(first released on scribblehub by author Nanayamichan.

11th July 2021, 00:00 cet)

Chapter 27 - Pestilence mask

---earlier at Lilith's peacekeeper base in block 4---

(location, centrally in the northwest part of block 4. Imagine splitting the block into 4 squares, then the northwest square's center would be the base's location.)

---Earlier from Herod's perspective---

When Nana had walked off with Yuna after her, Lilith came up and I briefed her of the situation.

I now stood in the mission room with her. Lilith shook her head. 

"fuck Herod.." she held her hand on her forehead as she did. Then she put her hand on my chest. 

"come with me." she sighed as she turned and walked off towards the cellar. I followed her closelyä of course. Earlier when she got in the room got dead quiet. There were still no one chatting, when she was mad she got a scary aura. More intimidating than usual. Intimidating enough that a room full of highly trained soldiers just watched her while titling their heads down in silence, not uttering a peep. 

I heard once when the overlords daughter got kidnapped a guy coughed during her mission walk-through. They say she threw one of her blades at him, pinning him to the wall then shushing him. Not letting him down until it was done. I'm not sure if that's true or not, people has a tendency to exaggerate, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true. 

She opened the hatch. Nodded in a way as to say, follow. She just jumped down. I didn't hear a thump noise so I looked down. She was waiting downstairs looking up at me. "C'mon Princess, I'm waiting." she said annoyed. I guess catpeople really are amazing at both silence and jumping. I took a deep breath, smiled and said "yes, coming, sorry" as I started climbed down the ladder. The hatch closed above me as I climbed down, like it knew somehow what to do? Weird. 

When I got down I looked over at the end of the room. The cellar was a big room, then a super long tunnel going… I think North… with a lot of doors. Why have I never been here? We stood in a room which had a lot of shelfs filled with boxes marked with some runes. I'm not sure what language or anything. Lilith was leaned against the wall beside the entrance to the tunnel. There was a very thick looking glass, I assume door, covering the entrance to the tunnel I noticed. With something in each corner…

"Okay, first, never speak about this place." she got up really close to me in the blink of an eye from where she stood. 

I nodded like my life depended on it. 

"Okay, let's see if we can ask our visitor about their plan." she mumbled as she turned around and headed towards the thick glass door, yeah, now I see it closer. I followed. It was indeed a super thick glass looking door. And the things in the corners was runes by the looks of it. 

As we got up close to it they started to shine. So did our peacekeeper marks on our vests. 

"Okay, safe, let's go." she walked into it.. Or.. It looked like she disappeared a moment, then I saw her on the other side. I took a deep breath and hit myself on my cheeks. "Okay Herod, don't be a coward" I mumbled to myself and walked into it. Well, Through it. I followed her. It felt cold as I walked into the door, and everything got.. White.. For a moment. I'm not sure what that was but suddenly I stood beside Lilith on the other side. 

"Okay, what was that?" I asked as I looked behind me. The glass wasn't there anymore. Instead there was a concrete wall with a rune in the center. It shone a bit. I tilted my head and scratched my scales as I thought, what the hell. This was confusing. What is that. 

"don't worry about it, come." we walked to the first door on the left in the corridor, Lilith put her palm onto the doors surface and I heard metallic sounds clicking and like cogs started working. The door slid into the wall towards the left. 

"Cool" I mumbled. Lilith walked inside and sighed as she did. I stood there a second frozen, looking. "Oh right!" I said and followed her inside. 

It was a square shaped room, a weird looking prisoner strapped to the wall at the end. A ton of tools all around the room, I'm assuming for torture maybe, or something else perhaps. 

The guy looked rough. 

"You, fucking talk already." Lilith said in a pissed off tone as she walked up to the guy strapped stuck to the wall with what looked like metal plates. How the hell did she nail him to the wall with those? Some magic tool Yuna created? Who cares.. "We got attacked by one of your guys" she yelled and hit the wall beside his head, smashing a small hole into it the size of her fist. Concrete fell to the floor as she pulled it out, then the wall repaired itself, like it regenerated. The smashed concrete stayed put on the floor though so yeah, must be some sort of regeneration. But, how. When did they build this thing? The guy was just crying and snivelling. 

