Collar of a Slave

At sunrise the forest was ominously quiet, every other time those men did a delivery, the forest was quiet… but that time everyone, together with their merchandise, were nervous…

There were many reasons for them to not do deliveries on that side of the Line

SLAM!!!

“What was that-?!”

CRASH!!!

Seeing the Fell Destroyer land on top of one of the groups of fighters present, killing every single one of them by just landing on top of that group’s leader, reminded everyone forming part of the caravan, of the most important one…

SQUEAL!!!

The forest was dangerous… and none of the humans that could fight, had the help of the gods due to their crimes…

“Run away!!!” even if those men didn’t realized it, that scream made some of them survive, because the movement of the merchandise distracted the Destroyer

Every slave walking between the groups of fighters knew what those words meant, even if most didn’t knew the language, other slaves had told them the meaning of those words, just in case, they got the opportunity to use them

Immediately, nearly all of them ran in the direction of the one that screamed, pushing him down to the ground, not letting him cancel the “Order” he had “Given” them…

But only one of them managed to run in the opposite direction from the group

The plan was for everyone to push someone else as they ran, to try overwhelm the collars on their necks and scatter everyone on different directions, to help all of them escape

Only one of them managed to push a young woman, getting a shock from the collar for not following the order after he did so. No one else, managed to oppose the enchantment engraved in the collars

Sadly…

Even if the beast had most of the attention from the slavers, the sudden movement from their merchandise wasn't ignored, making a group of them choose to ignore the Destroyer…

Sending some of them towards the woman…

SQUEAL!!!

As soon as they were able…

Rustling

Making the trees grow restless as she ran… aware that she couldn’t change her direction, but fearing what could happen if she didn’t stopped in time

Just the day before, they would have asked Hanna for help…

/////

But she had gone far to the south to deal with a personal matter… meaning that Brenna, as the closest one, was their only alternative

DING!!!

CAW!!!

‘AAAHHH?!!!’ and she got woken up to a fruit and a message, after that loud notification

‘T-the redhead?!’ she got the fruit inside her mouth as quickly as she was able

Buzz!

-A different one!- some of the trees to the southeast moved their branches -Follow the path! The faster you go! The better!-

‘On it! Grimoire!’ her book opened to her Flight Aid, and three seconds after she finished eating, Brenna was already flying towards her

Following the moving trees… dreading the situation when she saw the Line getting close…

‘Ah?!’ getting scared when Sunny stopped following her…

But Brenna didn’t stopped

‘What happened?!’ and soon she was flying following the river as fast as she could

-She was enslaved, but managed to escape a few moments ago. She is being chased and the trees want her to be north of the Line, asap… you might need to do something about the collar on her neck to do that…-

‘This world has slavery?!’ even with that awful news, she saw a man made slope in the cliff that provided easy access to either side

The area around the Terror Stones to both sides of the slope, was the reason she knew it was human made, it reminded her of the stone walls of the city she had seen before. Even if she didn’t saw anyone there, the path looked in use to her

-Sadly yes. It’s not approved, but some bad people still do it-

A few minutes later, some trees moved ahead of her, making her lower her altitude to fly between them, following their movements… she didn’t knew why she hadn't seen a creature yet… but was dreading the answer…

/////

The woman was trying to focus only on running, no matter how tired she was getting. She knew that the place was dangerous, but…

At the time, she didn’t cared if a creature found her first

“…!” but when she almost crossed a clearing, she tripped on a rock, falling on her knees and scratching her hands, unable to scream

And the collar stopped her from moving, filling her with dread

It was an order given by the slavers that she wasn't aware of: to keep them from fleeing, their bodies became unable to move if they got too far away from the owner of the collars. She was just realizing this, while unable to change her posture at all

Wishing for any outcome except being caught again-

Caw!

