[IC] Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

[Crimson Paladin]

Captain Argus Fellborn

No sooner had Argus slew the last beast in this house did he hear a terrible ruckus going on outside. There was a piercing shriek, followed by what sounded like a house being smashed apart. These houses weren't going to provide any protection against whatever that thing was. As for the girl, she appeared unharmed for the time being, but seeing her parents die in front of her would assuredly leave her mind thoroughly scarred. There wasn't much left to do except try to keep her out of the way and hope that there wouldn't be too much collateral damage.

"I suggest you find a place to hide," Argus spoke to the child, before exiting the dwelling. Upon stepping outside, he saw exactly what the source of the noises were- a huge, chimeric beast. Just how many of these twisted things were there?

Argus rushed to intercept the beast, bringing his sword to meet one of its bared claws. He was unsure if the human woman that the monster was targeting would be of any use in this fight, but the other vampire and her gorebats should prove useful allies.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

[Pyromania99]

"My, that thing isn't the looker is it?" Akyasha mentioned after the ten new Gorebats she just summoned sprang forth. "Go, gather and rreturn. Leave the living humans be." Akyasha said, giving vague commands the bats would understand pointing at the odd monster in front of them. The cleric scooped the human blacksmith up and moved her away quickly. "Julene, how useful do you think you'll be fighting this thing? I think it might be a bit beyond the current you." The vampire asked as she gripped her axe. Akyasha then continued with a shrug. "But if you try to fight it, I won't stop you."

The Cleric then jumped forward to meet the beast with this other vampire dressed as a sailor. Akyasha swung her axe at the creature's arm, hoping to drive a wound into it. "Greetings brother. A pleasure. To meet you, not fight this thing." The cleric mentioned, wondering what Julene was going to do. If she were to be wounded in battle, it might be easier to turn her into a thrall. She was strong and smart. For a human. She would make a good servant for Ichor. "When the batties have collected their fill, I plan on bringing forward a bit more help." Akyasha shared the little plan she did have at this point.

[Click This]

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Giselle muttered under her breath, temporarily foregoing refinement to vent her frustration at her own lack of progress. Thankfully, Aleksiya’s attack on the hand kept it anchored in place, although she wasn’t entirely sure how much it could move in the first place. If the red wires were too tedious to cut with her sword, then she could at least try something else. With the hand-creature pulling the wires taught, it even made it easier for her to sever them.

She let red ichor spool out from her free, outstretched palm, a pool of blood taking a formless shape in the air. Instead of letting it form into one of her more familiar weapons like a spear or another sword, though, she created some red thread of her own. It was not nearly as thin or long as the material that continued to puppet Kordelia, and after a moment of forming, it took a long, whip-like shape. She gave the blood weapon a few tentative waves, playing with it like a red ribbon from foreign dances she was familiar with in the far past. It was elegant, as she liked it, but with a dangerous edge to its free-flowing cord.

If the puppetmaster tried to stay out of reach of her sword, then it would have a far more difficult time with this. Kordelia seemed slowed; Giselle took advantage of this as she guarded with her sword, all the while her long whip lashed out at the threads that controlled the princess of beasts. Letting it crack out at her target, she hoped to sever them outright this time. If not, well, she’d just wrap around the threads and pull.

[VitaVitaAR]

It was a shame the strange hand didn't show any obvious agony. Aleksiya would have liked to at least indulge in the sight of the damned thing's pain. But more importantly, its movement was clearly impaired by the icy spikes driven through it at multiple points, in particular the palm. It was struggling to move Kordelia as effectively as it had before.

Those strings were how it was manipulating her fellow Lord, but it definitely seemed the hand required some level of movement to do so effectively. In which case...

Grinning, Aleksiya sat up. Now that her ice was lodged in the hand, she could use it as a point to start from.

The ice was beginning to spread. Drawing moisture from the air, glistening as it began to move outwards from the point it had impaled the hand. But not just over the hand, no.

The icy coating was starting to spread towards the strings themselves.

Make them hard an inflexible, and this bastard won't be able to toy with Kordelia like that!