"Who, why, what's your plan?!" she yelled a millimeter from his face. 

"I.. The Black one will ki-.." he stopped mid word as if he had been choked. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and a chill went down my spine. 

A black cloud appeared in the room, coming from the guys skull. Lilith jumped back and drew her swords. The cloud started to shape itself into the size of, well, a tad bigger than me. Then it started to get thicker and thicker, and a black silhouette of a man appeared inside it. 

"Ihe Ihe Ihe, sorry about that" a raspy voice said. Lilith lunged at the shape and sliced through it, but nothing seemed to happen. 

The silhouette changed shape, revealing a guy dressed in a black robe and a mask with a long beak on. I guess it's a pestilence mask as they're called. "don't waste your energy. Ihe ihe." the man in the robe started to shape some smoke, it looked like our town. Yeah he made a tiny model of Reatown in smoke before us. "What's your plan, who are you?" Lilith asked as she sheathed her blades. I just stood frozen. Watching and listening. 

"They're currently in the castle." the man said, pointing at our castle on his tiny smoke model.

"what?" Lilith said worried. "But don't rush to quick Ihe Ihe" he wagged his finger at us. Lilith clenched her fists irritated, I could see she was frustrated. 

"They won't start their plan until you arrive," he stretched his arms up, and leaned side to side, his back made a cracking sound. 

"so don't rush and plan your next move carefully." he said calm as he sat down with his legs crossed mid air. About hip height to me. 

"Why would you tell us this?" Lilith asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Well, yeah, why the hell would he tell us. I guess he necessarily ain't an enemy hit he just came and offed the guy on the wall without hesitation.

"ihe ihe, well, for fun of course, they want to test!" he clapped his hand and the model grew a bit. 

"the end game will be more grand, perhaps." he mumbled, them blew out air somehow and the model faded away and filled the room with smoke. 

"good luck, I'm rooting for you!" and as he said those words all the smoke and the black cloud got sort of vacuumed to his position and gathered up around him. Then it disappeared in what looked like an implosion. 

"Run and tell Nana, now." Lilith said dead serious. 

"Roger!" i yelled, saluted, then ran. 

I just ran out, turned. I took a chance and just ran into the wall with the rune. The cold feeling. White for a tiny moment and there, I was in the original room with the ladder. 

I climbed up as quick as I could, opened the hatched and jumped out, running for the door leading out to the courtyard. The hatch closed behind me. "Sorry!" I said as I bumped into someone on the way out. I opened the door and just ran for the dining hall. I'm assuming Nana's there looking for traces. I got there and opened the door as quick as I could, as I did I saw Nana and a portal looking thing. I yelled. 

"Nana, wait! We know where.." but I was too late.

She disappeared before my eyes into the portal and it closed the second she entered with a small blast of magic, sending it out in a small nova of blue light. It looked quite pretty. 

The blast wasn't one of those that contained pressure like an explosions shockwave. It was simply magical energy that had to go somewhere as the job they had been doing ended. Which can result in a nova of sorts, this time it ended up being a pretty blue light field that grew from the center of where the portal had been and the field slowly disappeared into the air as it expanded outwards. 

After watching the light show I hit myself in the head as I said, "Damnit! Fuck!" then I sighed deeply and lost my posture a bit. 

"Lilith's going to be mad…" I mumbled and turned around, leaving the dining hall, slamming the door behind me. 

Ozu came running, stopped before me and took a breath. 

She was real pretty. Not that I've ever had the guts to tell her. And we only see her when the peacekeepers faces threats where we gather up all the towns bases. 

This is usually the base we gather at since its in the center. 

There's one more base outside town and one over in the southwest corner of block 3. 

