Covered in snow and ash, the abyssal fiend glared up at Archivauld, panting for breath.
Her eyes were slitted like a cats, with a beautiful silver iris tinged with pain.
Archivauld had no idea what she just said, nor what language she was even speaking.
"Do you speak the human tongue?" Archivauld asked.
The woman cocked her head curiously.
"Of course? But why would an abyssal lord want to speak in the tongue of Lessor's?" She asked, her tone heavily accented.
Archivauld raised an eyebrow. There was a lot to unpack there. He didn't know what an Abyssal lord was, but he didn't want to give himself away. Keeping his expression calm, he decided to play along for now.
"I find speaking in the human tongue amusing," Archivauld replied, resting his gore-covered ax on one shoulder.
Tugging at her bindings, she rolls onto her side, glancing around the clearing, taking in all the dead ministers in moments.
He could practically hear her racing thoughts, as she calculated, going over her options. Archivauld couldn't afford mistakes, so he decided to play it safe for now.
Based on her earlier tone, he got the impression abyssal lords were hotty bastards, that demanded things and expected others to do what they said. Shouldn't be that hard, all he had to do was be an asshole.
"What's your name, and why are you here?" Archivauld demanded, pretending on to notice her subtle attempts to free herself..
She grimaced as she failed to remove her bonds..
"I'm Felcia, of the Modoc tribe," she replied, as if that meant something.
It didn't but, he had to pretend like he knew what she was talking about.
Channeling in inner asshole, Archivauld scoffed, his expression disdainful.
"The Modoc tribe? What is one of your ilk doing here? Shouldn't you have returned with the others?" Archivauld asked.
He was taking a risk by asking something he knew nothing about, but judging by her expression, he hit the nail right on the head with that one.
She looked away, unwilling to meet his eyes.
When she didn't reply, Archivauld reached for one of the bloody daggers at his belt, which made her flinch.
"How about a trade? You tell me who gave you that nasty wound on your back and i won't start cutting you," Archivauld said.
She grimaced at the not so subtle threat, swearing under her breath..
"It was that slimy eel, Bensar. He got greedy and stabbed me in the back, like the cowardice Quinlar he is and fled back home," She snarled, her eyes oozing hate.
"I see.. Never trust a Quinlar," Archivauld muttered..
She nodded in agreement, tugging at her bindings once more.
"Would you be a sport and let this poor peasant go? I have places to go, and a certain Quinlar to kill," Felcia said.
"I suppose I could. But, freedom isn't cheap," Archivuald said.
"Another damned greedy Abyssal lord,"She swore under her breath.
"What was that?" Archivauld asked.
"Nothing…. What can this lowly peasant do for you oh great lord of the abyss?" she asked, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Her slander was actually quite amusing, considering he had no idea who these abyssal lords were. One thing was for sure, they seemed like assholes. He could pretend to be an asshole, all he had to do was channel his inner Parcival..
Archivauld bared his teeth, exposing rows of razor teeth. "My demands are quite simple. Answer my questions, and if I'm satisfied, I'll let you go. If I feel you are lying, I'll feed you to Foxy over there," Archivauld said.
Felcia glanced from him, to Foxy, who despite being neck deep in monster guts took the time to stare hungrily at the tied up woman. Felcia clearly didn't like the idea of being eaten by Foxy.
The nightning gale was quite hard to ignore, with the loud sounds of crunching bone echoing around the clearing.
Felicia tried to sit, but failed, inhaling sharply from pain. "Very well. Your terms are agreeable. What do you wish to know, oh great lord," she asked unhappily.
Archivuald hummed thoughtfully. "Well, first why were you and the others even bothering with such a small human town? Seems like a waste of time to me," Archivauld replied.
She scowled, the question seeming to really piss her off. "We lesser tribes do not have the resources, or skilled rifter's to assault a major city to collect sacrifices by ourselves. We must rely on sacrifices," she replied.
"Sacrifices? For what?" Archivuald asked curiously.
A seed of resentment formed in her eyes.
"Not all of us can create a Nexus and enter the human world without offerings. We need to crystallize human blood to create a stable Nexus and form the gateway," Felcia replied as if it were just a matter, of course.
Archivualds blood ran cold at her words.
So, they were taking people alive to use them in some taboo sacrifice to enter the human realm? The implications were staggering. Several towns had already gone missing, with hundreds disappearing, likely already dead or worse.
Entering the human world couldn't be their only reason for needing sacrifices. There had to be something he was missing.
"Why do you need so many sacrifices?" He asked.
She bared her razor sharp teeth.
"Us lesser tribes do not have access to the abyssal chasms. We need to kill humans to gather essence, and strengthen ourselves," Felcia replied.