@Rune_Alchemist@Click This

[Rune_Alchemist]

Location:
Village
@Pyromania99@crimson Paladin

---

The little girl nodded, though it seemed to be more of an automatic response than a conscious decision. Perhaps she’d live, perhaps not. Argus couldn’t stick around to find out, lest the beast outside complete what the other creatures had started. The pirate rushed out the door, laying eyes upon the beast. Winged, towering above all and one of its mangled claw tipped wings lashing out at the human lass.

His cutlass barely intercepted it in time as the red haired vampire would scoop the human up in her arms. The impact against his arm was powerful, pain coursing through his body as bones cracked from the impact, his blade cutting into the flesh of the beast yet it did not seem to care as it’d withdraw its talons, its long neck twisting and beak howling in a mournful, painful wail.

“Gah! Watch where you're touching!” Julene grumbled as she was scooped up. “Thank ye for the consideration, but I can handle myself.” She’d retort towards Akyasha, eyes glancing between Argus and the Cleric. “Friend of yours, is it?”

She didn’t get long to ask before the hulking monstrosity lunged forwards again, its beak lunging towards Julene, its maw open and uncanny human teeth poised to swallow the human whole. Julene growled, grabbing a bomb from her belt, action obvious in what she was going to do with little concern for her own safety, it seemed. One of its other claws whipped around, intent on trying to grab the Cleric.

The gorebats had fled quickly after the order was given, but with ten of them, finding food to fill all their bellies may take a bit longer than usual.

Forest of beasts

---

@Click This@VitaVitaAR

Kordelia’s claws met silver, the tinged blade. Armored as her body seemed to be, its silver sheen, tarnished and faded was only capable of doing very little to the berserk vampire lord. Still, it met heavy blow after heavy blow, Giselle’s arms straining from the force of each, ripples of pain causing her bones to crack with exertion. The red threat of her own ichor, in turn whipped out, the taught red strings being pulled taught once more, causing the vampire lord to cease its assault. The dancing ribbon would slice through one string, then another, and a third soon followed.

Aleksiyas ice, too, was starting to take effect. Not only was the ice spreading to the strings, it was spreading to the spectral hands fingers, too, slowing its movements down even further. The hand seemed mildly panicked, if it was capable of it, its digits attempting to move faster, a little more frantically as ice slowly crept up its appendages.

Their momentary victory however, was short lived.

A blood curdling, pain filled roar. Blood that had gathered around the area being drawn towards the beast called Kordelia as it’d back off away from Giselle. Immediately blood began coalescing around her, the latent blood and gore being drawn towards her as it started to coalesce around her body, shading her in a dark, blood soaked crimson. In the next instant, the force was expelled outward. Dozens upon dozens of razor sharp fragments of blood blasted out, effectively high speed deadly shrapnel launched themselves towards the two vampires. This would in turn, shred Giselle’s sword and shatter the ice that had built up on one of the hands, but it was enough to leave the frozen hand with a gaping hole in its center, as well as only three threads while the other had a four left.

Kordelia however, would immediately turn her attention back to Aleksiya, seemingly having deemed her the bigger threat now. The beasts tail morphed once more, forming into a long, chitinous tail tipped with a long, flat tailbone as it’d lash out, attempting to crush her immediately after the previous attack.

[Crimson Paladin]

Captain Argus Fellborn

This thing was tough- this was the first time since his resurrection that Argus had sustained any real injury. The first time he felt real, physical pain. At least he had some idea as to what his physical limitations were now.

The human woman was quite courageous. Not a thrall, by the look of it, but willing to work with vampires. Not that she had much of a choice, when the alternative was annihilation. Meanwhile, the red-haired vampire was proving to be a decent ally, looking out for the well-being of the human, for whatever her reasons- enthrallment, blood, or something else- were.

The monster also seemed to have a particular interest in the human woman. It made a second attempt to attack, lunging at her with seeming intent to devour her, while striking at the cleric with its other claw. Argus couldn't be sure if it somehow recognized that the vampires were poorer eating or, like many predators did, it was just going for the weakest of the group, but there was one thing that was very clear.

In this brief moment, his foe had the gall to ignore him.

