Chapter 111: Chapter 109: Artificer never runs from a real fight.

 

It was late evening in Keston, and night had taken its hold on the city. Amber mana lights lined the roads in the city, and less people were moving about. Right now Falaen was walking along one of the dimly lit roads currently on the hunt for the Gremlins she was sure had gotten into the city. The little monsters were a scourge of the Empire for years and had likely arrived in the airship that brought the Empire Delegates.

They were first discovered on an island across the ocean, the explorer who found them captured what he thought was a cute pet. Capturing several of the young fur creatures, he sold them across the Empire when he returned. What no one knew at the time, for the creatures' early life, they were actually cute harmless creatures covered in fur. However, when they reached adulthood, they would change into green monsters at night. These creatures were notorious for damaging any vehicles and machinery. While they were weak individually, they did like to gang up on people and hurt them if anyone gets in their way of fun.

After they had a meal in the afternoon, Falaen had accompanied Veronica and Jack around looking for clues about the murders that had been taking place in the city. Tomorrow Veronica will plan to ask Brandy for help tracking down any possible witnesses to the gruesome murders.

They went to the last site of the murder and did a look over to see if they could find anything to provide a clue to the killers identity. Taking place in a small courtyard of four tall buildings with apartments. It was about forty feet across and built like a square. There was a singular tree in the middle of the square, with some bushes near the buildings. There were four paths that lead into the square.

The Victim, whose name was withheld from the report apparently worked as a waitress in a nearby restaurant a block away. After she had closed up the restaurant, she headed home only to be attacked when she was crossing this courtyard. She was likely walking through this courtyard as a shortcut to her home which would be a short walk away once cut through the plaza.

There were multiple mana lights throughout the courtyard, and very few places where a person could reasonably hide. Thus, it was unlikely the killer managed to sneak up on the victim. Still there was no doubt such a grisly crime would have been quite loud. Since none of the neighboring people in the buildings had heard anything, Falaen surmised that the killer had used some means of silencing the victim.

Her first guess would have been a spell, but there was nary a trace of that sort of magical energy in the area. Maybe it was covered by the amulet as well, but she doubted that. Jack suggested that the woman had been killed elsewhere, yet the bloodstains that still covered the stones in the courtyard did not look as if the body had been hauled here. 

Veronica was of the opinion that perhaps one of these neighbors did see something, but were actually afraid to speak out. If that was the case, then Falaen guessed that the killer was likely a prominent noble and they feared getting on his bad side. Though, again she doubted that was the case. With the killer now killing in the main part of the city, the nobles were getting antsy. If they put a bounty out, fear wouldn't stop a person from talking.

The main problem was that they lacked too much information. What they really needed were the guard notes on the crime scene. Hopefully, Riley would be able to convince her step-sister in the guards to let them take a look at the notes. Besides the four ways to leave the courtyard, two of the buildings had entrances on the courtyard. One was locked, and Jack said it actually appeared to be rusted shut. The other led to a boiler room that had no other exit.

The first of the four ways to leave the courtyard led to a major street, from which the victim had entered from. The next led to an alleyway that was blocked on both ends by tall fencing. The third entrance led to a private road that only nobles were allowed to drive on, but no pedestrians were allowed to walk on. The last way led to a small street on which the victim lived.

The Victim had left the restaurant a little past midnight, and was found dead an hour and half later. She was discovered by an old man taking his dog for a walk. Like the other victims, there was evidence of sexual assault, mutilation of the body, her right toe had been cut off. That had been the extent of the information provided by the report to the mission guild.

Not finding anything except conjectures, and with night approaching, they decided to go out looking for the Gremlins. She had decided to split up from Jack and Veronica, both to get more ground covered in the search and to give the two some time alone. The two of them kept stealing glances at one another, and Falaen found it quite cute. She was happy that Jack and Veronica had started something.

There was some downtime when JP had finished experimenting, so Falaen often took long walks through Jack's soul to see the amazing sights within. It was fascinating to see the variety within one soul, yet there were actually a fair number of consistency's as well. First his overall good nature that permeated through his soul. Used to dealing with doublecrossing nobles and scum, it was refreshing to her to see such a sight. Of course Jack still had a few dark parts within him, but they had little to say about his behavior.

The next most obvious part of his soul, was frankly the sexual drive. Falaen suspected it was a result from the nature of Soul Energy. The others had described how they had experienced an orgasm when they leveled up, this was the most likely reason why. As such the echoes and the like within Jack's soul were incredibly sexually free. Yet this was not the same as hedonism she was familiar with.

