly as well.” 

“Should we log in so you have even more Sam to cuddle?” 

“I kinda do like that idea. And I can get to play with your tail.”

“Mhmm. Looking forward to that already.” She brushes her hand down my back and circles her finger around the bottom of my tail before she starts giggling. “We should go now before I get distracted.” 

“Y-yeah…” I blush and roll off her. Just when I do so Mochi and Pocky jump on my bed to meow us goodnight. 

“Good night to you too kitties.” I give both of them a pat on the head, while Sam does the same, before we put on our headsets and log into the game. 

I wake up in Haurchefaud already embraced by my now-quite-a-bit-bigger girlfriend. I could hear some birdies chirping from outside of our tent. 

“I do love this body a lot.” Sam stretches and starts purring slightly. As promised I also start playing with her tail a little which results in her purring even more. “But of course I love you most of all.” Sam gives me a kiss on the top of my head, in between my ears.

“Hey cuties.” I can hear my sister's voice from outside. “Don’t forget we can quite clearly hear you, okay? Just a heads up.” 

I start blushing but Sam giggles instead. “I don’t really mind if they hear me profess my love to you.” she hugs me tighter.

“I-I don’t think she was talking about that, Sam.” 

“I know, but you still don’t like stuff like that, right?” 

I nod. 

“See, then I wont do anything. Just our lovey dovey cuddling and purring routine.” 

I think I could hear some muffled ‘aw’ing from the tent next to us when she said that.

“Thanks, Sam.” 

“It’s but my duty as your girlfriend, Ami.” She gives me another kiss and then slowly starts releasing me. “But let’s get dressed so we can start adventuring again.” 

“Heck yes!” My sister calls out. “Let’s spread the legend of our little cat girl Goddess through this continent too!”

Oh no… 

When Sam and I are finally dressed we pack our things and leave our tent. My sister and Nikki are already sitting outside. 

“Hilda not here yet?” Sam asks. 

“I’m here, I’m here.” Hilda walks out of her own tent with a big yawn. Once she’s fully outside she stretches and takes a deep breath. “Nature smells so good, especially in the morning.” then she walks on towards the little creek our tent was next to. “I’m going to wash my face for a second.” 

We nod and go sit down next to my sis and Nikki to get some breakfast too. But before we are seated Hilda runs back over to us.

“Uhm, girls, you should come and see this.” Her voice appears to be slightly panicked. 

“What’s up?” My sister immediately gets up from her spot and follows her. The rest of us decide to follow as well.  

“Look at this.” Hilda crouches down next to the creek, but instead of clear spring water, the water of the creek is stained red. 

“Blood?” Sam crouches down too. 

“Most definitely.” Nikki comments. “I thought I could smell it earlier but I assumed it was from a nearby dead animal or something... but it’s definitely coming from over here.”

Hilda nods. “Let’s grab our gear and investigate.” 

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to move towards the blood?” My sister asks as she takes her shield ready and starts fastening her armour with the help of Nikki. 

“What if someone needs help?” I grab my staff close to my chest. 

Lise smiles. “That’s my sis for ya. Always ready to help people.” 

“Performing her job as an upstart Goddess perfectly.” Hilda agrees.

“Aid and succor for those in need…” Nikki starts. 

“And it’s never too early for milkshakes.” My sis continues. 

“Those are the tenets of the church of Amicia.” Sam finishes.

“We should probably not make fun of this but it’s best to crack a joke once in a while even in dire circumstances.” Hilda joins me at my side and gives me a pat on the back. “Are you ready, Ami?” 

I nod.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

We quickly gather our tents and then start walking up-stream from our camping spot. I got a strange feeling in my belly as the entire scene just seemed wrong. We are walking through a peaceful forest, no violence in sight. The birdies are happily chirping and the woodland critters are also just casually going on with their life… while on the other hand we are following this creek of blood.

“I hope it’s just some animal, you know, the cycle of life…” Sam mumbles. 

“Mhmm…”

The cracking of wood suddenly pulls our attention, it was loud enough for the entire group to hear.

Hilda crouches down and whispers. “That came from up ahead, right?”

We crouch as well while Sam and I nod.

Our group sneaks forward until we reach the end of the forest. A small battlefield layn out in front of us, bodies strewn around together with a bunch of broken machinery. In the middle of it all three men are talking to each other. 

“Those uniforms…” Sam points out. 

“Yeah, those are inquisitors.”

