Chapter 148: Chapter 144: A Monk has several meetings.

 

With all the monks scurrying about town after last night's affair, Yukali thought it best not to go outside to practice her morning exercises. As the Inn room was small as well, she was restricted to practicing moving ki within her body as she meditated on the events of last night. For instance this corrupted group or cult was most likely behind the reason that Jack wanted them to come here in the first place. Yet why would such a group want to come to an extremely dangerous place to them? She knew of the principle of hiding in the blindspot of an enemy, but they seemed to have some other purpose being here.

As she had seen first hand what the Well did to those with corruption, her first thought was perhaps they were here to destroy it. Though even if they had indeed infiltrated the monks, she wasn't sure how such a thing would even be possible given the size and power of the Well. Perhaps they gained knowledge from the monks that made them think it was possible to do so. Yet from the conversation Megan heard from the leader of this group, they appeared to be tunneling down in close proximity to the Caves of Purification.

Were they related to the unsealing of the caves or was it just a coincidence that they have access to them? Should Megan have waited and informed the monks about that place before burning it down? On the one hand the Leader was able to escape, yet she doubted that the Order of Purification could have stopped it from fleeing as well. Not to mention that they likely would have burned down the place as well to insure the erasure of corruption.

If she was going to be honest with herself, she likely would have done the same if she was in Megan's shoes. The conversations that Megan overheard bothered her too. Not only did she now apparently have a target painted onto her back, they also appeared to have infiltrated the orders of these monks.

How would such a thing even be possible? Surely one of the requirements of becoming one of the monks was to use that corruption checking stone. Plus it would make sense to periodically check the members with the stone just to be safe. Hell even if they didn't do that, high corruption causes visible changes to the body. Changes that could be seen with the naked eye.

If one of their members never removed their robes that should raise suspicion from everyone else. Was it possible that they were using similar magic to hide like they did to hide their hideout from being discovered? If so it didn't seem to prevent Megan from noticing the corruption around a few members of theirs. Or maybe it just wasn't able to block Jack's influence from pointing them out to his users. Even if they could sense them, looking at every person in this big city would be almost impossible for them. Especially if the corrupted members have gone to ground after the hideout being found.

Deciding that she was finished with that train of thought, she then began to think about what exactly Naia Mah told them last night. It sounded outright incredible, yet even so it might explain several inconsistencies that she had noted in researching the past of Mantaras. It was perhaps the one thing other than blood she shared with Lord Attomas, a passion for learning about the history of the world. Over the years she learned a great deal from the notes Attomas kept. Even if they held mostly limited facts and guesswork. Though no fault of his, due to the Goblin wars not much had remained other than scattered ruins here and there from the Kingdom of Sevaris.

As for the other continents, it was hard to say. They were hit almost worse by the goblin wars and faced several different monster waves. Very little historical record remains of any of the origins of the various races of Mantaras. For the Monsterkin like herself, the Kingdom of Sevaris likely created them. Thus, they were technically one of the younger races in the world. Even taking into account the evolution of species it was apparent that there were strange gaps here and there of the various races..

Some were somehow clearly magically made. Take the Beastkin for example, while clearly derived from animals they had little in common with their namesakes other than appearances. The leap from beast to man was too sharp to have occurred naturally. The history of the Beastkin was murky as for most of it they were pretty tribal. It was only after the goblin wars that they really began to develop on their land. What she personally believed was that a group of nature lovers a long time ago used magic to shift their bodies into that of animals and thus the Beastkin emerged.

Another race might not have originated on Mantaras, the Elves. While most of their history was gone and lost today, thanks to Ritalassa, she was able to hear a myth about the creation of their race. It went something like this, they were born in a beautiful world, but one day they apparently upset the god of that world and were cast down to live on Mantaras. Perhaps these Elves were not simply cast down, but summoned by these summoners who ripped these Succubi from their own world. That then begs the question, which was the original race of this world? Did that race even still exist? Why did these summoners pull so many races to this world?

On the other thing Naia Mah talked about, was Megan actually a potential Succubi Queen. She didn't really know how to think about that, other than it was a lot for her friend to bear at the moment. Given that she herself felt a stronger connection to Ki after she had signed with Jack, it did seem probable that Megan had a similar effect with her own power. On the other hand it did seem a stretch that none of the other Succubi ever managed to gain Queenhood during all this time. It could be that the secret of how to become a Queen was lost when they were summoned, or there was another reason.