Archviauld cocked his head in confusion.
"For essence, why not just kill monsters? Much less of a headache if you ask me," Archivuald replied.
The question made her look at him like he was an idiot, swearing under her breath.
"Damned abyssal lords…..Have you really never left the abyssal chasms before? Taking Essence from monsters is fine, but trying to absorb the emblems we harvest from monsters can kill us," Felcia said.
Archivuald hadn't known that. Was that really the case? He frowned thoughtfully. Come to think of it, he hadn't infused a single emblem on his dark side, but then again, he wasn't an abyssal fiend like this woman. Perhaps it was not the same for himself?
In either case, he needed to wrap this up. His line of questioning was clearly making her suspicious.
"How were you planning on getting back home?" Archviauld asked.
The facade of fear and confusion shattered, quickly changing to realization as she looked him up and down once more. Everything from his human made clothing to his bloodied and chipped ax.
It was an oh moment, as realization dawned in her eyes.
"You are not an Abyssal lord are you?" she asked, wide eyed.
"No, I'm not…." Archivuald replied.
Even more concerned now, she struggled harder against her bindings. He raised his ax above her head, making her pause with fear.
"You are clearly an abyssal lord. Are you an outcast, a traitor to your tribe?" Felcia asked.
"No, I'm a human," Archivuald replied calmly.
Disbelief crossed her face.
"I don't believe you. That is not possible," she replied.
Archivuald's skin crawled as his monster form was replaced by pink flesh that quickly stung from the cold. All of a sudden the biting wind actually hurt on his skin, his shoulder-length brown hair blowing in the wind.
He shivered, his breath misting as he looked down at the incredibly confused woman.
"See, i'm a human,"
"How?" She demanded.
He shrugged. "You are not in a position to be asking questions. Now, tell me how you plan on getting back home or i'm going to chop your head off," Archivuald said.
She snarled.
"I'm not telling you shit. You are going to kill me anyway," Felcia replied.
Archviuald hesitated. She wasn't wrong. He had been planning on cutting off her head and taking it back to give to the red hand society. But, maybe there was compromise?
Archivauld pulled one of her long curved daggers from his belt, eying the weapon thoughtfully.
"How about we make a deal? I was going to cut your head off and take it back to the inquisition, but if you can give me something of equal value, ill let you go," Archivuald replied.
That caught her attention. Monster or not, she clearly wanted to live.
"How do I know you are going to uphold your end of the deal?" Felcia asked.
"You don't. You will have to take my word on it. What do you have to lose? I saved your life, and am now offering to set you free. From what I can tell, your allies are right bastards stabbing u in the back, so why are you even protecting them?" Archivuald asked.
Judging by her grimace, his comment was spot on.
"Point taken. The enemy of my enemy is a friend I suppose. You have my attention," Felcia replied.
Archivuald nodded.
"How were you planning on getting home?" Archivuald asked.
She sighed. "That's simple. I was going to destroy the nexus. Once the rift collapses, it returns to the Nether realm," Felcia replied.
Archivuald raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought it dumps people between the emptiness between realms? That's what the human scholars think. A few humans have tried to enter a rift and stay while it collapsed to see where it goes, but none have come back," Archivuald replied.
Felcia chuckled.
"Of course they never came back. Humans are much too frail. I can tell you are already struggling to stay warm. Back home, this would be considered a hot summer's day," Felcia replied.
Archivuald had no way to verify her claims, so instead pushed on.
"How exactly do you form a Nexus? I thought they were just a natural formation of condensed essence," Archivuald said.
Felcia shrugged.
"I have no idea. I'm not a shaman," Felica replied.
He frowned.
"Though interesting, this is not very helpful. I think I'm just going to cut my losses, and take your head," Archviuald replied, raising his axe.
"Wait!!! An emblem. I have one, ill trade it for freedom," she shouted.
He paused.
"Go on," Archivuald replied.
"Before I was stabbed in the back by that goat from the Quinlar tribe, I may have stolen a lord tier emblem from him.. I'm willing to trade it in exchange for my life," Felica replied.
"What kind of emblem?" Archivuald asked, very interested.
"Not sure exactly but it is powerful, some sort of ice power," Felcia replied.
"And where is this Emblem?" Archivauld asked.
"Not until you let me go," Felcia replied.
He snorted in derision. "You already set yourself free. Go on, try summoning one of those ice spikes. My ax will split your head before you can get it off," Archivuald replied.
She clearly didn't believe him, her bonds falling away as she shot towards him. She moved fast, her hands stretching out as a spear of ice formed in her palm, pointed at his face.