Just as a black bird landed in the corner of her vision

‘What happened?!’ Brenna hopped between her hands, looking at her face, to see that only her eyes were moving

-The collar must be stopping her from moving-

“I’ll break it on a moment, relax!” with that message, she made a bubble to try and calm the woman…

Unaware that her doing that, nearly made the tanned woman to faint from fear… because she had been expecting a slow and painful death coming from a bird… but now, by hearing an old woman’s voice… she had no idea of what was going to happen

Brenna flew to her shoulder to look at the metallic collar. It looked simple: two curved pieces, joined at a hinge behind her neck, exposed by her short black hair. There wasn't a lock holding it together on the opposite side from the hinge, the metal pieces just were touching flat against each other

‘Ugh…’ but she couldn’t separate them with just her beak and talons, even if the thing moved freely around the neck. Seeing no other choice, she placed the “Lock” looking at her ‘Magic time…’

She had spun it, to have an easier time touching it… but had a slight problem with the spell

‘Can’t use I. M. M. for this…’ she still copied that spell to a blank page ‘At least at first, I don’t care if the collar breaks after it’s removed, but I can’t break it while she… is the thing using magnetism…? Oh!’ and quickly got an idea of how to remove the thing

The first change was to the Infection point, for the spell she copied the collar and “Lock” in her drawing, and added just two claws, each touching the circuits to both sides of it. The magic was still supposed to Pool, but this time she didn’t let any magic move pass the infection points

Brenna still kept the parts of the spell to break the thing, but before those, she added drawings of magnetic fields to both sides of the lock…

‘Force Orientation: Equal Poles’ and made the fields twist to repel each other. With the rest of the spell already working like she wanted ‘Magnetic Break!’ she gave a name to it and used her spell ‘Ah!’

Touching the collar, felt far more distant, than when she had done it with the rock. Using all the magic in her Organ in a second, before she knew it worked, and let her close her Grimoire to not use the spell again by accident

‘Ugh!’ she was left feeling awful, but she tried to keep moving and try to make the thing open with her claws and beak

While the woman was scared, unsure of why the bird wasn't pecking at her eyes, hating the feeling of the metal moving against her neck…

Metal that slowly started to warm up…

Click

‘Ah! It’s working’ that small sound gave both of them… a mixed feeling of hope, as it repeated again when the plates separated a millimeter for a moment, before sharply joining again. Making Brenna keep trying to open it…

And causing the woman to have the same abominable feeling of getting slaved, as the first time the thing was forced on her neck. With every click…

Her body struggling to move by her own will… as the metal kept getting hotter…

Slowly, Brenna’s efforts let the woman move a hand towards the collar, stopping every time the thing clicked together

‘Come on!!!’ eventually managing a better hold on it than Brenna’s ‘Ah!’ making her fly to her side when she managed to raise her head and torso

Keeping the lock slightly open for long enough to use both of her hands-

“AAAHHH!!!” screaming the moment it finally yielded, dropping it to her side “AAAHHH!!!” as she started sobbing while hugging herself, as her whole body trembled

‘Grimoire!’ Brenna didn’t had time to console her, because she feared what might happen with the collar

She used little of her remaining magic to throw the thing at the middle of the clearing, and to cover it with dirt before looking back at the woman… that was whispering something she didn’t understood as she cried

“Are you all right?” her bubble made the woman flinch and crawl away for some distance, her new found freedom had made her forget about the bird…

“-W-what are you…?!-” saying something that Brenna had no idea what it meant

-That’s Bori! A language from far to the east!-

‘Well, no time to learn it now!’ she pointed to the west with a wing, the woman looked that way for a moment before looking back at her

“You need to run that way! Follow me!” Brenna made another bubble, hopping on the spot while moving her wing in that direction…

The woman understood the Run part of the bubble, and her hope gave her the idea that, somehow, the bird was trying to help…

But…

“FOUND HER!!!” the scream of freedom coming from the woman had been heard… “You better Kneel! Get ready to use your mouth to…!” the man started to walk towards her, without noticing Brenna “Where is your collar…?” stopping once he noticed that

Seeing the woman crawl away, made him realize what was missing as he unsheathed his sword

“WHERE IS YOUR COLLAR?!!!”

CAW!!!

‘S-stay away!!!’ he flinched with Brenna’s cry, not realizing how terrified the girl was, before he ran towards them ‘Ah!’

Stepping right on top of the spot where the collar was-

Screech!!!