The base outside town is sort of just outside the main exit, which is in the middle of block 1 and 2. and the whole thing is called the defensionis base, though it's split in two parts. 

So I guess just north outside town. It's a pretty big base that serves as a defensive line. 

As you exit the town in the middle to the north, you'd have to walls on each side as you'd walk out of town. Creating a corridor sort of with them that's about 20 meters in total.

And behind the walls on each side as you exit town you have the base alpha and omega that together is the defensionis base. Alpha being to the left and Omega to the right. No clue why they named them that, but who cares. Then there's 5 bridges going from alpha to omega so you can cross over and the bridges are above the so called corridor walk you'd have to walk through to get out or inside town. 

So the bridges between these wall were filled with possibilities to pour down defensive measures into the corridor designed entrance. So you can't just rush the entrance if you'd tried to invade without getting obliterated by magic somehow from above. The bridges are of course very reinforced, having magic barriers, strong wallrails along them and roofs! The whole damn defensive kit. That base is anyhow pretty damn big with towers and stationary weapons of sorts. 

And just inside the gates to the left there's an adventures guild and then below that there's that other guild, where they… Well I can't recall.

But I'm pretty sure Ozu serves in the base by the harbor, down in the southwest of block 3.

That base had three huge boats, one being a carrier, and several smaller seavessels. One of the boats were often, or almost always out and, I guess patrolling. 

"hey man, did you get Nana? She in there?" she pointed at the dining hall. I lowered my head and shook it and answered, "No, she teleported somewhere." Then she smacked me on my shoulder. "cheer up, she's a legend!" her happy positive tone made me smile, I raised my head and looked at her. 

"if there's anyone you don't need to worry about it is her, right?" she was smiling at me. I guess she's trying to cheer me up. But the guy in black with the mask.. Though she is right. 

"Riiiight?" she said and smacked my shoulder two tlmes lightly, then let out a cute laugh. 

"Right." I said and smiled. She laughed and grabbed my hand and we started walking back. 

"We'll win this thingy no probs" she sang out. Yeah, she sung. Her voice was bright, beautiful and enchanting. I think I blushed. "we got both Nana and Lilith, on our side!" she kept singing and started skipping forward, still holding my hand as she did. "our enemies, who did the felonies, are the ones who'll get the penalty!" she laughed. We were at the door into the mission room. She let go of my hand and did a pirouette and as she did it she lifted herself into the air a bit using some sort of Water magic. As water rose below her lifting her somehow as if it were solid, she sang out. "They should cower in fear because," she did a somersault and landed before me, I staggered back in surprise, shocked by both the pirouette and that 360 spin jump thing. She stood up and with a smile sung out, "and they will dieee!" then she laughed. I started applauding, clapping my hands and laughing too with her. 

Then, a chill going down my spine and I stopped laughing and clapping. I noticed Ozu stopped smiling and laughing too at the same time. 

"You feel that too?" she asked. 

"yeah.." I looked around for.. Well, some kind of smoke. I heard clapping from above. I looked up, Ozu did too. In the air, it looked like he stood on a black cloud or some smoke. Suddenly he just dropped down, laughing weirdly "ihe ihe ihe!" and he landed before us without a sound as he touched down. "Amazing performance, really" he said in a raspy voice and gave a thumbs up. His hand looked boney, like.. He had no flesh in several spots, revealing bone. And there was strips of flesh hanging at places, looking rotten.. 

Ozu drew her sword and swung directly at his throat with it. Her katana glowed as she did eminatlng magic power, it felt like it was a powerful force. Is she using enhancement spells as she swings? I have to ask later.. 

His masked head fell off as she cut his throat. He caught it though with his hands. Black gas was sipping out of his throat. 

"don't decapitate me, ihe ihe" he just put his head back in place then did a back and forth tilting motion with it which made a creepy cracking noise. I made a disgusted expression, with my whole body. Ozu looked shocked and jumped back, changing stance. "What are you?!" she yelled. Suddenly she swung her blade. Suddenly she stood on the other side of him and he fell apart in the middle. 