It was also nothing like what she had experienced under the control of Luxurian. Whereas Luxurian sought complete control over Falaen and what she felt, inside Jack's soul it was more about an expression of one's love. It was quite strange actually, and not at all like any relationship she was familiar with. Perhaps that was why she was drawn to JP at times.

With Jack taking up expressing his sensual side, Falaen felt that it would make his soul better. Which might make her sessions with JP more productive and have more time with him. While she was thinking about this, she turned a corner onto a darker street. Up ahead, she managed to see a woman being dragged into a dark alleyway by a rough looking man. Frowning, she dashed towards the alleyway. While doing so, she poured her power into her uniform causing it to begin the transformation sequence.

There was a big blue flash of light, and when her clothes had stopped glowing, her outfit had completely changed. She was now wearing a set of deep blue knee-high boots, with her skirt changing to a pair of short blue shorts. Originally JP had wanted her to wear a skirt, but she declined as she had no desire in wanting to fight in a skirt. Her white shirt now had blue trimmings on it, along with a blue tie. JP had suggested a ribbon, but she liked the look of his tie so chose that instead.

Two pairs of blue laced gloves went up to her elbows, and the Tiara was now in her hair keeping it out of her face as she ran. Her face was now concealed by a blue mask, that in Falaen's opinion did little to cover her identity, but JP insisted she wear it while she was fighting evil. Rounding the corner to the Alley way, she saw three men in front of a terrified woman. Stepping forward she said "Let the woman go."

One of the men looked over to Falaen and said "What a fucking freak. Got to say though she's quite a hot one." He nodded at the other two men and said "Go get her before she alerts the guard."

The two men advanced towards her and one said with a grin "Lady you picked the wrong night to get involved."

Punching her fist into her palm, Falaen cracked her neck and said 'We will see about that. In the name of Jack, I'm going to beat your sorry asses. I am the guardian who fights for love and vengeance." Falean said then whipped out her wand and pointed it towards them.

"Oh fuck she's a mage." One of the men shouted and turned and began to run.

She began to pour her power into the wand and the blue heart crystal on the end lit up and sent out a beam of blue light towards the closest man. He attempted to dodge only to be struck by the soul beam and sent flying hard into a nearby wall. The man near the woman cursed and attempted to charge her, only for her to rear back with her right hand and channel power into her glove.

Striking out with her fist, she smashed it into the thug's face. She could feel the strength within the power glove crush the man's nose knocking out the man. Seeing the last man was nearing the end of the alleyway, Falaen grabbed her tiara and it shifted form and she threw it at the fleeing man. It sped through the night and wrapped a thin blue cord around the man causing him to fall head first into the stone pavement.

Dragging him back to the other three, She wrapped the three criminals up tight in soul string. After that she went to the girl who was standing stunned at what just happened. Falean could tell the woman was still feeling scared, but she had calmed down enough to talk. "Are you okay?" Falaen asked.

"Yeah, you saved me. Thank you, without your help. I don't want to even think of what would have happened. Who are you?"

"I am Soul Princess, protector of the weak and innocent, defender of the world." Falaen tried to put the enthusiasm JP taught her to, but it still came out sounding absurdly silly to her. She still did not understand why JP wanted her to act like this when wearing this uniform. Still not wanting to disappoint him, she did put in some effort.

Yet despite how silly it sounded, the woman seemed to eat it up and was staring with amazement. "That's amazing. I'm Juliet of the Keston Herald, would you be able to give me an in depth interview?"

Just as Falaen was struggling to come up with a response, she got a message from Riley they had seen the pack of Gremlins and were now in pursuit of them. Glad for the out, she said to Juliet "I must leave, duty calls. Alert the guard. These dirtbags will be tied up for several more hours."

Turning and running, Falaen poured power into her boots. With a mighty leap she found herself sailing through the air and onto one of the neighbouring buildings. Quickly jumping from one to another she made her way to Riley and landed in front of the orc woman. Startling the woman when she landed, after Riley regained her composure she looked Falaen over and said "What is with that getup?"

"It's the battle uniform designed for me by JP. It has the ability to greatly enhance my strength and abilities. You said you managed to find the gremlins?"