After finishing her one thousandth cycling of the ki within her, she opened her eyes and found Megan sitting up on her bed. Given the way she was looking at her, Yukali got the feeling that she had been watching for a while. "Good Morning Megan."

"Morning." Megan said and handed Yukali a cup of hot tea. "I went down to the kitchen and picked you up a cup of tea, while you were doing your morning thing."

"Thank you." Yukali said, taking a sip.

"I just got word that Jack is stopping over at a place before he comes over here. So we have a few hours to spare till then."

"Alright. Did you get word from Ritalassa and Dafter?"

"I did, they spent the night in a small grove. They should be back to town by the afternoon."

"Great. What did you want to do till Jack comes." Yukali asked.

"I want to take a closer look at that corrupted hideout." Megan said. "It might have some clues to what they were planning to do, plus there are some things I want to check out."

"I guess we can take a look, but I seriously doubt we will be able to get close to the site. Not with how the Order of Purification was going door to door last night. It's probably locked down for good."

"Yeah, I think so too. But we should at least try to take a look. While I was down in the kitchen, I asked around and it's okay for us to walk around town."

After Yukali dressed into her armor, they went out and walked down the streets. She could see groups of people still picking up rubble here and there from yesterday's earthquake. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt during it, and glancing at Megan, she was thankful that it had seemed to have drawn Megan out of her shell somewhat. Most of the streets were already cleaned up, but here and there were random piles of rubbish waiting to be cleared. Soon they arrived at the street where the hideout was located and like she suspected, it was currently blocked off by a group of heavily armored and armed monks who glared at every passerby.

They went up to the man that seemed to be in charge of this group, Megan asked "Excuse me sir, could you tell me what exactly happened down this street?"

He glared down at Megan and said in a booming voice "Move along visitor. This street has been closed off on the Order of Purification. All events occurring on this street are none of your concern. Any attempted trespass will result in extreme force being used."

"Oh then sorry for bothering you. Have a good day." Megan said and began to back up.

"Wait a moment." The man said and stepped towards Yukali. "I recognize you. You are the Dragonkin that fought inside the Arena yesterday right?"

"Yes that is right." Yukali nodded and shook the man's hand when he offered it.

He grinned and said "I was impressed watching you fight yesterday. It's a damn shame that you weren't able to finish your last fight. I was betting that you would whoop that Empire boy's ass. Hey, would you be interested in applying to the Order of Purification? We are currently doing a round of recruiting." The man said.

"I would have whooped his ass as you said." She agreed and then said "Thank you for the offer, but I am not interested at the moment. If I do change my mind, I will come and find you. But is it really that easy to join the Order?"

He shook his head "No. We only do recruiting once a year. Those recruits are then put through a series of intense tests and training and only the best of the best will even pass that initial stage. Still from the aptitude I saw from you yesterday, I believe that you would have a great chance of joining our ranks."

"Ah thank you for your judgement." She said. "I'll have to think about it. Say, I met some of your members last night and they tested me with an interesting crystal. Is it possible for me to buy one?"

"You mean a Corruption Tester? Hmm, we don't really sell them. But I did hear that you would be allowed to go down into the Caves of Purification. Tell you what, I can't promise anything but I'll speak with my superiors to see if we can't work out some kind of deal."

"Thank you, ah, I'm sorry I didn't get your name?"

"My name is Simon. If you need to get in contact with me, I can be found at the Order of Purification's barracks."

"Alright Simon. Have a good day." She said and walked with Megan around a corner.

When they were out of sight of the guards Megan said "Looks like we can't get a closeup look, but I have another idea we can try out."

"What is it?"

"I noticed a few tall buildings near the hideout last night. If we go to one of them, we can get a good view of the site and its surroundings. There is something I want to check."

They pulled up the map and after some searching found a three story building that would allow them to get a view of the remains of the hideout. Megan negotiated with the owner of the building for some time to allow them onto the third floor. They eventually settled on a price of twenty small silver coins and were led up to the third floor. Going to the small windows, they took a look out across the street at the burned down ruins of the hideout. She could see dozens of monks working at moving the wreckage. Curiously they were all wearing a peculiar white outfit that covered them head to toe.