Archivuald's ax fell with tremendous force, kicking up a shower of ash and snow. He stared down, as thick ichor dripped from the stump of her neck.
Ruthlessness….. In the past, he had shown mercy, and that mercy had nearly cost him everything.
Not this time. This monster had freely admitted to taking part in the massacre of at least one town.
She had spoken of humans like they were just a resource to harvest, lambs to the slaughter.
He felt some pity, though he didn't feel too bad. She had tried to kill him not a few moments ago.
If he was being honest, no matter what she offered, the result would have been the same.
Archivuald couldn't allow her to escape after revealing he was a human.
He had gleaned a lot of information from her, but that wasn't the real prize of this encounter.
His hand shook with excitement as he searched body, looking for the promised Emblem. Hopefully, she hadn't been lying about that. That wasn't the only potential reward.
When he had peaked earlier, three of her nodes had emblems. Abyssal fiends could be one of the most dangerous to run into in rifts, but they were also the most valuable finds.
After all, when you killed one, their essence stone would almost always turn into an emblem. Which emblem you acquired was completely based on the emblems the abyssal fiend had.
His excitement rapidly faded as he looked at the lord tier essence stone he had just pulled from her chest. His earlier jubilation quickly returned as he searched her body much more thoroughly. Jackpot! Turns out, she hadn't been lying about having an emblem.
Fractals swirled across its ichor covered surface, the emblem quickly engraving itself into the gemlike surface. He grinned at the ichor covered emblem in his hand.
Surely this emblem didn't count as the first found inside the rift? Tanner and Pelas couldn't blame him for taking this one, after all, this monster was from elsewhere.
He turned his attention towards the field of dead iron boar, a monstrous smile crossing his face. This had turned into a plentiful harvest indeed. Foxy seemed to agree, her face covered in blood after chowing down on one of the boars.
Having gorged herself, Foxy patted over, and sniffed at the leg of the dead abyssal fiend. Seeming curious, Foxy licked at the ichor, and gagged, making a disgusted face.
She let out a soft bark as if to say, who would want to eat that?
Archviuald laughed.
"Noone said you have to eat it. Besides, we need the body anyway. Or just the head. I'll give it to Pelas. Who knows, this head might help the Cult get one over on the Order," Archivuald replied.
Foxy turned up her snout at the comment, turning back towards the boar she had been eating. She didn't seem interested at all, caring more about a fresh meal than politics.
Archivuald shrugged. He couldn't really blame her for her disinterest. With things having settled, he shivered. First things first, time to shift back to his monster form, he could hardly feel his fingers.
It took a good couple hours, but he eventually harvested all the essence from the iron boar. Their thick hides and strong bone made it a pain in the ass to cut through to reach the precious essence within.
By the time he harvested it all, his arms and back ached from swinging his ax so much. Even so, it was worth it. He was left with a pile of bloody essence stones, and one emblem, the one he retrieved from Felcia.
It was quite the harvest, and all his for the taking. All the while he had been harvesting, Archivuald had been contemplating how to properly utilize all of his gathered essence.
First things first, he pushed his new bird form to knight tier. Archivuald still hadn't learned to fly, about as airborne as a rock, but still the dream was there. Surely, he just had to evolve the divine curse a few times before he could fly? A man could dream.
Next, he debated on which side to absorb the new ice emblem. His monster form was superior to human, but given the emblem's origin, he didn't want to waste this opportunity. Archivuald's heartbeat with excitement at the prospect of awakening something like that ice spear she had been using to massacre iron boar. His chest burned as the emblem sunk into one of the nodes on his dark side.
Everything was going so well, until it wasn't. Blinding, soul shattering pain wracked his body, a pain that was like having every cell set on fire. He screamed bloody murder, the agony seeming to last an eternity..
Archivuald was left a shaking mess in the snow, his body wracked with agony as he gasped for breath. Lying on his back, he looked down at his chest, expecting to see a fountain of blood. Instead, there was just the emblem having refused to melt into his body.
His chest heaved as he stared down, the Tattoo of the dark god seemed to laugh up at him mockingly.
Was Felcia right? Was his monster form unable to absorb emblems from monsters? Did he really have to resort to killing humans to gain emblems on his monster side? Archivuald shook his head at the idea. No, that would be a twisted joke.
Sure it happened, people harvested emblems from people, but that was extremely rare to happen. Normally, humans did not contain an essence stone in their bodies, thus there was no way to harvest an emblem when they died.
Well, at least not until they reached the Saint tier. When at least three emblems reached the saint tier, the user's heavenly reservoir became potent enough to form their own internal essence stone.