At the exact moment the metal shattered, with a loud metallic whine

“AAAHHH!!!” firing shrapnel that pierced the gaps in the armor of his legs, making him fall down and scream as he bleed

‘AH!!!’ and snapping Brenna from her fear making her jump to the woman and land on her wrist ‘MOVE!!!’ and tried to fly while pulling her west…

To the place where the trees didn’t wanted the woman to go…

The woman understood the gesture, so, even if she was scared of the bird, she let herself be pulled in that direction

-The Line is to the north!- the Helper knew why the trees wanted the woman away…

‘She isn't in shape to climb!’ what Brenna could see under the tattered clothes and bandages didn’t let her know that for sure… but… ‘I can’t make her climb in a hurry! And in this direction there is a slope! This way is faster!’

Her words made sense… to the point were the trees couldn’t do anything else… even when she started to pull the woman a bit more to the north by her wrist, after saying that…

Having both of them reach the river, where the woman saw the slope, feeling her hope raising above her tiredness…

Hiss…

It was already too late…

The trees had been trying to distract her body with her Heating Stones, by getting them in and out of her detection range… but the body remained mostly in route towards them, having caught the scent of the Destroyer…

And human blood…

Just as they reached the shallower spot of the river, in the open area facing the slope…

Miriam’s aura covered both of them-

‘Ah…’

Making both of them fall to the ground by the sheer fear it caused them. The woman was frozen unable to move at all, and Brenna struggled to look south… her heart about to stop…

Miriam’s body was sliding towards them, the crystal on her chest glowing red

Brenna was unable to pay attention to the details, barely aware that she was mostly white with green eyes… that turned yellow

‘I’m going to die…’ she was certain of that, like the sun was raising from the east…

Unaware of how much Miriam had started to struggle. Trying to get back control of her body…

Horrified by what she was watching in front of her…

Wanting to die before hurting either of the women in front on her

Her body placed both of her hands on the ground, pulling two swords made of dirt while making a low hissing sound… before her body looked slightly to the east

Stopping an arrow from hitting her eye, with magic

“Shit!” the man just managed to utter that word before the arrow turned towards him-

Boom!

And pierced his armor covered torso, killing the man behind him too

Iron was a metal too weak, to be used against any creature that lived on that side of the Line…

HISS!!!

With that, Miriam’s body threw one of her swords towards Brenna and the woman

Her Grimoire opened the moment the arrow was flying back to the archer, barely giving her enough time to pour all her magic on the only spell she could think was going to save them

Brenna’s Seven Layered Shield

She needed six hours until she was satisfied with it, she started it after she found out that the trees were teaching her, the spells of the gigantic winged snake about to kill her, in her attempt to do something unique to herself

Her red barrier looked like wings as it covered her and the woman on the ground, a mere moment before the sword impacted-

And shone brightly

HISS?!!!

Every layer was destroyed stopping that single attack. Making everyone that observed the flashing lights, that happened every time a layer was broken, go temporarily blind

Almost all the slavers screamed, some of them at the back of the large group, were lucky and didn’t got blinded by the spell, but most didn’t dared to get closer to-

HISS!!!

The most affected by the light was Miriam’s body, that couldn’t blink and started to thrash in place, suffering from a pain that wasn't used to

“-Ah?!-” with the explosion, the woman snapped out of her fear and started moving “-W-what-?! Ah!-” seeing an unconscious Brenna next to her

The girl had used all her magic, barely avoiding a Drain, but feeling the strength of the impact against her shield, still knocked her out…

Caw…

Thankfully, it was just temporary, even if she remained very dizzy after waking up

Her whimper made the woman realize that she was alive, so she grabbed the bird and ran across the river, the adrenaline from being so close to dying, or worse, giving her the strength to keep running. While most of the slavers were trying to recover and reorganize…

Except for one…

He wasn't the only one that had avoided getting blinded and noticed her escape, but he was the only one that choose to run and attack Miriam, believing that the snake was more valuable between the two-

Clank!

Just for his sword to bounce against the scales of her neck-

CLANK!!!

Getting backhanded in the chest, with every rib on his chest destroyed by the sunken metal, towards the group of slavers, knocking over another archer aiming an arrow towards the fleeing woman

HISS!!!

