Chapter 3 – A Display of Strength
AHHH! Damn it, Donna did you just?!
‘What a way to wake up. Hahaha.’
…Okay, she didn’t or at least I don’t think she did. I woke up with both Donna’s and my clothes off. I just felt around us, and it seems like she didn’t do anything to me, yet.
Donna wakes up and says, “Good morning, my love. You must be feeling a certain way if you’re touching me the way you were.”
“Why did you take off our clothes?”
“Because I like sleeping like this sometimes. You should know.”
“I wish I forgot, in fact, I did. Stop doing this without me knowing.”
“Why? Do I disgust you?”
“What? No, not at all.”
“Does it have to do with the scars on my body?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll deal with it. Let’s sleep for two more minutes.”
“Uh-uh. Two minutes to you is another hour or two.”
“Yup.”
“We have to be ready for battle today.”
“They can start the fight without us. This is more important.”
“No, it isn’t. Come on already.”
I start pushing Donna off me while she clings on.
“Ah! Stop biting my neck!”
“Uh-uh.”
“I sometimes don’t know I deal with you.”
Donna laughs while still hanging onto me with her teeth in my neck. I manage to push her away so I can get dressed. Today’s going to be a big day especially since-
“Can you stop staring at me and get dressed already?!”
“I can admire my husband while he gets dressed.”
“You can do that while dressing too.”
After getting dressed and suited up, Donna and I go to where Bonito is to hear her plan.
Bonito tells us that, “One of the reasons why we’re meeting so early is because I have two plans ready for you.”
One of the strategists intrudes by saying, “Uh. All of us had a part in making it.”
“Shut up. I’m Benedetto’s main strategist, so it’s my plan.”
“You’ll all get your just rewards for your hard work now tell me your plans.”
“Right. These two plans will increase your standing with everyone from all three cultures and could prevent further uprisings against us. The first one is to use non-lethal gases and enchanted weapons to knock out our attackers and jail them. This will be a great show of mercy, but it might also show us to be weak for not killing people who would and have killed others and fought against the Church. The second plan is to overwhelm our enemies with force and obliterate them. This will show off our might and put the fear into whoever might think they could take us on. The downside to it would scare our allies as well. There’s also the fact that we’re spilling blood where God died for us as well. We could be creating martyrs for a future problem.”
“I see good points in both of those plans, however, we’ll be merciful to our enemies. It was one of the teachings God gave to us when He walked among us.”
“I thought you would choose that. Okay, everyone, you heard the man! Let’s get to it!”
My Sparrows cheer as they mobilize. The place I’m stationed in allows me to come out to make a speech after the battle. Once the battle starts, it ends quicker than the ambush they did to us. We use sleeping gas, non-lethal traps, and enchanted non-lethal weapons. We round up everyone in a matter of minutes. Once it’s clear, the public comes out to congratulate us for our victory.
I then get up on a platform and say, “God said to us that we should have mercy on our enemies and love them. Even the worst sinners love those who they have close to them and pay their due debts to them. We should all be better than them by loving our enemies and giving them a second chance to redeem themselves.”
The crowd cheers for my Sparrows and I. We are honored and awarded by the Church and the Fedele for our efforts. During the same day, we arrest nearly every member of Lavit Manus. We have a large funeral service for the people we lost yesterday then a celebration for our victory at night. I watch over the celebration from a balcony with Donna who’s hanging over me.
“Is something wrong, Benedetto?” Donna asks me while petting my head.
“I feel like my work isn’t done yet.”
“You’re always like that. I’m sure whatever’s left that you need to do, you’ll do with no trouble.”
Tunc, are you still there?
‘I am.’
Is there anything else for me to do?
‘You do, but I don’t know what it is. You defeated the one group that’s against you, so what you need to do next is completely unknown to me.’
Hmmm. I’ll figure it out.
‘I’m sure you won’t need my help. You didn’t even ask for the free hint I have for you this time around.’
I could use it if you think it would help.
‘Nah. It isn’t useful anymore.’
Then I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing until I complete my challenge.
After getting a good night’s rest, I check the request board to see who needs help. One of these has to do with the challenge I’m facing. Ah. This one has to do with a weird experiment gone wrong with flesh. There may be some demonic activity associated with these experiments, but it could just be an accident. That kind of sounds like something Lavit Manus would be involved in. Huh. From the description, it could also be something I dealt with in between my challenges. It couldn’t hurt to look especially if it’s a spreading infection as described in this request.
Since Donna got hungover yesterday, I head out on my own.