Given his limited studies from his time in the order, Archivauld didn't know much beyond that. Anything else at that level of power was carefully guarded secrets, hoarded by noble houses, guilds and esteemed families.
Chest heaving, Archivuald pushed those distracting thoughts from his mind as he glared at the emblem resting on his chest.
With a shaky hand, he reached out and picked it up, the emblem looking small in his clawed hand. He really didn't want to try again, but greed eventually won over caution.
Taking several rapid breaths to syce himself up, he pushed the emblem into a node on his holy side right under his wind cutter emblem. Archivuald gritted his teeth, expecting pain.
Instead, there was a slight warmth as the emblem sunk into the node.
Huh! Well, that was a pleasant surprise. Archivuald let his head fall back onto the snow, heaving as he looked up at the overcast sky. A bitter wind made the stubby trees sway, ash and snow gently swirling through the air.
That had been risky to try again, but in the end, it paid off. What was a little pain in the face of more power. Pushing himself to a seated position, he noted Foxy was sitting nearby, a worried expression on her face.
"I'm alright," He said, pushing to his feet. He swayed unsteadily, as he hefted his ax, brushing off the ash from its handle.
Her concern could wait. He was excited to test out his new emblem. Curious, Archivuald raised his left hand, funneling essence into his newest emblem. He expected a giant spear of ice, but instead, glittering icy flowers bloomed all around him.
They were quite beautiful, each the size of his palm. Archivuald frowned. A field of icy flowers? That wasn't what he was expecting at all. Annoyed at his rash actions, he bent over, running a finger along one of the pedals.
There was a sharp prick of pain along his finger, dark ichor oozing out. Ooh? Incredibly sharp buggers.
Still, not very useful. Just as he had that thought, one of the flowers exploded, a hail of icy pedals gouging chunks into the bark of a tree.
Uhhh ohhhh.. It was only then that Archivuald realized over a dozen of the seemingly harmless icy flowers surrounded him.
Well, shit. Heart racing, he took off through a gap between the flowers, running for cover. Foxy was already on the move, even snapping at him as they ran.
"I'm sorry alright, i didn't know that was going to happen," Archviuald replied defensively.
Archivuald didn't speak monster, but he could swear that loud back was the equivalent to calling him an dumbass. Several explosions rocked the forest, as icy flowers exploded, emphasizing her back.
He couldn't exactly blame her for her annoyance. That was quite the rookie move. Not the first time he got them in trouble by getting over eager.
Despite the snag, Archviuald couldn't help but grin. One thing was clear, its potential was extraordinary.
Even if it was dangerous to himself, he could always use it to create a minefield while he ran for his life. Who would expect those innocent-looking flowers to be so deadly?
Two days later, an exhausted Archivuald stepped from the collapsing rift, frozen pouch slung on one shoulder. The rift had taken longer than expected to clear, the iron boar infesting it tough buggers. Those boar were not the brightest monsters, but they guarded their borrows with suicidal fervor.
A fairly simple if not grueling few days. That was the normal for most knight and copper tier rifts. Deadly to those who overestimate themselves, but if you had the strength and or wits to prevail against the numbers, it was relatively straightforward.
That didn't mean it was easy.
Two days of angry, squealing boar, had really grated on his nerves. Archivuald was more than happy to be done with it.
Foxy on the other hand, looked ready to burst after gorging herself for days. That glutton really seemed to enjoy boar meat.
Archivuald pushed down his fatigue.
At Least a hundred essence stones, an emblem, and the Nexus. He glanced at the ichor stained sack on his shoulder.
It was kind of gross to be carrying the woman's head in a sack, but it couldn't be helped. Carrying her body for the week back to Stronghold would have been too much to deal with.
Hence why he just took her head. It would be the perfect evidence to give to the Cult, to help them catch the others making towns go missing.
He would have liked to take Felcia alive, but that was just too risky.
With the rift having collapsed, he made his way back to the abandoned town. With nothing left for him to do, he backtracking, finding his way back where he had tied his horse.
Unfortunately, the horse had broken its lead, running away while he was inside the rift.
Well, that figures. Must have gotten hungry over those two days..
He sighed. Well, time to go after the horse. With Foxy's incredible sense of smell, it wasn't all that difficult to find it. Or, what was left of it.
His poor horse had unfortunately gotten itself eaten while he was gone. Well, that was just great. A week back to town, on foot. Tanner wasn't going to be pleased.
He sighed. Most of his supplies were gone, though thankfully not all of his dried rations. Too bad they were all soiled by blood and guts. Archivuald could only kick himself for his stupidity. What did he expect? Leaving his horse tied up in monster territory.
With a tired sigh, he set off, starting the long trek on foot back to Stronghold.