With the blood covering her hand from that kill, Miriam’s body stopped getting distracted by the lack of sight. That group was so loud, there was no need to see, to kill them all…

/////

The woman ran, trying to ignore the screams and the loud hissing that were growing more intense the further distance she placed between her… and the white creature that she refused to look at…

She didn’t want to know anything else…

Brenna was still trying to recover from both of the enormous usages of magic she had done, her body and mind feeling like mush from the effort-

‘Ah!’ finally recovering after a new jolt of fear coming from the south

-Brenna!!!-

‘W-what happened?!’

-That was Miriam! But she is in a state called Berserk! And unable to control her body! I’ll explain later why she got like that!-

‘Can I help her?!’ she had no idea of how to do that…

Rustling

“-Ah?!!!-”

But by asking that… the trees wanted her to try it… and made a blue barrier appear around the running woman, stopping her, making her realize that Brenna was awake and open her hands to hold her

If this failed, the trees couldn’t see any outcome… other than their deaths…

-Up!-

As she looked up, a small blue fruit was about to hit her, but she caught it with her beak on time and started to eat it

CAW!!!

Regretting it instantly due to the strong cinnamon taste that made her jump to the ground, to not hurt the worried woman with her claws, her body shaking from the visceral feeling of recovering her magic so quickly

CAW!!!

‘Don't call her a beast!!!’ getting angry with the trees

/////

Still partially blinded, her body dashed forwards while swinging down her sword on a screaming target. Hearing the sound of metal breaking, before feeling herself getting splashed in blood… again

Hearing something coming from the left, her body backhanded the weapon away and moved that hand forwards

Clank!

Sinking her fingers pass the metal armor and crushing it with whatever was behind it, ending the annoying shrieking next to her, before swinging her sword again, feeling it break something in two while making a spray of red happen again

Swiping her tail on an arc catching some more prey with her coiling body

Crunch!

Until they stopped struggling

Hearing more of them getting close to her location, as her sight returned

Covered in blood, surrounded by broken bodies and pieces of metal while the rest of the humans from the first group tried to escape from her maddened body

“AAAHHH-!!!”

CRUNCH!!!

Tried…

/////

Brenna managed to hold back her emotions for a moment and opened her book

‘I’ll use her spell then…’ she had used the words of Miriam’s Scream of Terror, as an inspiration for her own spell, but still considered it to be Miriam’s

Sound, Volume, Amplitude, Rhythm, Harmony. Those words formed a band around her neck, while she was supposed to sing…

‘You have heard this one before, so! Even if it’s just the melody…! Nostalgia!’ she added that word to her spell ‘Listen to MY Song!’

And she started to sing her mournful song…

/////

It took them a while to send some of the weaklings around the Destroyer to recover that product. The leader of that group had recognized the woman that escaped, and knew, that the next sale hinged on the value provided by her body…

That value was the reason he had moved the rest of his group to chase her just in case… leaving their returning boss, and the other sub-leaders, to deal with the beast…

He had hoped that all of them would die taking the massive boar with them…

HISS!!!

But now was wondering if staying with them… was a better plan…

Working as a merchant before being rejected by the System, had left him with many things, key among them was the ability to acknowledge the value of things with extreme accuracy…

HISS!!!

SLAM!!!

And the creature that just vanished from sight, just to reappear and bury a man of two meters in height, with a swing of a sword made of dirt…

Was almost as valuable, as the woman they were chasing…

“Rerast shields! Block and catch the arms of the snake!” and his greed took control of his body “You! With the rerast spear! Get ready to kill it!” still not caring enough to remember names, just the objects they were using

The two with the shields hesitated, without noticing the… music… coming from somewhere, because they could see that the snake had already killed fifteen of the men that went ahead to find the woman… not that the state of the battlefield let them count accurately-

HIIISSS!!!

CRUNCH!!!

But seeing how the creature just needed one hit, to kill one of them…

“HURRY UP!!!” they moved forwards… because they knew that fleeing would meant their deaths too

When they got close enough with the shields, that were bigger than both of them, Miriam’s body tried to hit them with a blade attached to the tail

“BLOCK THAT!!!” but with that command, someone tried to do that-

CLANK!!!

