Chapter 149- Four Fluffs, More Powa!!!

Chapter 149- Four Fluffs, More Powa!!!

[Keeno POV]

Waiting for a week after our meeting with Margaret felt like forever. We did not have all that much to do while we waited for Huginn and Muninn’s chaos to unfold and Eblana had only come back once to tell us that the king was sending her around the city to look for us. While she would usually deny this command, she wanted to accept it so she could thin out the number of people guarding the castle and Dead Zone as much as possible. She did, however, give me regular reports on what she was doing.

Seeing as we couldn’t really do much else, I started to teach Mostima more about Runes. She was able to pick up the symbols and their meanings rather quickly, but struggled when it came to the more advanced concepts like formations and arrays. Another thing she had a hard time with was when I started to teach her about Seiðr Runes. Even when I didn’t put any Divinity into them, she said that just looking at them gave her a bad feeling. I could understand why, seeing as those particular Runes were shaped in a way that made people equate them with things like curses, and while some WERE, they were neutral, like all other Runes. All that was needed to change their alignment and meaning was the intent behind them.

While Mostima and I did this, Pram was working on refining her Life Magic. Ama helped her a lot by teaching her more about what she could do beyond healing, though Pram seemed to struggle with some of the concepts she was being taught. We did find out, however, that Pram had a natural affinity for using Life Magic to grow plants. This would be helpful in the future if we ever ran into a situation where certain medicinal plants were needed over outright healing magic...and it would be an easy way to make money from the Guild somewhat quickly. The thought of exploiting the Guild aside, I came up with a somewhat fitting idea for something in the future and asked to see if Pram was able to do it. After a few days she managed to grow a spear made of mistletoe.

Freya was also doing her own thing, mostly working more on her mana control. In her own words, she felt like she hadn’t been able to do all that much, so she wanted to improve on anything to make herself more useful. We did try to tell her that she was an invaluable member of our group, but she still said she felt like all she had to contribute was her speed. Eventually Pram was able to distract her from this way of thinking, but I knew we’d need to address this at some point soon before it caused an irreparable rift between her and the rest of us.

Now, it was the night seven days after our meeting. Huginn, Muninn, and their myriad of minions had wreaked as much havoc as they could. I’d received word from Eblana that those in the castle had finally gotten so fed up with them that they were preparing a barrier that would basically cut the entire castle off from the outside world, so now would the the opportune time to strike for the Dead Zone. She also said that she’d be coming back for a short time to rest before we set everything in motion for the confrontation. The tone of her voice in this particular message was quite strained with a mix of emotions. She’d arrived around midnight, looking tired and angry. She flopped onto her bed, the end of her tail twitching in agitation.

“What’s wrong, Eblana?” (Keeno)

“I finally remembered why I truly hate working with most people. All these idiots that are supposed to actually provide security are lazy mongrels that care only about their chosen vices than doing anything productive. Even though I wasn’t trying in the slightest to actually find any of you, being the one doing all the work while others were making comments on how they’d like to bed me becomes grating rather quickly.” (Eblana)

“That’s understandable. But at least you shouldn’t have to worry about that for much longer. Rest and recover, we’re going to finish things tonight.” (Keeno)

“Alright.” (Eblana)

Eblana fell into a light sleep while the rest of us mentally prepared ourselves for whatever was to come. Three hours later Eblana was up and waiting.

“There are two major objectives tonight; get the Dead Zone and find out what’s in that secret room under the castle. We have three options for this. Either we take the Dead Zone first and, in the chaos caused by that, we head to that room from there, we go to that room first and deal with whatever is there and then go to the Dead Zone, or we four head to the Dead Zone while Eblana goes to that room.” (Keeno)

“That second option is no good. It’s a one-way trip to that place and we’d have to fight our way out. We would inevitably lose one or more of us in that confrontation. The first option is also out of the question as, knowing the king, he’ll most likely hole himself up there in panic once the Dead Zone falls.” (Eblana)

“Since the third option is all that’s left, we’ll go with it. But why is Eblana going alone?” (Freya)

“I’m sending the Death Spirits with her, so she isn’t alone. Also, Eblana, if you do happen to be the one to run into the king, don’t kill him on the spot. I want to witness it with my own eyes.” (Keeno)

“I’ll do my best, but I make no promises.” (Eblana)

“That’s fine.” (Keeno)

I walked over to a corner of the room and picked up one of two mistletoe spears. Pram had made a second one at my behest.

