Chapter 56: Interlude 15 – Hunt

Interlude 15 – Hunt

The main body of the temples, were preferably built as an open stone area without a roof, that is if the general weather and available building materials allowed that design. In case of only having wood, or being in a place with extreme temperatures, the temples could be enclosed

This didn’t meant that only those temples had enclosed, or hidden, rooms. One of those rooms was known by everyone, due to it’s use for a ritual of secrecy

Once her prayer was over, the High Priestess of the temple slammed the sharp end of her staff on the stone floor of said room, making the three jewels on the altar glow. That glow represented that The Triad were allowing the people gathered in the room, freedom of speech without worry that the System would listen to their talks

Until the ruby, emerald and onyx vanished… roughly an hour, judging by the size of the gems

“It’s done” she turned to the people on the room and took one of the seats, right in front of Maxwell and his wife Agatha, Amelia and her secretary were on another seat to her right “We can talk now” she tried to ignore the big hickey on the neck of the secretary…

The High Priestess also tried to ignore the proud expression on Agatha’s face…

“Where do we start…?” the only man in the room asked, gesturing to the parchments laying on the table between them “By order of arrival? Or do we start with the new threat?”

“A lot has happened in the last few days, so by arrival is better I think…” Amelia shrugged “What happened to the farmer girl?”

“Her family plus two others were allowed to move away, but I don’t know when they’ll do it” he answered “With Yu’s information I didn’t saw the need to keep questioning her, even if she didn’t wanted to say anything about the talking bird”

He got stared by everyone

“What…? I’m just assuming that my dear mother-in-law is involved, or, that the bird is a Fae like our newest Ruler…” once everyone else stopped looking at the jewels to confirm that his words weren't going to be used by the System and cause a problem, he continued “Just… if mother-in-law really is involved, then I have no idea why she would be pretending to have an old voice… but we can figure it out, after you approve a living capture request for the bird?” he hinted at Amelia

“Still…” Agatha stared at him, not letting the guild leader answer, while playing with a long lock of her fair hair… sending shivers down his spine… “Remember to not go making a Fifth…”

“I’m sure he is happy with three~” Amelia snickered, while her secretary rolled her eyes and Agatha looked confused by that comment. Maxwell ignored it completely by closing his eyes and rubbing his neck…

There was no way he was going to say anything, that would lead to his wives being compared with the Rulers… he wasn't suicidal…

“But sure, if nothing happens today I’ll ask a few trustworthy groups. Next~ the now free woman?” seeing that he wasn't going to slip with what she said, Amelia continued gesturing to the woman next to her to write that

“Yu is working for us” Agatha’s answer sounded just a tad annoyed “At least she will do that after she learns Cutil… there is no way I’ll let someone like Arrow get her…”

The way she looked at her husband would have made him shiver again…

“Yes… judging by her age, she was a baby when Bori fell…” but he was frowning at all the parchments they had about the new Ruler on the table “If I don’t make sure she doesn’t suffers anymore… I can think of few easier ways of making me kill nobles…”

To Agatha, the tone of his voice, just showed his protective fatherly side… which made her blush and sigh with a dreamy expression…

The High Priestess coughed to get the attention of everyone, snapping her from the daydream

“At least we have two testimonies that confirm the identity of the Fourth…” she looked at Amelia “The gods haven't said anything about the request to bring Miriam to a temple…” her comment made the guild leader sigh

“I’m not happy with the idea of sending someone after her… we don’t know why she was maddened when Yu saw her, or if it’s something she can activate at will…” Maxwell gestured to get her attention

“According to Sara it’s something she struggled to keep under control, so it’s probably-”

Agatha glared at him

“What Sara…?” once more playing with her hair…

“Grandma…” getting interrupted by a groan coming from the current High Priestess as she covered her embarrassed face

While Maxwell just gave her a patient smile

“What…?” one of those smiles that he always gave to her, when she got unnecessarily jealous “Wait! Our Sara?!” she gasped and covered her mouth

“Yes” he kept smiling to the previous High Priestess of that temple, while giving her a one armed hug “Our Sara fought the Fourth. She uses swords, earth, lightning, can heal, and probably has Berserker… but Sara only could tell for sure, that she has an absolute Affinity for Swords, and that the Ruler got her Style while fighting her”

The silent secretary couldn’t help but talk next

“You didn’t mentioned that to her before coming here?”

“I… I got distracted by the name of the tree…” Agatha was the one that answered, her husband started that conversation by revealing Sunny’s name

“Then… the main point…?” Amelia asked “Or there is something else to add?”

No one said anything for a while

“Sara found a lot of Terror Stones in the forest… but anyway: the betrayers” Maxwell sighed “Sara also said that Miriam confirmed at least three occasions were she fought Undeads, but wasn't able to say an exact number” Agatha perked at that

“So, three Undeads at the very least… better than some idiots I… ah…” she sighed and shook her head “Sorry, even if she only had killed one… that’s still a worrying amount…”

Bori was a country formed with a singular reason, similar to the Shield Against the Forest, but aimed to a different threat…

The Abyssal Ravine

What was believed to be the greatest accumulation of Terror Stones in the nameless world, surrounded the edge of the hellish deeps of that mystery. A place where an endless amount of corpses, skeletons and more… constantly climbed out of the only spot where they were able to do so: the place where the Grand Temple of Bori once stood…

Just over two decades ago, they were betrayed and the whole country was destroyed by the torrent of Undead coming from it

Only a couple years before Miriam’s birth, the two closest countries finally managed to push the Undead back past the ruined temple… but… they lack what made the denizen of Bori the best people to keep them sealed, leaving the joined armies locked in place

“I know that ‘Aide’ of mine, is one of them…” he said “If they are stupid enough to actually be trying something here… should I kill him now?”