"I think that outfit is used as some sort of protection against exposure to corruption energy." Megan said.

Yukali nodded in agreement and watched as the monks loaded the remains of the building and whatever else was inside into various wagons. One of the full wagons was then covered in a similar white material cloth. Even the horses pulling the wagons were dressed in the white coverings. Once the covering was secured to the wagon, one of the monks began to drive into the direction of the well.

"I guess they will most likely just dump those wells down the well to get rid of the corruption forever." She said to Megan.

Megan nodded and said "Looks like they already got rid of all the bodies of the corrupted." Megan was silent for a moment and then said "Just as I thought, I'm pretty sure that this was not the location of where they were tunneling."

"Why do you think that?"

"The most obvious reason is because if that were truly the case, a heck of a lot more monks would be in this area and the whole city would likely be locked down. The second reason is take a look around, do you see any piles of dirt or the like?"

She looked and saw nothing like that. "No."

"Unless they found someway to hide the dirt and rocks they dug out while tunneling this is not likely the place they are digging the tunnel."

Yukali was about to respond to her when she spotted a group of three full metal plate armored monks come riding down on some of the biggest horses she had ever seen. They pulled to a stop in front of the burned down house and the lead one swung off his horse and walked towards the ruins. The other monks all bowed as this person walked past, and they gave a curt nod in response. When they got to the wreckage, they bent down and she could see that he picked up a piece of wood and was examining it.

Megan said "I guess that was one of the leaders."

The leader stood and was turning to leave when a piece of rubble moved and a burned monstrosity appeared leaping towards him. From the distance it was hard to say what exactly this monster really looked like other than it having a vaguely centipedal shaped body. Nor would she ever really know what it was given the second it came within feet of this monk there was a bright flash of ruby red and the monster burst into flames with a shriek of agony that could be heard across the street.

In the hands of the monk was a massive red sword that appeared too made from some sort of red rock that glowed with ruby color. He sheathed the sword as a monk came up looking sorry, but the lord smacked him across the face. The Monk fell and bowed in apology. Whatever reason the leader had come here seemed to have been done, and the leader climbed onto his horse and raced off with the other two.

"Holy crap did that guy seem unpleasant or what." Megan said.

"Indeed he was intense." Yukali said. "So what do you suppose he came here to look at?"

"If I had to guess, he was likely looking at some of the marking that hid the corruption. He was probably trying to figure out how a corruption hideout was definitely hiding in plain sight. Though I am more interested in that sword of his."

"When I asked about the Caves of Purification yesterday, I heard about various stones that changed when exposed to the purification energy. Given the effect of that sword on the corrupted monster, maybe that sword is made out of those stones. Well anyway, I think we are done here, unless you happen to have something else you want to do here."

"No, I think I got my answer. If they are in fact tunneling underneath the city, they would need a place to be able to dump stone and dirt without drawing too much attention. They could also be digging from outside the city, but I feel that is more unlikely."

"From the conversation you overheard, they must be tunneling near the Caves of Purification. If we can find out where that is, we can get a better idea of where to look for their tunneling. After Jack arrives here we can start scouting out locations like that."

Megan nodded and said "We still have sometime before they get here. Do you want to get some breakfast?"

"Sure. I saw a cafe on the way here we can try out."

They left the building and went to the cafe. While they had a small breakfast of some breakfast pastry's Yukali noticed that Megan looked somewhat nervous. "Are you alright?" Megan said.

"Yeah." She sighed and then said "I'm just nervous about meeting Jack again."

"How are you feeling about that?" Yukali asked.

"I'm still feeling angry at him, but now that I've had time to think I recognize that he was not at fault for Alexia's death."

"I understand. I've sensed that you're not as closed up as you were."

Megan looked to the side and said "The pain hasn't diminished as much as the numbness has."

Yukali nodded and patted her friend on her back. They had finished eating when they got word from Jack that they were on the way and would meet them soon at a small square near one of the city entrances. After paying for the meal they headed to the location to meet up. After waiting a few minutes until Yukali spotted Jack. Veronica was by his side, with Princess Falaen following behind notably still wearing the slave collar. Dragging his feet behind them was a grumpy looking teenage boy.

"Hello Jack." Yukali nodded and said "So we meet again."