There was only one suitable punishment for this affront. He must make this thing recognized firsthand that disregarding the Red Tide was more than just insulting, it was also quite dangerous. Argus gripped his cutlass with both hands to compensate for the injured right arm, and thrust it at the beast's neck, where the jugular would approximately be on a human. He'd then try to rip the sword against the beast's incoming momentum, trying to open the wound as much as possible before his blade was withdrawn.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

[Pyromania99]

The creature was trying to grab for the cleric? How crude. As it's hand came toward her, she would swing her weapon down on it's wrist, attempting to sever the muscle in some parts of it and make the claws inoperable. While she was sure she could get a good chop down on it, she wasn't sure how dense the creature's arm was. Unless she wanted to easily become some mangled mess, she couldn't leave the claw alone for long. Her sailor-dressed vampire friend seemed to have right idea, trying to rip the creature's throat out with his sword. "Julene, don't get yourself killed." The cleric said back toward the human, seeing the beak trying to devour her. "Especially not eaten." She would say after slicing her axe out of the wrist she dug into and spinning around, allowing the momentum to carry her axe to deliver a blow to the neck of the creature. From there, she spun once more on her feet, this time quickly raising her axe to once again deliver an blow to the creature's wrist.

[Click This]

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle was pleased by the success of their change in strategy, but it still wasn’t good enough. Fully aware that the vast majority of the beasts had been sent towards the village, she had her doubts on whether or not the rest of the vampire lords could pull off a successful defense. From what little she had seen of the small town, it was not well equipped for a basic siege, let alone a massed assault of creatures twisted by dark magic.

Yet even with attrition now in favor of herself and Aleksiya, they still had her match in Kordelia. The stronger vampire beating down on her sword made her wince in pain at each blow, even as she continued to cut her strings with her ribbon whip. Even as their puppeted opponent seemed to have exhausted her tricks to expend, she was caught off-guard by what little she seemed to have left.

Wincing at the deafening roar, she opted to mutually extend the distance between them even as she fanned out her ribbon whip just in time for the fragments of blood to shoot out at herself and Aleksiya. Her new weapon was immediately torn apart, but did the trick in mostly protecting her. Clicking her tongue in mild annoyance, she briefly checked over herself before carefully reforming the weapon, taking advantage of Kordelia’s seemingly fleeting attention before she began to work at the hand and its strings once more. Still resolved that removing its influence would be the best option, Giselle was determined to cut down the rest as she moved to slash out at the hand with the three remaining strings before going for the rest.

[VitaVitaAR]

It was never going to hit her directly, that much was certain.

She was able to move,still, even if it was clear her legs hadn't fully healed from her last impact yet.

The tail caught Aleksiya's arm.

The small girl's eyes widened, a sharp, hot sensation tearing through her shoulder as Kordelia's tail shredded muscle and shattered bone, tearing her left arm clean from her body.

It wasn't the first time she'd been hurt like this, but it was the first time that she'd felt like this since being revived.

She hated it.

Not to mention it ruined her dress...

Aleksiya clenched her teeth, bearing her fangs as she winced, a spray of blood erupting from the stump as the tail tore past her.

"Kordelia... I hope you can make this up to me," she hissed through gritted teeth, "I really did like this dress!"

Pouring her magical energy into the blood spewing from her left shoulder, the temperature around her lowered dramatically. Nearly instantly, the blood froze, crystallizing faster then it could emerge from the wound.

And trapping the transformed Lord's tail within it.

"This is for your own good, you know," she added, her voice still strained as her crimson eyes winced, "So you better help me find my arm when this is over!"

Her right arm snapped up, emanating white-and-blue light from its palm, swirling and growing as she condensed the moisture in the air, before letting loose a spear of ice aimed squarely at the undamaged hand. Thick, with a vertical blade, the aim was simple.

Cut it down the middle as the strings are severed.

@Click This@Rune_Alchemist

[Rune_Alchemist]

Location:
Village
@Pyromania99@crimson Paladin

---

The claw going for Akyasha met her axe, the claw being stopped mid swing as the force of the blow strained Akyasha’s arms, likely fracturing a few bones in her body from the sheer force as she’d follow suit, ripping her axe from its claw and spinning, aiming for the things neck.