“I’m not sure” Amelia frowned “Maybe he is irrelevant and just there to distract you? Keep you from interacting with their actually strong members?”

“The nobles already annoy me on their own, they don’t need to help them…” he grumbled “And he is both strong, and one of those bastards that make me angry, he can’t be just a goon…”

There was a moment of silence, in which all of them were trying to find the best course of action-

CRACK!!!

Interrupted by the three jewels shattering, and the message that the High Priestess received

/////

While Grim was staring at Ken, the illusion covering the skull didn’t showed any emotion, unknowingly revealing his mood to the blond

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He had been in the room when Grim got punched, but hadn't done anything immediately afterwards… he just saw Grim repair the jaw and finished with the rest of his tasks before leaving…

“Well, we are alone” Grim gestured to the underground room, adjacent to the one where the puppeteers worked “What do you want?” Ken smiled

“There seems to be a misunderstanding, I have no desire of revealing what I saw to the rest” Grim didn’t reacted to what he said, so he continued “I just want two things. First: to know why. Why are you wasting time with the Spawners, the Dolls, and Titan’s body?”

That question made Grim lean back on the chair, showing a rare smug expression on the illusion

“While this is different from a Doll, it’s not my body. I am controlling it from a safe distance, but I have not reached the power that our God has”

“With as much respect as I can muster and without any intent of offending you, allow me to say that I don’t believe you, but I suppose that it doesn’t matters in the end” he waved his hand before continuing “Second: I want a guarantee that our goal of immortality is doable. I don’t want to be just a stepping stone, or worse: becoming a mindless Undead”

“There is an immortal in the world, and the path to become one involves the Undead” the illusion became emotionless again

Filling the room with an absolute silence…

Crack

But the sound of breaking glass made both of them stand up immediately. Ken pulling out two daggers with a smooth movement and dashing backwards while preparing to use two of his skills…

Only to see Grim looking coldly at a stone box on a corner of the room, he walked quickly towards it while ignoring the blond. The moment he stood in front of the box, the grating sound of stone against stone filled the room, while the lid moved by itself

“What…?” and he pulled out a broken bottle with a black and red liquid in it “How…?” the blond recognized the bottle even if the contents were slightly different: it was a blood sample that Grim took from everyone that reached Ken’s position

“Who’s…?” he was wary, but still hid his daggers

“Titan’s…” Grim’s voice was… filled with curiosity… “He died… while trying to become an Undead…?” he poured the corrupted liquid on the floor

It just became a puddle, it did nothing else…

“How…? I sent him to kill the snake… how could it push him to such extremes…?” Grim rubbed the spot where he was punched, accidentally revealing a red glow inside the cracks in the jaw keeping it together… “All that time invested…”

The voice slowly started to sound like a growl, while every one of his fingers started to twitch. Moving chaotically for a few tense minutes, in a way that the blond had never seen him move before…

“GRIM!!!” one of the puppeteers entered the room in a rush, making their leader turn suddenly at him with a glare “Titan is dead!” but the man wasn't affected by it “Maxwell is hunting you!” he had other concerns at the moment…

““What?!”” both of them knew how bad that information was…

“The temples know about Titan and you!” the man panted with a shiver “He and that fucking priestess are already raiding the workshops! Someone got a whisper right in front of those two!”

His quick breathing was the only sound in the room for the five seconds that both of the other two took to think about what to do…

“Blizzard will be the temporal leader while I’m gone” Grim’s words made Ken glare at him, but he continued without care, now looking at the blond “Await new instructions”

The blond almost exploded in rage… those were instructions were completely opposite to the ones he was thinking about… not only someone he considered a fucking idiot was left in charge, his experiments would grind to halt, because he didn’t believed that the abilities of anyone else, were up to the task to complete them…

But he knew that he couldn’t say anything…

A dark sphere appeared on Grim’s hand… and with it, the two men left the room running with Ken moving far more quickly than the puppeteer. After seeing that, the sphere was thrown inside the stone box, destroying the contents and the box

“Damn… it…” only after confirming the destruction of every sample, Grim moved to a corner of the room and punched the floor “DAMN IT!!!”

CRACK!!!

Falling into a small stone tunnel and starting to crawl in it at speeds that no human body would be able to reach in the cramped space

CRACK!!!

Slamming his fists against specific rocks in the walls as he moved, breaking them and making the tunnel start to collapse behind him as he escaped the city while using the catacombs under it…

“THAT ACCURSED SNAKE!!!”

Screaming his hate without pause…

/////

Once he finally heard about the location of his aide on his free day-

CRACK!!!

Maxwell just ran there and broke through the door with his glowing ax already on his hand…

“KYAA!!!” freezing once he saw the scene inside…

“Ah…! It’s… something wrong…? Eh… my lord…?”

His sweating aide was between the legs of a naked woman that… Maxwell was trying to not think about her name… or marital status… while she tried to cover her face and nakedness…

The scene was so bizarre… that his desire to kill the man vanished immediately, and he just turned to leave the room

“Get dress, Grim is the leader of the betrayers…”

““WHAT?!!!”” the question of the… couple…? Was ignored…

The idea of a necromancer… having sex with a married woman… was…

‘Did… I made a mistake…?’ something that made him hesitate about his instincts…

Seeing Ken stumble out of the room while getting dressed and asking questions… made him shook his head…

‘No… I just need to make sure… I don’t know what you are planing, but I will find out and defeat you…’ making his determination grow…

Which was exactly… what Ken and the woman wanted to happen…