Failing to avoid getting impaled… but the two holding the shields managed to get close to her arms thanks to that, being followed by the one holding the spear

HISS!!!

One of them managed to block the first hit of a sword-

SLAM!!!

CLANK!!!

The man was barely standing after taking the impact, releasing the mechanism that made the many clamps and pincers (That were disguised as a shield), to hold to the arm of the creature…

SLAM!!!

CLANK!!!

Just for the same thing happen to the other arm, leaving the two men holding to frames, while the third got close to attack with his spear…

None of them, noticed in time the vapors coming out of Miriam’s mouth

Until her body released her venom covering the three men and herself with a purple cloud of toxins, that made the blood covering the ground to start boiling

Making those three die an unbearably painful death… and ensuring that none of the others would forget their short screams for as long as they lived

With a flap of her wings her body ‘Jumped’ above the toxic cloud, only to slam the already rotting corpses stuck to her arms against the third one. Smearing them against the ground and releasing her arms form the vises

‘AAAAHHHH!!!’ just as Miriam started to take back control of her body, aided tremendously by the melody that Brenna was making

/////

The woman didn’t understood why the bird was singing, she also couldn’t understand the meaning of that song…

She was aware that it was getting more and more… hopeful… as the bird kept going, but seeing the trees holding both of them prisoners…

‘-I can’t believe this…-’ she took a drastic decision

And moved a hand under her tattered shirt, under the bandages that kept hidden the reason she was enslaved, touching one of the three-

‘-Ah?!-’ getting a message that she could understand perfectly, before she did anything

Two glowing color changing sticks, appeared from the back of the message before it spun, changed-

And… started dancing to the beat, matching some of the small movements of the bird as she kept singing…

She fell to her knees and started praying

/////

The slavers had six weapons made of rerast. The leader had one, three were under the snake that was holding its head while hissing in what they perceived as pain, one was with its owner, running away from that place…

And the owner of last one (A knife…), seemed torn between running, and killing the leader… it depended on what were going to be the next words coming from him…

“You three! Cross the Line and get that woman back!” he looked back at Miriam’s thrashing body, partially aware that the last person with a rerast weapon started running away… “The rest of you! Distract the beast away from those weapons!”

The three men he had selected reached the river…

“We don’t have the budget-?!!!” and when they did, three spheres of water floated in the air from it

Taking the shape of spirals before anyone could react-

CLANK!!!

And those three got impaled with ice…

‘AAAAHHHH!!!!’ just as Miriam managed to take control of her horns, hurting her body with the electricity she could produce… hoping that any damage she could inflict on herself with them, let her recover from the Strain…

But even if she was struggling for longer, that action, was enough to end the battle…

The leader, seeing the ice and lightning, screamed and ran, followed by the rest of his group. None of them noticed how the crystal was flickering, trying to go back to green…

‘AAAAHHHH!!!!’ leaving Miriam behind, as she used the memory of Brenna singing in the stage… to get away from her… trying to move west…

Towards her little tree… to not hurt either of them…

/////

Brenna stopped because the song ended, she was tired, but ready to sing her song again for as many times she needed to do it

“-AH!!!-” when the woman screamed with… joy?

‘W-what?!’ making her look around for an enemy, seeing the blue barriers fading away… unaware that the message informing that they were being hunted, had been deleted

-Mission complete!- a message, that her Helper would never let her see… -She is recovering from the Berserk! But you need to get the woman out of the forest now!-

‘Ah…!’ she looked to the south… ‘Yes…’

She shivered, before flying to the woman’s shoulder and pointing with a wing to the north

The woman laughed with relief, and started running in that direction, until Brenna managed to calm her and get her to walk…

There was no need to run. No one was going to follow them from the south, and the trees would let her know if anything else started to get close to them

/////

The man woke up, hearing what seemed to be loud steps coming towards him

‘I… need to…’ something had happened to the collar ‘Bird…’ he had an idea of the culprit, but he needed to tell the others…

He was feeling weak, wondering why no one tried to help him

The rest of his group had ran towards him after he screamed…

‘Ah…?’ from the same direction he was hearing the loud steps-

SQUEAL!!!