“Not planning on it!” Julene replied with a shout. In tandem, Argus’ cutlass sliced into the beasts neck, a long gash being driven into its jugular, blood spraying from its body in a red, sanguine mess. Akyasha’s axe was not far behind, the momentum cutting a long, if shallow gash down the creatures neck just in time for the weapon to once again meet the creatures claw as it was moving to slam into her again.

This gave Julene a proper opening as its neck just barely missed going for her.

“You wanna eat something, fine!” She’d hiss, before its mouth closed and tossed one of the bombs into its neck.

The thing reeled back, seeming not too bothered as it’d stand to its full height - the light from the bomb could be seen first as the thing exploded outwards, chunks of flesh and blood liberally being flung from the explosion as the creature screeched, falling over onto its side…but not quite dead yet as it’s ragged breathing, trying to stand once more as its now mangled neck barely was able to hold itself up.

Forest of beasts

---

@Click This@VitaVitaAR

Frozen lance and bloody ribbon sliced through the air. Kodelia roared, the red threads of the spectral hands forcing her to move still, but for all their machinations, they themselves were not adept at defense or movement it seemed. All they could do, was use Kordelia as a meat shield, Giselle’s ribbon slicing into the bestial vampires hide as she was forced to block it - but she however, could not completely stop the frozen lance or the lashings.

Red threads were severed.

The hands shuddered, as Kordelia’s body froze, the last of the red fate-stealing threads severed.

And then she fell.

her heavy, bestial body fell to the ground.

All at once the forest fell still. Silent.

She wasn’t moving.

Suddenly, Giselle would hear the quiet thumping of the heart in her possession, and the dagger she had taken, felt hot.

Feed her…my child, feed us.

A voice, sanguine but so very comforting.

The spectral hands themselves, however, were not dead. With a twisting of their fingers and the two hands into what seemed to be a prayer, they would merely sink into the soft earth, disappearing into its depths before it could be taken out completely.

[Crimson Paladin]

Captain Argus Fellborn

"That's some fine work, lass," Argus complimented the human. It had been a while since he had the pleasure of watching the aftermath of a monster eating an explosive.

The pirate and priestess had managed to grievously wound the beast, but it was the human and her bomb that put it down. Well, almost put it down- despite the gruesome damage that the explosive had caused, the beast was still clinging to life, still breathing. It'd probably expire from its injuries given enough time, but who knows how long that would take?

Argus wasn't sure how the rest of the village had fared- either the other beasts were too occupied devouring the inhabitants to bother interfering with the fight, or that priestess' gorebats had done their job and drained them dry. Once this thing was dispatched, they would need to look over the village and see how many had died, and how many had survived.

"Still breathing, are ye? Let us fix that," he spoke as he approached the beast, sword in hand. With his good arm, he brought the blade down on the beast's spine. Argus had spent enough time around bones and skeletons of all types to surmise that the beast's flexible, avian neck would probably be composed of comparatively smaller, more numerous neck-bones that should be easier to slice through than a more mammalian monster.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99

[Pyromania99]

Akyasha had managed to parry it's slams to some extent, though her bones were once again a mess. Still, she had to fight. That said, Julene had thrown one of her bombs down the thing's gullet. Not long after, it exploded from the inside! Chunks of flesh blasted from it's body after it stood fully up and then quickly fell down to it's side again. That was a great chance! It's already butchered neck. "Dear sailor, shall we?" Akyasha asked Argus as they both made for the creature. Moving forward putting her force behind her axe swing and bringing it down on the creature's neck aiming for the spine before it could stand up. If they could deliver more damage to it, hopefully it would not be able to do anything scary. A good slice from her and the sailor would hopefully be able to do enough damage to the creature. And then, hopefully, the gorebats would show up and she could summon up a little help for all the beastmen.

[Click This]

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

And just like that, it was done. Between Akyasha and Giselle, they had finally severed the red threads of fate, releasing Kordelia from her puppeteer. The white-haired vampire would have thought there would have been a little bit more pomp and circumstance to the end of such an intense fight and such a momentous resolution, such as a heroic reunion, but… no. The beast princess’s transformed figure promptly and unceremoniously faceplanted into the ground, the hands disappeared, and all that reigned was silence.

