The group passed through the battered city gates the next day. "Eika feels a little sad leaving, it was my first time in the big city. Well, the first I can really remember. And although it really sucked for part of our visit, it was cool to meet so many new people. And that day I was running errands was really fun!" Luna looked back as well "Wait this is the big city? I didn't realize this was the only big city!" Eika pulled a sad face as she responded "No that is not what I meant. It’s just what you say when..." Eika continued to try and explain herself as L and V discussed other matters. "I was thinking about all that has transpired so far. My blessing seems wildly inconsistent, but presumably there is some reason for that. Obviously certain blessings make sense to be unstable, The Mad God's blessing comes to mind. However, The Mother Goddess seemed disgusted and uninterested, and perhaps in a bit of a malaise. Not chaotic or unstable, could something be wrong with me rather than the blessing?" L shook her head "The only way something could be wrong with you is if you were cursed or something right after coming here. My understanding is that we were all given bodies that were free of illness, physical damage and other detrimental effects." V considered "But not mental issues. The Mad Champion is a clear example." L shrugged "Perhaps he was a special case? Unless you want to argue that E was mentally unstable, but that seems like a matter of opinion." V pursed his lips as he thought in silence.

After another few moments L spoke up again "Why the sudden concern? Sure, having a handle on your blessing, or even knowing a little about it would be helpful, but if you do not know inherently what it does, I don't know how you would figure it out. It seems pointless to fret over. Focus more on your lousy combat form instead." V gestured toward L as he responded "Well actually, the reason for my concern was your recent... epiphany, I suppose is the word." L furrowed her brow in confusion "Me? I do not understand." V kicked a rock alongside the road, watching it bounce along for a few moments before responding. "When you were sent here, could you ever have anticipated the plans the God of Honor had laid down within you? Your demonic body just seemed like a relatively non-important aspect of the game. Do you think all of the Gods have plans like that? If not, even if only a few have planned things out to that extent, is it not possible that the Mother Goddess has as well? She could be telling the truth of course, that she does not care at all for the game. We have seen Gods who have expressed similar opinions. You even mentioned that the God of Honor claimed he did not care about the outcome of the game as long as you finished your job for him. Also, considering we do not even know what the Gods get out of winning, it makes it even harder to speculate on the various motivations any one God or Goddess might posses." L had not shared the God of Honor's words of warning about V, but as she considered them, she wondered if V was correct. Perhaps there was something wrong with him, or perhaps something was wrong with the Goddess behind him. She nodded "It is indeed difficult for mortals to understand the schemes of Gods."

Later on, after they had set up camp for the night, Eika followed V as he went to search for more firewood. "Eika was sad at first, but it’s nice to be out on the road again. The air is nicer out here anyway!" V bobbed his head in agreement "That is true, I guess. To be honest I cannot tell much of a difference. Even the most crowded city on your world would probably have better air than even the most remote regions on my own planet. The difference between your cities and your countryside air is something that escapes me." Eika laughed oddly, something about it sounded off to V. "Haha! Is it really that bad where you come from? That sounds really bad, how do any plants grow? I wonder if- wop!" Eika made a strange noise as she tripped over some tree roots a few feet behind V. Now that really seemed wrong. If Eika was good at anything, it was running around in a natural environment. He cautiously went to go help Eika up, he could only come up with two possibilities. She was sick, or she was possessed/cursed/mind controlled, or some other similar problem. As he went to go help her, mostly to get close enough to assess her condition, he slipped his hand into his vest and gripped the remaining bug poison, as a precaution.

"Haha! Sorry! Eika must have been distracted!" Eika grabbed V's arm as he attempted to help her. She pulled him slightly closer to the ground, ears twitching as she muttered softly "I think someone has been following us, and watching the camp." She pulled herself up with V's assistance and laughed again. "Thanks for the help! Let's get that fire wood, I swear I’ll pay more attention!" V looked unhappy and spoke disappointingly. "Just watch your footing, don't be taken by surprise again." To be honest he was kind of impressed with Eika, she had apparently been learning on the job. He "casually" went about collecting firewood. They were not in a forest exactly, but a sparsely wooded area. If something or someone was following them it should be fairly easy to spot. Considering it hadn't been easily spotted, V was forced to assume it was either invisible, or was using some other arcane means to stay out of sight. A blessing or spell of some type perhaps. "You know, when we were in that statue garden, I think I heard one of the clergy bless someone in the name of the Goddess of Nature. The town we started in primarily worshiped the God of Honor. Do you know of anywhere that primarily worships the Goddess of Motherhood?"