“If you can’t hold back or the situation calls for his immediate departure from the land of the living, kill him with this. It’s nothing special, but I like to think he has some conceptual weakness to mistletoe.” (Keeno)

“Alright. Never heard of that plant before, but if you say that much, then I’ll do what needs to be done.” (Eblana)

I nodded and stood up.

“Shall we go then?” (Keeno)

Silent nods of approval from everyone were all I got so we left the room. Eblana led the way through tunnels and passages until we hit a fork.

“This is where we part for now. Take the left passage and four more lefts. After that you’ll find a ladder carved into the stone. Climb it and you’ll be as near to the Dead Zone as any of the tunnels will get you. After that I don’t really need to give you any directions since it’s not really something you can miss unless you’re blind.” (Eblana)

“Four more lefts and a stone ladder. Easy enough.” (Keeno)

We faced our passage and I looked at Eblana over my shoulder.

“Good luck and don’t die.” (Keeno)

“Eheheh. Time for some fun, then.” (Keeno)

I stumbled a bit as I tried walking forward. It felt like trying to move after eating too much. I gradually got used to it while walking until I finally got fed up with the tall grass. Apparently this much was enough for a burst of flames to erupt from me, razing all of it in what used to be the Dead Zone and leaving molding patches of blue fire around me. This surprised me, but it also felt interesting.

“Hehehe. It went fwoosh.” (Keeno)

Walking more I finally reached where the others were. They were surrounded by those shiny armored people. There were several corpses around them and from what I could see my friends weren’t touched. I still hadn’t been noticed so I decided to try something. I stomped my foot on the ground and, using some of the excess Divinity, conjured a Rune array around all of them. I excluded my companions from the effects and after solidifying the array, golden lightning shot up from the array, either killing or disabling the shiny armor people. After the array vanished, I walked up to the others.

“Keeno, what in the world was that!?” (Pram)

“Full Authority of Runes, my dear friend, ehehe.” (Keeno)

“...Why do you sound drunk? Now isn’t really the time to be inebriated.” (Mostima)

“Ehehehe. It won’t last long, just all the power swirling in me. Too much right now, hehe, gotta use up a lot of it soon or my core’s gonna go boom.” (Keeno)

“Then what are you waiting for?” (Freya)

“We need to find Eblana. I think I found her sister’s Spirit Realm, so if we’re gonna resurrect her, I need to have enough Divinity. Now, Eblana, situation update!” (Keeno)

“...Keeno, I humbly request you and everyone else get to the castle as fast as possible. I’ve done the hard work and have gotten everything from that room to the throne room, but I’m having such a hard time holding back from killing this mongrel.” (Eblana)

The tone of absolute hate and sadness in her voice instantly sobered me up.

“Let’s go. You two spirits, follow us and keep that Spirit Realm safe from everything.” (Keeno)

With that order given, we began rushing toward the castle while chaos started to erupt in the city due to the Dead Zone’s disappearance.

Chaos Realm:

Well, that was easier than allowing Stars.

Luna: Why?

Probably because Runes are, in one meaning, language, so there was a basis that was able to be taken to the extreme. In your case, that world had no stars at all, even with you and other summoned people talking about them, they didn’t really make an impact to be fully recorded in your world’s mythos and reality.

Luna: Sounds complicated.

You have no idea how much work it is to do that stuff. If I had to compare it to something, it’d be like if a caveman had to create a hydrogen bomb that didn’t produce any fallout from exploding.

Luna: ...

Exactly.

Luna: I’m going to borrow your kitchen. I suddenly feel like cooking you something for all the problems I must have caused you.

I won’t turn that down, but you really don’t have to be worried about that. It’s much easier than some of my other jobs.

Luna: Not really helping, but I’ll at least stop worrying about it.

Alright. Feel free to use anything you find in there.

Luna: Hehehe. Since I’m doing this, can you invite Keeno and Amaterasu for when I’m done. I feel like celebrating an Acolyte of Fluff’s newest fluff.

Will do.