"Yukali, it is great to see you again." Jack said smiling at her, then he turned to Megan. "Megan, I just wanted to-"

Megan held up her hand and shook her head "Stop. I know we have our differences between us, but I was in the wrong. I am sorry for blowing up on you. I wasn't thinking right after Alexia died, and I took it out on you."

"Megan, I never blamed you for what you did. I failed you and Alexia, and that will hang over my head. No matter your feelings, I will always be here for you."

She stopped Jack and said "Look, I just wanted to put our feelings aside for the moment and get the job done. So let's do what we came here to do."

"Alright." Jack nodded. "So let me introduce you to my ward David Arcai. His mother made a deal with me to allow him to study how to be a better person under me." David rolled his eyes at that. "David, these two are my friends and Users Megan Erathean, and Yukali."

David then looked at Yukali and said "What are you supposed to be exactly? Some kind of freak lizard person?"

She sighed. This brat was surely going to annoy the fuck out of her. "In actual polite language I am a Dragonkin. Which is part of the overall Monsterkin races."

"Dragonkin seriously?" David said skeptically. "You look more like an overgrown lizard on two legs." He broke out laughing, and Veronica smacked him on the back of his head.

"Hey be polite to her." Veronica scolded him.

"Ugh fine. I'm sorry Miss Yukali for calling you an overgrown lizard. From my point of view, there is nothing Draconic about her at all. From my point of view, there is nothing Draconic about her at all." David said and then glanced at Megan and frowned. "There is something strange about you lady. Your energy signature is odd... almost as if. No, that couldn't be."

Before Yukali could ask what he meant, there was an overbearing sound that slammed into the group. Within seconds she was pressed to her knees bowing before the might of this growling roar. Looking up with great strain, she could see that the others with the exception of Jack and David were on their knees as well. Looking up with great strain, she could see that the others with the exception of Jack and David were on their knees as well. Finding herself breathless from the event she gasped out "What the fuck was that?"

Taking a quick look around no one else in the square seemed to have heard that sound. They were getting stared at for just dropping to their knees. David stretched and said "That was my mother letting us know that she was upholding her part of the deal with Jack. She is sending you the archmage to speak with before she gets rid of them. Before she kills him, she felt you might want to question it about the archmages. But knowing my mom's personality you won't have much time."

"Wait, are you saying that was your Mother?" Veronica said.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. When she gets like this, she tends to forget to control the volume of her voice. She's really pissed off at the moment. This guy she's sending must be a real bastard."

"Wait you are saying that she is sending us one of the Archmages to us right now?" Jack said.

"Yeah she chucked from across the world. So he should be here just about, ah I think that's him." David said pointing up into the sky. Yukali looked up and spotted a tiny dot that began to grow as it got closer. "She really beat the shit out of him, so he's probably won't be in much shape to talk when he lands. Looks to be a real fat fuck too."

Megan frowned at staring at the form getting closer and said "Uh will he survive the landing?"

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"Probably." David said. "The more pressing issue is he'll probably kill you if he lands on you."

Jack began to yell at the people telling them to back out of the square to prevent being landed on. Soon the dot resolved itself to be an incredible large fat man screaming at the top of his lungs. They were lucky to have cleared out the small square as best they could as he landed ass first into the middle of the square. The stones underneath shattered spraying the surroundings with stone shrapnel. As the dust cleared, it became apparent the fall did not kill the fat man as he let out a groan.

Even so the man had a completely wretched appearance. His ginormous form was far larger than anyone Yukali had ever seen before. He would be hard pressed to squeeze through a double set of doors. His clothes were obviously well made and were now in tatters exposing disgusting flabs of meat. He was also apparently missing an arm and both legs. Though how such a fat man could have moved at all was beyond her abilities to imagine. As they approached the man, she also found he smelled rank and unclean. There was also a smell of death surrounding him.

He must have been knocked out from the landing because he awoke with a snort and had a dazed look to his face as he looked around. He then spotted Jack and sneered revealing teeth that were stained a greasy yellow. "So I see you have finally awoken Jack. I heard rumors of such from the others, but I thought they were just full of bullshit like always."

"So you recognize me then?" Jack said to this foul obese man.