"Woaah, c'mon!" he snapped his fingers and he was fully recovered. Ozu swung the times where she stood a few meters away from him, and he was sliced in pieces, with cuts in three places going from head to toe so to speak. He sighed deeply. Black smoke enveloped him quickly and he was fully recovered yet again. 

"I just applauded your performance. How rude." he crossed his arms and tilted his head as he spoke with that raspy voice of his. But damn Ozu! She cut the guy. When Lilith swung her blade nothing happened. I suppose her blade could be magical somehow. 

"WHAT?!" Ozu yelled in frustration. She looked pretty shocked and angry. 

"How come that blade can touch me? Is it perhaps one of the 17?" he levitated closer to us, holding his hand at his chin, on the mask, and one arm across the chest. Looking as he was deep in thought about the blade. 

Ozu sheathed her blade, but the man reached out his hand and pulled it away from her, letting it levitate in the air before him as he observed it carefully. "Hey! Give that back!" Ozu yelled and started walking towards him angrily. Damn, she's not afraid at all. Well, she seemed like quite the warrior but c'mon Ozu! "Ozu, wait! Be careful!" I ran up and grabbed her arm. She stopped as I did. Let out a grunt and clenched her fists. I guess she realised we were out matched. 

"Ihe ihe ihe, where did you obtain this?" he made it levitate back to Ozu, she grabbed it and sheathed it. "None of your business unless you tell me who the fuck you are." she answered quickly and snarky. She's definitely not afraid for shit. 

"Ihe ihe ihe ihe! I like you!" he bowed as he continued and presented himself. "I'm referred to as the doctor of death" as he'd done his bow, he walked up real close. The black smoke turned into a mist that surrounded us. "But, my real doctorate would be biology, ihe ihe ihe" he held his hands on the sides of his face as he said it. 

"Well, the blade?" he pointed at Ozu's blade. She swallowed. 

"I got it from my father, he passed it on to me as he passed away." she mumbled and looked down at the ground. I stood there, actually calm. I sort of had a feeling he wouldn't hurt us. I kept holding her arm, but walked up next to her. 

"Oooooh, that means your father.. Ihe ihe ihe" 

He levitated around in a circle in an excited manner waving his arms a bit. 

"What, that means what?" Ozu yelled, trying to leap at him but I held her back. "don't, no point" I whispered. She clenched her fists even harder and grinded her teeth. 

"Well, nevermind that, let's just say I knew him." the man said as he stopped moving, looking up into the sky as he said it. 

"What?" Ozu exclaimed. He turned towards Ozu. No clue what expression he made, but, I'm assuming he's smiling under that pestilence mask. 

"ihe ihe ihe, well, take care!" he started to look blurry and waved at us. "Oh! Protect Nana for me." he said in a happy tone before he completely vanished in an explosion of smoke that then just as rapidly as it had exploded out, was vacuumed into the spot he had been at and imploded. 

"what the…" Ozu mumbled and sat down. 

"I know.." I say down beside her. "He visited Lilith and me earlier." I looked at the sky. I hope Nana's okay. Right, I got to tell Lilith! 

"what, he did?" Ozu replied surprised. "Yeah, I just remembered something" I got up and walked towards the door. "He said we shouldn't rush into the castle." I put my hand on the door handle. 

"I have to tell Lilith to check so Nana ain't in the Reatown castle already.." 

---from the man with the pestilence masks perspective---

Oh, she's not in that castle, don't worry little lizard, I thought to myself. I stayed a bit longer, just to see what they'd be talking about. 

"Quite fun to just pop in on people randomly like that ihe ihe ihe…" I mumbled. No one could hear me as i was phased out, but I could still hear and see everyone just fine. 

Well, I'd better be on my way then. That blade was nice to see once again. Glad it's taken care of.