SLAM!!!

/////

Miriam fully managed to take back her body, as she entered Sunny’s protection. Not seeing the ladybug getting out of the bark of a nearby tree-

Buzz!!!

‘H-hi… little tree…’ but feeling her landing on her head, before her blood stained body hit the ground ‘I… I… I missed you…’

Sunny tried to make her feel better, by talking and walking on her head… trying to distract her…

‘I’m a monster…’ but Miriam was aware of everything she had done on the past few days… days that felt like an eternity…

An unending waking nightmare…

Buzz!!!

‘I recognized that song…! That beautiful song! That bird! She was Singer!’ her trembling body coiled, her wings covering her head ‘I was going to kill her…’

Buzz!!!

‘It’s my body… It’s my body… I couldn’t stop my body from trying to kill her…! I…!’ she felt the need to cry, but her sore and weakened body, remained unable to do that… ‘Ugh… I… I can’t…’

Buzz!!!

‘Evolving won’t help… I need to fix this now… or I’ll become a Calamity… if I’m not one already…’ Sunny buzzed again, but Miriam wasn't comforted by her words ‘Helper…? Were you showing me the screens… while I was like that…? Helper…?’

Buzz…

-Yes…-

‘Thanks… not sure if it helped… but now I don’t need to see them again…’ she didn’t moved from that place for a few seconds ‘How do I fix this…? Even if I never see her again… I need to fix this…’

Buzz!

‘I’m too dangerous…’ her tiredness and hunger were making her shiver… ‘I can’t get close to her again…’ Sunny strongly disagreed with her ‘She saw me killing… she saw me as a mindless beast… I’m a monster…’

While Sunny ranted against what she just said, a familiar smell reached Miriam…

‘Porkus…’ interrupting Sunny while she flew next to her

She raised her head, looking back in the direction where she had came from…

‘Absorb…’ the screen appeared, but she didn’t read it ‘Porkus is the key… I need to kill an eat him… get something that will help me… to control my Berserker… not an evolution… something else, that will help it evolve into something… that isn't going to turn us into a Calamity instantly… of course, if you can do that without him, be my guest…’

Miriam waited, but had to close the screen by herself, before looking at Sunny

‘Let him get close’ it was obvious to her, the why he stopped moving

Buzz?!!!

‘I need to kill him. Thanks for keeping him away…’ she had that feeling since the middle of winter, but never asked Sunny about it ‘But I need to kill him’

BUZZ!!!

‘Sunny!’

BUZZ!!!

There was a moment of silence… but Miriam looked away first…

‘Sorry… you are right… I…’ she looked down, but immediately had to look away from the blood ‘Not today… I…’ she managed to look back at Sunny ‘I’m not used to… be protected… I… I always…’

Sunny flew back to her head and buzzed softly there, at the base of her horns and hidden by them…

‘Where…?’ some trees to the south moved ‘Ah… right… my swords… sure, I’ll go-’

Thunk

A fruit bigger than normal hit her head, she remained there for a moment… looking at it while thinking…

‘Because I became omnivorous…?’ the trees rustled as an answer ‘Thanks, you all…’ she looked up, unsure of what tree gave her the fruit

Buzz

‘There is no need…?’ Sunny confirmed it again, as she felt one of the items she had made getting close to her… ‘Ah…’ but couldn’t start moving yet… ‘Are… are they all right…?’

Buzz!

‘She got out…?’ another confirmation ‘What was she doing here…? She looked… eh…’ she didn’t wanted to call her weak…

Buzz…

‘Eh…?’ Miriam didn’t understood that

-Escaped slave…-

‘Ah…’ she remained frozen for a moment, until a ladybug with a leaf growing from it, carrying one of her engraved stones, landed next to her ‘Hi…’

She waved at them and got a buzz in return, before swallowing the fruit, managing to move slowly to the south after a few minutes…

‘If she saved her… then Singer started that Deed too…’ surprised by how her hunger was fading ‘Unlike me… she’ll be able to finish it…’ even if the rest of her body was in pain…

/////

Before they could see the edge of the forest, the trees made them move a bit further to the east, she didn’t got an explanation for this, but when she saw from a branch at the woman running towards the farms, she got an idea

‘That house… has someone that knows… eh… her language?’