His eyes narrowed and said "Of fucking course I do. I may not have all the fucking memories of my past self, but I certainly recognize that fucking face of yours. Not only do you fucking kill me, you drag my goddam soul to this fucking miserable place where all the goddam food tastes like shit. The only thing that tastes any good here are the young ones, especially the babies. You haven't tried fine cuisine until you've had baby brain sauteed with mushrooms."

Yukali felt sick and from the disgusting way the man licked his lips after that vulgar description knew for certain that this man definitely was a cannibal. "You ate people!?" She said in anger.

"Best meal in the world." He winked at her. "Plus if you get them young enough you can devour the magic potential in them too. Was on my way to getting my power back when that damn fucking monster fucking ripped my goddam limbs off. The fucking thing tortured me for a while too. Must have gotten bored with me and chucked me here. Though it's an odd coincidence that your here to meet me." He narrowed his eyes at Jack.

"You are one of the Armages of the lost Kingdom of Sevaris correct?" Jack asked.

"Of fucking course I am." He looked at Jack and said "You don't remember me, do you? Well ain't that a fucking rude thing to do. Drag a person's soul across the universe and fucking hell. Well, that was in the past now. Took the name Gula when I ascended into the great and powerful mage. Was living like a goddamn king, I didn't have to go out and steal children. No, the parents actually brought them to me so I could feast on them in my palace. Till the fucking Awakened bastards thought it was a good idea to summon the fucking great ones power. The next thing I fucking know is that all seven of us are ripped away from our power and forced to wander this world as fucking spirits essentially."

He glared at Jack and spat a disgusting green glob at him. Jack dodged it and Gula continued. "Now I fucking decided that ain't for me, no fucking way. If I had to start from ground fucking zero again, so fucking what, it's all goddam bullshit anyway. I found a semi decent host in some backwater nation, so I take him over and after some good old home fashioned meals, I'm on the way back to number one." Gula chuckled darkly. "Till that fucking bitch of a monster shows up at my door and uses my own goddam arm to smack me around."

David frowned and said "The only monster here is you, and you are sure talkative for a man about to die."

Gula smirked and said "Kid, I may not have all my powers back but I certainly as fuck don't have to fucking take it from a pissant like you." Then he licked his lips. "You know, you're a bit old for my tastes, but I can sense a decent magic pool within you. I'm sure it will be quite the dish to perk me right up."

Then even though he was lacking legs and was massively overweight, the man leapt towards David with a speed that could not be seen by Yukali's eyes. Jack perhaps was the only one that had the speed to match, and he was almost too slow to respond as Gula's arm had been on the verge of grasping onto David's neck when all of a sudden he was slammed into the ground.

David smirked and said "Hey dumbass guess you are as stupid as you look. You just attacked the wrong fucking person."

There was another overbearing sound this time even louder though thankfully it was not focused on Yukali and the others. Rather it seemed to concentrate on Gula pressing him deeper into the ground. "Sorry Jack, it looks like my mother's patience has fun out. She will be removing this trash heap from the world."

"FUCK!" Gula screamed in terror. "Ill fucking see you in hell Jack you motherfucking cocksucki-"

The sound deepened, and she could feel it rattling her very bones as it pressed the lardass harder into the ground till he could not even curse anymore. The very air began to vibrate under the sound and then a rip in space appeared right above him. Something dark blue and appearing like hard stone pushed through the opening and pressed down upon Gula. Looking closer at it, she realized that it actually resembled the tip of some giant talon squeezing the life out of the man like a person would do with and ant and their thumb.

Gula could only breathlessly scream before there was a disturbing crunch and popping sound. An explosion of gore spilled out from his crushed remains causing them all to back up or risk getting it on them. After that the talon twisted the remains into the ground a little bit, as if to ensure that Gula was in fact truly dead before it retreated back into the tear. Seconds after it had left the remains jerked and a thing crawled out of them. Mayhap it was some sort of spirit or something, whatever it was stank of corruption.

"Fools, you can destroy my body, but I will come back stronger. I will find you and rip the flesh from your bones and devour it while you beg." After screaming that at them it turned to flee.

The tear had not closed, and the voice came once more through the slit seemingly grabbing onto the fleeing spirit and dragging it back towards the rip. The spirit screamed "What?" and attempted to hold itself there before a massive blue tongue pierced through the spirit and dragged him through the rip. The tear closed soon after that leaving the square in complete silence before David let out a chuckle while shaking his head.