Tunc? Can I have my gear that’s enchanted with fire?
‘You got it. Well, you got it now.’
Thank you.
I ask one of my magic users to make a portal to the location and I enter into Blighted territory. I’m next to one of the many large mountains in the region. Apparently, a rogue Cuchillos alchemist was trying to evolve human organs so that we can survive longer. He wasn’t known for having exactly the most ethical ways of researching so he disappeared. This area was where he was last seen. While looking around the mountains, I find some weird marks as if something was dragged down a cave in the mountain. Or did something walk in it? Let’s see what the mad alchemist has cooked up.
I unsheathe my blades so they light up. I use them as a pseudo torch to see through the darkness of the cave. As I go further in, I find human and animal flesh lining the walls of the cave. This can’t be good at all so I burn the flesh with my blades as I go deeper down into the earth. The further I go the more flesh and blood I find and the more it stinks. The fire I’ve lit spreads ahead of and lights the way forward. I might be seeing things, but it looks like the flesh is alive. It convulses and makes a low, but high-pitched screeching noise, so this is like the previous flesh infection that I dealt with. The last time something like this happened, it was a Blighted alchemist and both people and the land was infected. Maybe I should’ve brought back up with me.
Yup. I should’ve brought back up. At the end of the cave, I find a large expansive room with a beating heart in the center. The flesh on the walls starts to come to life and form some kind of animal, human hybrid with sharp bony limbs that are like blades. My fire blades cut through them like butter. The fire I’ve lit spreads more rapidly and starts burning the fleshy heart in the center. It feels like the entire mountain is shaking as the mountain crumbs around me. The cave I came through collapses, but another tunnel opens in the room. It’s covered in bloody flesh, so this isn’t the only affected mountain.
Going through the next tunnel, I find more living hearts and flesh. The fire I’ve lit has spread throughout more of the mountain and the other connecting tunnels I haven’t been in. This must be one large connected creature. That makes sense since these flesh creatures are so in tuned with each other while I fight them. I wonder what’s happening up above ground.
‘Donna isn’t going like that you went out on your own for this.’
I didn’t know it would be this bad!
‘I hope that excuses you.’
Me too.
I light more of the caves and surroundings on fire so that the creature burns faster. Thank God I have fireproof gear otherwise I would’ve burned to ashes already. The fire is so intense and spread in here it’s as if I’m in Hell. I find a tunnel that leads further down, and I find a large man made of flesh. He has tentacles, animal limbs such as claws and stingers, and is attached to the center of the cave. He’s probably the center of all this and who I’m looking for since everything in here is connected to him and there’s flesh that connects to different areas. I light more of the room on fire so the fires can burn whatever else the flesh is connected to.
The monster man in the center starts fighting back with limbs and the cave starts spawning more flesh creatures to combat me. They commit suicide to put out the fires, so I’m going to need something better to make it get hotter in here.
Tunc, give me my fire spreaders.
‘Here!’
Now we’re playing with fire. Not only do the blades I have light up, but they also spew fire. They aren’t as sharp, but they’re useful for burning things down. It’s a great invention by the Cuchillos that they used in battle and to get rid of experiments gone wrong. My fire spreaders burn the room faster than the creatures can put them out. I dodge the monster and creatures attacks as I spread my flames around the cave. Before long, the fire is too much for them to hand and everything starts coming down around me.
Tunc, I need my cave armor!
‘Quickly put it on!’
This suit, made by the Blighted, might not protect me from the fires as well, but it will protect me from falling debris and it’s supposed to help me to escape cave-ins. Since the outfit is so bulky, I don’t have to worry about taking off my fireproof armor so I can wear both at the same time.
‘This is going to be a rocky escape!’
This is not the time for your jokes, Tunc! I’m being buried alive here!
‘I’ve died in worse ways when I was in your shoes. At least you have that armor and can-do attitude.’
Damn it! I’m stuck in the rocks, but I can see a light ahead. I’ll have to dig myself out. At least this armor still allows me to move in this mess. Come on, come on! There we go! I take off all the armor I have and give it to Tunc to hold onto. Finally, fresh…air. The flesh disease managed to break out of the ground, but it’s all burning, which is a good thing though it’s still a mess up here. Huge veins and fleshy tentacles stick out of the mountains and ground as if this entire landmass was a creature itself. At least it's all dead. I better get home now before…Huh? Who’s that? It looks like a person in hazard armor.
“Excuse me?” I say to them, “I’m not sure it’s safe to be here…”
What did they shoot at me with…?
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