-Bori, and yes- the woman meet someone after knowing on the door, and after a few seconds she fell to her knees crying, being consoled by the family inside -The faster she gets help, the better-

Brenna nodded before looking around and flying to a deeper tree

Ding

‘Status’ hearing that when she landed

‘Evolving…?’

-Didn’t I mentioned it…? When/If some Traits reach a certain level, and by using some EP, you can evolve them into a (Generally…) better version of themselves, this takes some time where the trait is disabled. Some Traits also can evolve for free, or, require extra things (Like other Traits!) to evolve-

‘Oh… I can’t remember if you said that before…?’

-Hmm~ well! In any case, if you need me to repeat something, just tell me!-

Brenna nodded… and her mood decayed fast after a moment of silence

-You want to talk with her?-

‘Ah… I…’ she shivered

‘You of all people saying that…?’

‘Of course I was scared! How couldn’t I…?! What… what happened to her?!’

-Going Berserk, is a possible result of being repeatedly under a very unhealthy amount of Stress, without being able to relax for a long period of time. This causes physical and mental damage that gets called Strain. This Strain, once is accumulated enough, can trigger the state Berserk, which increases some characteristics for a period of time… at a price, that you already saw today…-

‘WHAT?!!!’ Brenna spread her wings… but couldn’t flap them… ‘…!’ her talons remained gripping firmly the branch under her… ‘Stop her!!!’

She couldn’t stop remembering those yellow glowing eyes… the fear that filled her… or how easily her barrier was broken…

-Sunny is already with her- it took her a moment to see that message, and the trees rustling around her

‘Ah…’ she covered her head with a wing, trying to calm down…

When she eventually looked forwards and read… that… message waiting for her…

‘Someday… I going to scream at her…’

/////

The symbol burned in her hand was glowing softly when she reached the ruins…

‘Ah…?’ she didn’t noticed it, nor how that glow turned the already dead plants near her, to dust… she mostly realized that those plants were truly dead instead of… decaying… ‘Those plants needed the Grudge…? They adapted to it…?’ she looked to a tree that was closer to the ruins that she remembered ‘Were you all affected by…?’

The tree shook…

‘Ugh… yes… I know you all are “Sturdy” but you know what I meant…’

Buzz~

Rustling

Sunny and the rest of the trees laughed, while Miriam just shook her head and moved to the ruins at Sunny’s insistence…

Still unaware that she was passively annihilating the remaining Grudge, as she moved pass the Terror Stones that were around the ruins

‘Oh…’ ruins that looked wildly different ‘I like what you all did with this place…’

Around her sword, dozens of flowers shook when she saw them, making her feel happy as she got close and touched one of the plants carrying a Holy Blossom…

Healthy grass was already growing where she only could remember decay and barren ground, with some of the trees already inside some of the buildings, looking as if they hadn't moved in centuries…

‘Ugh…’ centuries that weighted Miriam’s mind… ‘H-hey… Sunny… no, all of you… I’m… going to sleep…’

Miriam nearly flopped against the ground, but managed to land without touching the flowers

‘I’m… not that hungry… but I need to rest… for…’

Buzz

‘Thanks…’ Sunny remained in her head while Miriam was sleeping

The rest of the plants moved towards her body, to help clean her of the blood that was staining her…

And hoped to be of help to their mother, with the battle raging inside her…

 

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Interlude 14 – Talking Bait

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The slavers didn’t defeated the Destroyer, that much was obvious to all, especially when a whole group of them, went away to recover a slave…

And when the boss heard the report coming from the sub-leader…

“I see…” his left arm got a simple fracture and a dislocated shoulder during the fight, he already had it bandaged before the remaining… five… of that group returned to the camp “And then you all meet the Destroyer on the way back…”

“Yes…! What the hell is wrong with this place?!” the sub-leader looked terrible… but was unharmed “Not even you could kill that thing!”