"What a moron." David said.

"So that being was your mother? Forgive me for being nosy, but what manner of creature is she?" She asked, stunned by what she had just witnessed. Even though it had clearly been suppressing it's aura, she felt a weird sense of unease at the back of her head. It was as if she had seen something that could not exist or should not.

David beamed and said "Impressed? My mom is one of the strongest out there." He looked around and then said "I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but I don't see the harm. My mother is a True Dragon."

"A Dragon? Like those fire breathing ones I've heard about?" Veronica asked.

"No, the ones you are familiar with are just regular old Dragons who have a touch of Draconic Energy. True Dragons come from the void between the Universes and are vastly more powerful than the ones found on your planet."

Falaen looked closer at David and said "So does that make you a True Dragon?"

"Er no." He shook his head. "At least not yet, while I in fact have a great deal of Draconic Energy, it takes more than that. In order for me to become a true dragon, I must completely reforge my body and soul with Draconic Energy. Which I might not do if I follow the path my father took. For your information, I am effectively human in this form if far more powerful than most others. Though my mother saw fit to seal most of my power away until I learned a lesson from Jack." David said the last sentence with an eye roll.

Before she could ask any questions about what he had just said, there was a sound of horses approaching. Seconds later a group of five armored men charged into the square ontop of war horses that were huge. She recognized the leader of the group as being one of the people who went with the leader of the order of purity. All five of the men jumped off their horses with their weapons drawn. While none of them had a similar red weapon like the leader, the head of this group did have a large red stone implanted in the tip of his sword.

He walked up to them with a glare and said "All of you remain where you are. As of right now this area is now under the complete authority of the Order of Purification. You will follow all our orders, or you will face purification." He looked at one of his men and nodded. They put away the sword they had and reached into a case and pulled out one of the Corruption checking crystals. "Each of you will place one of your hands upon the crystal when he stands in front of you. That is all that you will do. If you get it in your mind to do anything else, the rest of my men and I will strike you down with the full force of the Order."

She kept silent and watched as the monk with the crystal went to each of them in turn. She noticed that her results were similar to that of last night and then it was on to Veronica. When the paladin placed her hand on top of it, the crystal began to glow an intense white light. When she removed her hand the monk looked back at the leader who simply said "Continue with the checking."

David was up next and despite her worrying he would act like a brat and piss of the monks he behaved and put his hand on the crystal. It remained clear so the monk continued onto Jack. As his hand approach the stone, she could actually see it start to vibrate so hard the Monk was having trouble holding onto it. Then his hand touched, and she had to look away or be blinded by the fiery sun that appeared. The monk audibly gasped and a few seconds later the stone cracked into pieces and the glow instantly vanished.

If you get it in your mind to do anything else, the rest of my men and I will strike you down with the full force of the Order. "Who are you?"

"My name is Jack. I'm terribly sorry about your crystal. If I knew that touching it would cause it to break, I would have warned you. Though you didn't seem to want to be in a talking mood beforehand."

The man narrowed his eyes and said "there are only three kinds of people that can cause a corruption crystal to break like that, and I happen to dislike all three. I don't care which of them you are, just know I'm going to be keeping an eye on you while you're in my city. I find you breaking any of the codes I will personally throw you out of the city. The gods have no jurisdiction here. Now Jack was it? Tell me exactly what happened here."

Jack said with a smile and said "Well my friends and I were here meeting up with some of our other friends when we all heard this weird sound that was incredibly loud. A few seconds later a huge fat guy came falling out of the sky and landed right there." He pointed at the spot where the remains of Gula were.

"We were all really surprised at that and went to see if he was okay. He was surprisingly still alive and he began to curse rather loudly and a short time later the space ripped open and some sort of claw thing came down and crushed him and then went away. A few seconds later you came along and here we are." Jack finished with a polite tone. While she was not overly familiar with Jack, she was getting the feeling he was clearly pissed at this man.

"Is that so? So far your story lines up with the report we heard. I am Commander Ravenhawk, right hand to the Lord of the Order of Purification, it is our duty to insure the safety and security of the well and this city." Ravenhawk paused and sheathed his sword. "So this large man that fell, have you met him before?"

Jack shook his head "I don't ever recall seeing him before. He didn't really say other than cursing a whole lot. Seemed quite the unpleasant man."