Eika took a few moments to respond as she considered for a time. "Now that you mention it, I have never really heard of the Goddess of Motherhood, not in that way anyway. Eika wonders why..." She played with a piece of wood as she thought. "Although, I never knew there was a God of Madness either. I guess that many of the more evil, or less important Gods never get any followers. Everyone knows the Gods of Fire, Life, Water, Death, War, Love. Things like that. Most people just chose to focus on one God their whole lives. I think they call em their patron or something." V nodded "I guess it makes sense that the more the concept or physical element is present in your world, the more followers a God would have. However... uh... you would think that Motherhood would have a following. There are a somewhat notable amount of mothers in the world after all." Eika nodded as she looked around stiltedly. "Ya... most people have a mother. It is a bit weird..." Eika returned to fiddling with the wood "We probably should have asked about that while we were in the city. Although I guess it’s stupid to go asking questions about a God/Goddess if you might accidentally be asking someone who is that God's enemy." Eika nodded again as she quickly picked up some more wood "Well this is probably enough don't you think?" She spoke slightly stiffly. Wondering if something specific had spooked her, V shrugged. "We can always get more later. Let us not leave L languishing alone with Luna for too long.

Languishing L was. Luna had been speaking non-stop to her. "And then, there was this one time where I saw a cat with a piece of fish in its mouth. I was really hungry, and the cat looked sort of fat so it really did not need the fish. I decided I was going to get the fish. This did not work. I chased after it but ended up tripping over one of those water collector thingies on the ground that stop the city from flooding. I fell face first into the stone and boy that was not exciting. I spent the next day trying to pull one of them out of the ground because I was wondering if the water inside was drinkable, but then one of those city guard came and grabbed me b-" L jumped up "Ah good you’re back!" She quickly busied herself with helping V and Eika carry the wood. Luna also "helped" as they started the campfire. Eika set up some of the salted meat they had gotten before leaving the city. "This might take some time..." Eika muttered as she worked. As V assisted her, he considered how to get a message to L. He could send her "commands," utilizing the weird family titles, but he would have preferred to speak with her about Eika's warning directly. Although, "commanding" her to be vigilant should get the message across enough. As he willed it, L's eyes flickered momentary toward him. Good, she had the presence of mind to not openly react.

A fair time later, the four of them sat down for dinner. Luckily, Luna was quiet when she was actually eating, she ate quickly so her mouth was always too full to speak. This was because, in her words, "This way no one can steal it." V had noticed both L and Eika's eyes flit around their surroundings more than a few times as they ate. V sat in a relaxed manner, but remained vigilant as well. As they finished eating, Luna stood up "I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back!" L subtly looked toward V who inclined his head slightly, as if he was sleepy. L stood up "I’ll come with you; you might run into some kind of wild animal." As Luna and L moved off into the darkness, Eika also stood up. Although she did not say anything, V could see the concentration on her face. She needed to work on "looking natural." As he watched her, a strange shimmer appeared behind her. It took V a moment to distinguish the distortion behind Eika from the distortion that the heat from the fire caused. "Eika! Behin-" As he began to call to her, he also heard something shift its weight behind him. Swinging around wildly his fist connected with... something? The air behind him shimmered and he heard a male voice "Shit! They on to us!" At the same time, he heard two horrible screaming noises in the direction of Luna and L. One was Luna, her scream was short and sounded more like a surprised yelp, the other was an unknown voice who sounded as if they were in horrible pain. Eika had bitten something invisible, and by the look of things, the invisible thing had fallen backwards in surprise. Eika also had one of her metal sling balls in her hand and was bringing it down near her own face.

The next moment was absolute pandemonium. Twelve beings suddenly materialized, or probably more accurately, suddenly became visible and had launched an all-out assault on V and Eika. The person, as it turned out, that Eika had bitten also became visible. She had brought the metal ball down on the man’s elbow and was firmly biting his hand. The man whimpered as the ball connected with his elbow. Another man grabbed Eika around the waist and was pulling her off of his ally. Eight of them fell upon V, while the others checked the three tents they had set up. As V grabbed the now visible man's arm, he tried to yank him forward, to cause him to fall into the fire. He also was drawing his sword, and ducking to avoid a blow from one of the other men who had turned to him. As he yanked the man’s arm, V clearly felt something bad happen to it. Perhaps he had yanked it clean out of the socket? The man started screaming as he fell face first into the fire. If the man's arm was popped out of place that easily, his class must have a rather low constitution rank. V dodged two more blows, and kicked a man who had tried to grab him from behind. At this point V noticed two more things, first off, none of these men had bladed weapons, secondly Luna had awkwardly wandered back into camp unharmed, her face was covered in blood though. She was jumping up and down in excitement, which just so happened to cause one of the men who lunged for her, to miss and stumble, falling over. "These guys must be the bastards! The guard guy was right about them! They must have stolen that guy’s wife in the night as well! Get em! Get em!" Luna's eyes where wide and round as she watched V fight. "Maybe we can find that guy’s wife they stole!" Eika was flailing wildly as the man holding her worked with another to stuff her into a silvery bag. "Oi! They are stealing Eika as well! The bastards are taking Eika!" Luna had run toward Eika, causing another man who had snuck up on her to miss his grab.