“The boar, or the snake…?” a shiver ran through the backs of all that heard the question…

Except for an ex-merchant…

“Either! That thing ruthlessly killed so many people without using the lightning or the ice!” that was lacking in the way he interacted with people… “Why something so valuable has to be so dangerous?!”

“Value…” the boss was still making everyone shiver as he talked “Has nothing to do with strength, for example: the Destroyer… and the slave that you failed to recover…”

“Yeah, I know. That beast has the value of an iron sword…” he waved his hand, as if dismissing the rest of what his boss said

The man behind him nearly stabbed him with his rerast knife… unable to understand how someone could be so…

“You need to make the client pay for today” the ex-merchant crossed his arms pompously “They were the ones that suggested where we were going. They should have sent people to bolster our numbers, or-”

“Enough…” even the ex-merchant understood the tone his boss was using “There is one thing you are hiding from me…”

His posture didn’t changed, he was still a shirtless, brown haired man, sitting on top of a wooden box, in the middle of a hastily made camp, surrounded by hundreds of wounded slaves, and the remaining fighters they had taken for the delivery…

But as he shivered, the sub-leader… no, everyone in that group, couldn’t help themselves and compared him to the two creatures they had seen that day…

“She stopped moving when she got close to the snake…” the ex-merchant nodded, the surviving member of the first group said as much already “How did she escaped afterwards…?” the silence stretched for five uncomfortable seconds “I don’t care what made that barrier your men saw… what happened to her collar…? How she managed to escape…?”

More silence followed…

“I don’t-”

And in just a moment the boss was behind the ex-merchant. Removing the rerast knife from the back of the skull of the corpse that felt to the ground

“Congratulations…” he returned the bloodied knife to the stunned owner… the survivor of the first group “You are the new sub-leader of your group, once we are back to the base you can refill your numbers…” the man took the knife with a shaking hand while the boss rubbed his neck “Ugh… thanks for not killing him before I did…”

His tone was casual, as they were just talking about the weather…

“But…” until his next question “I don’t suppose you know the answer to…?”

“I… I… I…! I was at the b-back!” the knife nearly fell from his hand “T-that was how I didn’t g-got blinded! B-but I didn’t got a good l-look at her!” he looked at the other three, that paled as quickly as him “I don’t know if she still had the collar or not! She was already gone! When we made some distance from the snake, a-as it started to kill us! Before they arrived!”

The others were very quick to add, that they came afterwards, and didn’t saw the woman either

“Yes… a knife is a bad weapon for this place…” another casual remark came from the boss as he sat on the box again “Your first task is going to select a messenger… we need to inform the client of what happened today… I was going to suggest doing the delivery in this side of the Line anyways, but since they were the ones that suggested it, we’ll use this imbecile’s last suggestion…”

He rubbed the arm that he broke by attacking the Destroyer…

If all the sub-leaders had been alive, and remained there, when he returned from scouting ahead. Then, he would have killed the beast… maybe as the only survivor, but he would have killed it…

“Not at full price, and not counting the one that escaped… but tell them to come here, that’ll give us enough time to prepare defenses…” he frowned for a moment, making everyone tremble… “Don't say anything about the snake… no one, says anything about the snake… that information, is something I’ll be selling myself…”

Everyone that could understand him, acknowledge his orders

“Wait…” but before they started working…

‘That Destroyer… hesitated, when we heard the snake’s hiss…’ he started to think, as someone gave him a bottle of alcohol to drink ‘That hesitation, is why I attacked… why did he went in that direction after surviving my attack…?’

It made little sense… even if the boar was older than he realized at first, and his regeneration, stronger than what he expected, to let the beast survive his attack…

He couldn’t think of a reason why… a Fell creature would stop fighting, when there were things to kill nearby…? And why just kill some of the men when he moved to the snake…?

‘Hatred…?’

“Repeat that message you all got…” something that rarely happens with criminals…

“T-the Fourth Ruler of Death is hunting us!” his boss smiled

“And you still have that mark…?” they nodded and his smile widened “Then you all better become strong… if a Ruler is weak to sound, then it’s easy prey for us…”

They completely misunderstood why Miriam was in pain while hearing the song…