“We have to get the prisoners to our beachhead for interrogation immediately!” The man on the right calls out to the other two. 

“But sir, just the four of us?”

“It will have to happen, soldier. The prisoners are disarmed, are they not?”

“...” The two soldiers look at one another and then move towards the other side of the field where we see the fourth soldier guarding a couple of Dwarger people.  They were forced to sit down and were clearly shackled. 

“Nikki, can you take out those two? I’ll go for their leader. Sam, try to hit the guard in the distance.” Hilda lays out a plan. 

Nikki and Sam nod and after a short countdown they leave me alone with my sister. 

“Such is the fate of the support and the tank.” She crouches closer to me as the action unfolds before us. 

Before the two soldiers could even react they were quickly engulfed by a ball of flame. This alerted both the officer and the fourth guard but neither of them stood a chance. Hilda had already closed the distance to the officer and chopped off his hand with her sword-cane. Quickly followed by her kicking him behind the knee to force him on the ground. The fourth guard drew his sword but quickly collapsed as three arrows pierced his chest in quick succession.

“Ami, can you come and stop this guy’s bleeding?” Hilda asks while she’s cuffing the officer behind his back with a pair of manacles. 

“Uh, yeah.” I run over to her with my sister close by my side. 

“Ok, these really were the only guys.” Lise comments. 

In the meantime Sam is uncuffing the prisoners.

I heal the guy’s wound. “Can I go and resurrect the other Dwarger?” 

“Of course, you don’t have to ask me that, kitten.” Hilda smiles. “You can go and help her if she needs anything Élise.” 

“Aye aye, boss.” 

When I walk away the officer who’s laying on the floor yells at me. “It’s you! You are the heretic’s goddess aren’t you!?”

Hilda quickly stops his yelling by planting her knee in the guy’s back and menacingly sticking her sword cane in the dirt before his face. “Do you want me to reopen the wound that she just healed for you?”

The guy immediately shut up

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.” 

“Don’t pay attention to him, just focus on the task at hand.” My sister softly bumps into me with her shoulder. 

“Mhmm.” I nod as we walk around the battlefield looking for Dwarger to heal. Though most of the bodies we passed had similar uniforms as the other heretics we encountered. 

“Looks like these folks put up quite a fight...” Lise halts near one of the broken machines for a second. It was surrounded by at least a dozen dead inquisitors. And then she continues walking next to me.

In the end we only manage to find four Dwarger soldiers among the dead. When I start casting my resurrection spell, Élise gathers up the other three bodies next to me so I have to spend less effort walking around and treating everyone separately. But to my suprise the casting goes even smoother than I had imagined, which didn’t go unnoticed by my sister either. The wounds of the four Dwarger we found swiftly start to heal as I can start feeling their aura come back to life.  

“Where is it, it should still be early enough in the morning to see it.” She stares up into the sky. “Ah, there it is.”

I follow the direction she is staring in, it’s the moon, just barely peeking out over the treeline. It’s almost completely full. 

“Ah, right, I was a lunar mage.” I say while I pump even more healing into the four soldiers in front of me.

“Almost forgot you didn’t pick a Goddess class?” 

“Maybe a little.”

She pats my head and giggles. “You overpowered little cat girl.” She then starts looking around again. “Are you going to resurrect the inquisitors too?”

“Don’t, those bastards attacked us without any reason.” It was the voice of a soldier from the group of Dwarger Sam had released. She was walking next to them. 

“They were on about some pink haired heretic Goddess looking for divine artifacts.” 

“An’ also about a bishop or sumthin’.” Another soldier comments. 

“Yes. When we said we didn’t know anything they yelled we were lying and just attacked us. They didn’t count on our Duck here to be as powerful as it was.” 

“I suppose you are talking about your machine?” Élise asks.

The Dwarger soldier nods. “We are not a very martial race, but we do know how to build our trinkets.” 

“When their mage finally found a weak spot we were screwed though.” Yet another soldier comments, this one was wearing some kind of goggles so I assume he’s the driver.

“I didn’t see a mage around here.” Sam looks around for a sec. 

“The Duck fell on top of him when it collapsed.” The goggly guy replies.

“Ah…”

“But how are our friends faring, Miss?” The lead soldier puts his attention back on me. 

“They should make a full recovery. They are just unconscious now.” 

“You have our gratitude.” The dwarger bows, immediately followed by the rest of his group. “We shall not forget this.”

I have the feeling this is going places I don’t like…

FieryKathy