"I would expect nothing less given the amount of corruption I sense emanating from his corpse. Whatever happened here at least an agent of corruption died. Putting this matter aside for now, Jack, what is your purpose or the purpose of those who sent you in visiting the well?"

"Oh I'm on a journey taking in the amazing sights of the world. Everyone says you should make a visit to the Well of Purification once in your lifetime. I was hope to see the very fires of the well myself." Jack said.

"It is a wondrous sight indeed to see a corrupted individual purged of the corruption. However, I am afraid that you just missed the monthly purification ritual. The well is closed to all visitors till the next one." Ravenhawk said drily.

"Well I'm sure there are plenty of things to do around here." Jack said smiling. The two men stared at each other, one with a grim annoyed face and the carefree smile of Jack that she could tell had an edge to it.

Ravenhawk broke first and snorted. "Fine, just mind your business and follow the rules. As none of you have been corrupted you are free to go. I'll be keeping an eye on you, Jack. Do what you came here for and leave back to wherever you came from. Types like you bring nothing but trouble with your damn religions." His vision slid over the rest of them and lingered on her for a moment. Then he turned back to the rest of his men, and they began to cordon off the area.

"Have a great day Commander." Jack cheerfully called out and they moved out. She could feel that they were stared at by Ravenhawk until they moved completely out of sight.

As they were walking down the street, Veronica looked over at Jack and asked "So My Lord, who exactly did that Ravenhawk think we were?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Jack said, rubbing his chin. "His attitude didn't sit well with me. But if I had to guess, I assume he believes that we are in fact agents from a god. More specifically one of their angels, which is entirely reasonable to think from what I observed from that crystal. Even so I don't understand his hostility towards me because of that. I was under the impression that this place was a neutral ground for the gods, not that they were abhorred here. I will have to consult with Eramis about this."

Falaen said "I was able to grab a few pieces of the crystal after it broke apart when you were having a showdown with him. It seems to be a crystal treated with various magics. I'll show them tonight to JP and see what he thinks of them. Maybe we will be able to create a corruption tracker."

While they were chatting away, Yukali noticed that a man was approaching them. He was vaguely familiar and then she realized that it was in fact Erick when he pulled off his hood and waved at her. "Excuse me Ms. Yukali? I was hoping I could have a word with you."

She let out a sigh and then looked at the others and told them "Go ahead without me. I'll have to catch up with you later."

Going over to Erick she glared at him and said "What do you want Erick?"

"First off, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted towards you yesterday." Erick said.

"In which particular way? Acting like a dick or being a complete bigot?" Yukali said, staring at him. He looked nervously away and shame crossed his face.

"Look, I know I crossed over the line with you. I don't expect you to forgive me, but there are some things that I wish to speak to you about." He looked around and added "In private if possible."

She raised one eyebrow and said "And why exactly would I want to speak with you? Especially in a private setting?"

"I have a deal I want to propose to you. As long as you hear me out, no matter your answer I will tell you all of the information I have on the Caves of Purification. Vitally important information."

She looked at him and found he didn't seem to be lying and then sighed "Fine, I will speak with you. But this information better be worth it."

Erick grinned and said "Great, I found this shop that is close by and private." He took her down a few side streets to a rather hidden cafe. The booths inside were all closed off allowing a great deal of privacy. When they entered a booth a waitress came by a few seconds later and asked if they wanted anything. "I'll have an Ieta Tea. Would you like something to drink?" He looked at Yukali.

"I'll have the same." She said to the waitress who went off to get their orders. The booth was nicely furnished, and very private. Almost too private in fact making her wonder what the shop really was.

He noticed her looking around and said "This place turns into a club at night. During the day it's a tea shop."

"Ah I see." She nodded. "Is that how you found this place?"

Erick blushed and shook his head. "No, I was just looking fo good tea when I stumbled across this place."

She smirked and said "So what does an Empire mage want with a lowly monsterkin like me?"

He frowned when she said that and sighed. "Look I didn't, I'm sorry for being an ass. From the moment we are born, every child in the empire is taught that humans, specifically human mages are the most superior race to walk on this world. That goes doubly for noble children as well like me. Every day I had the idea that all other races were not our equals, they existed to serve beneath us. The sole exception being the monsterkin who we abhorred."