V had run one of them through the stomach, while another had gotten a strike in on the back of his head with what amounted to a billy club. Staggering forward from the blow V tripped over the man whose face was on fire. V had the presence of mind to grab onto one of the men and drag him down with him. V was hit again as he fell, but only on the shoulder, it hurt for sure, but did little to hinder him. As he hit the ground he rolled over, dodging a stomp from four different men, a predictable attack. Based on the heat, he could not safely dodge in that direction again... He stabbed another man who had tried to pin V's arm down. They were also surprisingly weak. V wondered if "surprise" and "numbers" where the only elements their assailants had. Luna had grabbed onto one of the man's arms as he and his companion closed the bag containing Eika. "Give her back! She is my friend!" The men were now attempting to wrangle with Luna, one tried to crack her over the head with his club, but only succeeded in breaking his ally’s hand. V was still on the ground, now about to be stomped on by five people. Whelp. V took a breath, closed his eyes, covered his face with his arm and rolled through the fire. His assailants had "cornered" him against the fire and were clearly not expecting him to roll through it. This bought him enough time to continue rolling, which smothered most of the flames and ashes on him. He was just about to try and jump up when he heard a strange hissing noise. A few small, glowing balls had been thrown into their camp. One of the men paused, a confused look on his face "Wait, no we are still in the camp!" he called out, V covered his head, expecting some sort of magical grenade. Instead of that however, the men around him started coughing horribly and collapsing, cursing all the while. V decided it was best to "play dead." Clearly whatever was going on was not part of their original plan, it would be best to find out more information before acting.

"Man, they really did a number on the new guys huh?" a feminine voice spoke at the edge of their camp. "Well, we normally don't deploy the poison while our guys are fighting, so ya. I would say they did a number on em, enough of a number for us to gas them." A male voice responded, by the sound of it he was a few feet away. "Dude, watch your face mask, that thing slips off and your gonna have a bad time as well. Why do we even get these things enchanted if you’re not gona use them properly." A younger voice chided someone. A new set of footsteps could be heard, running toward the camp. "Ma’am, the woman is out cold from the gass as well, but uh... like twelve of our boys are dead and three more are... probably not going to make it." The women swore "Ok well we expected her to be a problem, that is why we sent most of the new boys after her. The boss is going to be upset, but between her looks and her skill, she is going to fetch a good price. We might be able to sell the sword as well. Grab that bag and rendezvous with the boss" V kept his breath as shallow as he could as he waited. "I’ll get this one bagged up; someone grab the foxkin out from underneath... whatever that guy’s name was."

V heard the women approach him. "Mam his name is Devid. Could you at-least pretend to care about the new guys?" She started to kneel down toward V, in order to pick up by sliding her arms under his neck and knees. Luckily, V's arm was still over his face, helping to obscure his slight breathing. "No. I’ll pretend to care after they make it through a few missions. They are going to wake up with a real case of heart burn thou-" V drove his sword through her chin, up into her brain, instantly killing the woman. He quickly rolled away and jumped to his feet before the other two men had figured out what happened. "He's still awake! He killed the captain!!" One of the men screamed in panic and surprise. They had bandanas over their mouth, presumably the "face mask" was keeping them from getting poisoned by the faint shimmering emanating from the hissing balls on the ground. "And I’m going to kill you as well!" V growled in his most unhinged sounding voice. He was hoping to scare them off, he currently had no weapon and these two were carrying swords. Seeing their captain bent half over, with a sword propping up her impaled head was, luckily, enough of a moral destroyer that the two men bolted. The bag Eika was in was gone, but Luna had only been pulled halfway out from underneath the man that had fallen on her. V extracted his sword from the woman's head, and proceeded to kill all but two of the men.