"Yeah, we saw several within the Evercral estate and killed a few. We tracked them to this area, but lost them. Right now Telvin and Carol are searching around, Carol is hoping to find them using her psychic powers."

"Did you also talk to Jack?"

Riley nodded and said "Jack told me that they are currently outside the city walls. Apparently they got a possible lead on the murderer, so they won't be joining us anytime soon for the hunt of the gremlins."

"Got it." Falaen took a look around and saw they were in what looked like a more upscale region of the city. Most of the buildings here looked to be mansions and the like. "Strange, Gremlins usually prefer to be located in the more industrial parts of the city. Or the Airship docks. Wonder what they are doing around here."

"Not sure. Carol said she encountered one in this area in the morning. She believes it followed her home, because it caught the scent of the snacks she had brought with her."

Shrugging, Falaen said "I'm unsure what exactly Gremlins like to eat. What I can say is they like to destroy anything mechanical or complex. Especially vehicles. We should look around the areas where vehicles are currently being stored."

With Falaen leading the way, they checked a few carriage stations, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. They were currently walking along the road when they came to a rather large estate with a massive wall around it. There was a gate built into the wall with a set of massive gears above it.

Taking a look next to the gate, Falaen saw a sight that said "Rayce Automata Toys and Figures." Beneath that sign was another that said the property was currently up for sale. Falaen said "We should check this place out. It's the perfect place for a gang of gremlins to hide out in."

Breaking the lock on the gate, they opened it. Stepping through, Falaen got a closer look at the building. Under the night sky the building had a strange otherworldly aura. Giant wheels on the side of the building sat frozen and various rods and the like extended from the building. Within the garden of the building, there were statues that had panels missing revealing a set of gears and the like within them.

Going to the front door, Falaen tried it and found to her surprise that it was actually open. Opening it revealed the interior of the factory. Faint light filtered in through the windows lighting up the massive space inside. There were a series of conveyor belts that went around in the facility.

Stepping deeper inside, followed by Riley, she could hear the tell tale chirping sounds of the gremlins as they played. Approaching the noises, she saw a room labeled break room. Stopping at the open door, she carefully peeked in and saw that a group of Gremlins were messing around with what looked like an old toy. They were strangely attempting to put it back together.

Signaling Riley that there were six Gremlins within, Riley nodded and pulled out her axe quietly. Falaen charged up her wand and stepped into the room. The Gremlins too focused on the repair of the doll, did not notice until it was far too late for them. She let out a powerful soul beam focusing it into a point as JP had taught her and it burned through three of the little monsters.

The Other three threw down the dolls and tried to flee the room. Only for Riley to charge in and swing her axe decapacitation of two of the creatures. The last one turned on its heel and attempted to throw itself through a small window. But Falaen reached out and caught it with her glowing gloved and smashed it hard into the ground with intense force. It was so strong it cracked the floorboards and instantly killed the gremlin.

"There are likely more of them. They typically gather in groups of thirty or more. Keep your eye out."

Riley nodded and said "I feel a little bad about killing these little guys. Other than the trouble they cause, they seem pretty benign."

"That is a mistake. They actually hate humans and other sentient people with a passion. They like to take apart machines for fun, yes, but if they see a way to kill a person they will do so without hesitation. The only good thing is that they are notorious cowards."

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Stepping back outside the room, they began to search for more of the gremlins. When they had crossed halfway over the main floor, there was a loud clunking sound and several mana lights came on lighting up the interior of the factory. Falaen frowned and said “That's odd."

Several of the machines in the room began to move, fueled by some unseen magic battery. The machines began to take parts from piles around the room and construct what looked to be a small monkey. "Did the gremlins turn on the machines?"

"Perhaps." Falaen said, though she found it unlikely. They had never shown such intelligence before, and more often than not would simply take apart things they found interesting. 

With the machines more active, they could not hear the Gremlins moving around. They also had to dodge the moving parts or be crushed.Going closer to the edge, they were ambushed by several gremlins Jumping off and diving at the pair. Flipping backwards she concentrated her power in her wand forming a short energy blade from the tip of the crystal and slashing at a Gremlin wielding a sharp looking tool.

Given the gremlins lack of training in fighting, Falaen easily began to dispatch the gremlins. When she killed the last, she felt a surge of energy take her and experienced her first level up. It was quite intense as the others had mentioned. Regaining her breath, she looked around and said "That is unusual. I've never heard of Gremlins ambushing people like that." A blue screen alerted her to her accomplishment of gaining a level.