"Is that so? You think the excuse that you've been indoctrinated to believe something will cover your actions? That is complete bullshit and you know it."

He looked really uncomfortable under her stare and shifted in his seat. "I should know better, but it is hard to overcome the years of training I had. Not to mention all the stories we heard about Monsterkin make your kind really far more monstrous than what you really are."

"I've never got why exactly the Empire believes humans are the superior race. From my point of view humans have just as many flaws as the other races if not more." She said.

"It really comes down to two things really." Erick said, shrugging. "Well three if you include human mages. The first is the Empire considers itself the true successor to the Kingdom of Sevaris. The Emperor has really been pushing that message in the past few decades. Not to mention we had a lot of proof from the Goblin wars. Do you know who fought the goblins back? Humans. Now I'm not saying that the others races didn't fight, but the ones that really ended the Goblin menace? On almost every continent it was freed from the goblin menace by the efforts of Humans. So yeah, it might not be right, but we sure as hell have a great reason to think we are better than the other races."

At that moment the waitress pulled aside the curtain of their booth and brought in their tea. Taking the nice cup from her the two of them sipped teas for a long moment of silence. "I can understand where they are coming from. Still there is one thing about being confident and then there is being arrogant like you. Did they teach you act like you are a self-important prick."

Erick let out a chuckle and said "Kind off. Mainly it's because I'm a blundering idiot. If you haven't met many mages from the Empire, then you may be unaware that almost all of them are assholes. They are absolutely confident in themselves, and some may call them arrogant for it. But in the Empire mages hold almost absolutely authority, it goes back to why we believe humans are better. While there are races like the elves that are definitely more in tune with magic, like the Elves. Humans however consistently produce strong mages."

He took a long sip of tea. "I acknowledge that the elves have some accomplished spell casters. However the only reason that Elves have such strong magic is because they have long lives. What makes what humans can accomplish with magic just that more amazing."

"So since your a mage, that makes you the shit?" She snorted and took a sip of her tea. "There is only one mage that I saw that deserves respect and she was a thousand times better than you."

"I'm sure she was. To be brutally honest about myself, I'm a really shit mage. Do you know how I got my nickname? It's clearly not because I'm good at fire magic. No, it's because I managed to set myself on fire with a spell and from then on I was called the blaze. The group I came with calls me that to remind me just what a piece of shit mage I am." Erick said, his face darkening. Then he sighed and said "I have to act like that or the others would walk right over me. The only thing that gives me any face is the fact that I have some skill with a strange energy. It's not magic, so it's not highly regarded but it's something. It's something I believe you share with me."

"We come to the heart of the matter then. Is this the real reason you wanted to speak with me?" She said looking at him.

He looked abashed and nodded. "Due to how poor I am with magic, I am little more than an embarrassment for the rest of my family. After my teachers had given up on me, they sent me to one of their countryside homes to basically stay out of sight. It was there I came across an ancient tome that taught me how to access this energy through a series of exercises. However, most of it was destroyed, so I could only learn the basics of it. From you however, I can already sense a greater depth of mastery then me."

"I see. What exactly are you proposing?"

"A trade of shorts. I tell you what I learned about this energy, and you tell me what you know. Even if you decline this offer, I will tell you what I know of the Caves of Purification."

Yukali thought for a moment about this offer. On the one hand she doubted he could provide her with anything that she couldn't really find out herself. Still this book sounded intriguing. However, most of it was destroyed, so I could only learn the basics of it. "Alright I can take that trade, but you must fulfill one condition of mine."

"As long as it's within reason I can do it." Erick stated.

"You really pissed me off yesterday, and even if you apologized to me, I still haven't forgiven you. So if we are going to make this trade and you are truly sorry for what you did, I will have you treat me as your Master. As you yourself said, I am already more proficient then you. So it is I who will be teaching you, not the other way around."

She watched as his face fluctuated between a mixture of disbelief and anger before he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Fine. I admit that you are better than me in this field. I humbly beseech you to accept me as your disciple Master. Please teach me the ways of this energy."

She smirked at his obvious discomfort. No matter how apologetic he appeared, she still bothered him on some level. While she would get a kick out of tormenting him, she wouldn't go too far and become like him. "So disciple did this book of yours teach you what this energy really is?"

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