 

 

"Something seems off about these things." Riley agreed as Falaen dismissed the alert.

As they began to explore once more, a loud grating noise came from device overhead. Then a feminine voice said "People are not welcome in this factory. Leave right away or we will hurt you."

Riley looked in confusion at Falaen and asked "Can Gremlins Speak?"

"No." Falaen looked at the speaker overhead and followed it's magic signature back to a room that was overhead. "I think we should have a chat with them."

Making their way to the stairs, they were ambushed by several more gremlins. Promptly dispatching them, they walked upwards. Riley said "I just got word that Telvin and Riley are currently fighting more Gremlins outside. A whole bunch of them."

"Do they need our help?" Falaen asked.

"No. They got it covered."

They continued up and reached the door. On it was the title Rayce's office. The woman's voice came on again and said "Please leave us alone. Go away."

Trying the door, Falaen found it was locked. Riley shooed her away and then kicked open the door. Stepping inside, they found an elegant looking office that was remarkably well cleaned despite being abandoned. On one set of walls, was the device used to broadcast into the shop with magical speakers. In front of them was a large doll that looked like a miniature woman was sitting in a chair. 

There was no one else inside. Riley looked at an open window and said "Do you think whoever was here escaped through the window when they heard us coming?"

Falaen said "Maybe." She got closer to the doll and then said "Or she never left." Falean took a closer look at the doll and examined it.

 

 

The doll began to move as if making an attempt to dive under the nearby desk. But Falaen was too quick for her and caught the doll. "Let me go."

"I will. Just stay still, I won't harm you. We just want to talk."

Jenna stopped moving, and Falaen placed her back into the chair. "Who are you?" Falaen asked.

"I'm Jenna Rayce, the owner of this factory." The doll said. Then Jenna caught the look the pair of them gave her and then she sighed "Well used to be owner. I received an order to build a set of complex dolls to be delivered to a noble in Taras. They were interesting dolls, yet to my horror I discovered that the noble was putting people's souls into them and using them."

"Unfortunately the Noble found out that I knew and killed me. Yet I was able to save my soul within this doll."

"Were you controlling those gremlins?" Riley asked.

"Only a little bit. They came into my factory and started to tear apart my machinery. I used a bit of magic that I learned to dominate their simple minds and used them to repair the damage they wrought. Plus drive out would be thieves. Unfortunately, I lose control of them once they leave my factory."

"Why haven't you left the Factory yourself?"

Jenna sighed and said "Unfortunately whatever process that noble uses to tie a soul to a doll leaves the doll unable to leave the grounds where it is sealed in. Thus, I am unable to leave the factory."

"Surely this factory has had some visitors since you became like this. It is up for sale after all."

Jenna frowned and said "I was afraid of that. Yes, there have been visitors. But I've hidden from them, since I feared that noble finding out I'm still alive, or others as well. It's unfortunate, but I have numerous enemies that would like to see me in such a state as this." Jenna waved to her small frame that was dressed in a frilly dress.

"This dress was for one of our doll line toys and frankly the only thing that fit this form."

"How long have you been like this?" Riley asked.

"Oh about a month and a half. Though they must have only just put up that for sale sign. Land goes quite fast in the city when it goes to market."

"Do you know what is keeping you here?" Falaen asked.

"I've studied the spell used to trap my soul into this doll, and it appears that the spell was designed to create a guardian for a place. Similar to a golem. I can't walk out by my own free will."

"Could you be carried out?" Riley asked.

For a moment the doll was silent as if in shock and said "I think I could be carried out. Do you think you could carry me out of this factory?"

Falaen shrugged and said "It's up to you, Riley."

"Let's give it a try."

They walked down to the front door. Riley picked up Jenna and walked through the door. Jenna's doll form shook as she passed through the door and then she excitedly said "I'm free!"

Setting down the doll they were approached by Telvin and Carol. Jenna looked up at Riley and said "Thank You for your assistance. I feared I would be stuck in there until I was destroyed or the building was."

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Falaen asked.

Jenna shook her head and said "I don't know. I feared the Noble would come looking for me, but now that I'm free, I'm not sure what I can do. Technically I'm dead and don't have access to my accounts any more. Not to mention, I'm not sure I even have rights as a person anymore. I might be classified as a golem."

Falaen thought for a moment and said "I want you to meet someone. His name is Jack. He might be able to assist you."

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