The Farisian princess shared a look with her smaller counterpart before carefully approaching their erstwhile foe’s prone form. There was a worry in her mind that their fight had done more damage than she’d wanted, or Ichor forbid, whatever that possessed her had done more than simply snatch her body.

That was, until she heard the beating of the heart that she still possessed from the cathedral, and the warmth of the dagger that she had strapped to her thigh.

The voice that entered her mind told her what she needed to do.

With an almost wry smile on her face, dismissing her ribbon, she approached the fallen vampire, producing the beating heart in one hand, and the sacred dagger in the other as she knelt in front of her. She raised the dagger.

“Pardon me,” she murmured, before plunging the dagger into the chest of the transformed vampire. With another motion, she shoved the heart into Kordelia, before slowly stepping back.

[Rune_Alchemist]

Location:
Village
@Pyromania99@crimson Paladin

---

“Hmph, thanks stranger. I try.” Julene gruffly replied. Still, there was nothing else she could do here all things considered. She’d need another bomb or two to take that thing out, and she lacked the strength to cut its neck significantly…so she’d let the two strangers handle it…ah, she was tired, wasn’t she?

And deal with it they would. The beast barely managed to defend itself, only managing a weak, gurgled growl and barely was able to lift its claws in a lame attempt to strike as blade and axe crushed its neck, severing the last of its life from its twisted form.

It ceased its moving.

“...Looks like the other beasts retreated too…” Julene wobbled a bit on her feet before catching herself. “Urf, I feel worse than I did after I accidentally ate some poisonous mushrooms out near that old observatory…” Julene grumbled, before blinking. “...Ah! Giles! We need to check on everyone else!”

“That…won’t be necessary Julene.” Gile’s voice, soon followed by what seemed to be a handful of villagers. No more than fifty men, children, and women together. “I’m here. We’re…here.” The defacto leader shook his head. “All that’s left of us, anyways.”

A flock of fattened bloodbats soon returned to Akyasha, chittering happily.

“Those odd bats are to thank. They took care of most of the beasts attacking us, but…well…”

Forest of beasts

---

@Click This@VitaVitaAR

The reaction was immediate.

A pained wail as the unconscious body of the vampire lord began thrashing, convulsing as the beating heart was shoved into her body. Flesh contorted, bulging and then decaying in a horrible display of grotesque growth and decay. It rolled over onto its back, only for its limbs and bones to twist and break at odd angles before the cut made on its body would split open. Red threads of muscle and sinew pouring from the wound, the heart held up as they wound and twisted around it, encapsulating the heart and forming a vaguely human shape. Flesh and bone was taken from the bestial form and soon -

“Gweeeeeh-!” A familiar voice broke the squelching and macabre sounds of flesh and bone binding together as it too, would take a more and more familiar shape. Blond hair, crimson colored eyes. A short woman of somewhat petite stature. “Urgh-cough-ack-urf- What the fuck that hurts-”

She’d promptly fall over, sliding off the quickly decaying bestial creature she had effectively just been birthed from.

“...urgh…of course the first thing I see…after waking up…is Giselle…and the dumb kid….urgh ow, what the fuck did you dumbasses put in my chest it hurts…”

She didn’t make a comment about currently being completely without clothing and there was now a large scar running down her chest. She also seemed fairly oblivious to the situation.

[VitaVitaAR]

Had Aleksiya been in a better position to act, perhaps she would have advised Giselle not to use the whole heart, at least until she was sure it was necessary. But given this was the first pain she'd felt since reviving, it was rather difficult to even begin to move.

As Kordelia's body began its grotesque return to normalcy, the bloody ice incasing the tail shattered, scattering to the ground below. With some remaining on the wound, at the very least the pain was dulled.

Kordelia had returned. In her entirely nude glory, for the moment, but nonetheless she had returned.

"How unbecoming, Kordelia," Aleksiya began as she approached the newly-returned lord, "Leveling insults at your saviors while sitting about in the nude? My my, are you not a fellow lord? Are you not a 'Princess of Beasts'?"

In spite of the throbbing sensation in what remained of the small vampire's left arm, she let a smirk cross her lips.

"Or perhaps not a 'princess' at all~ Just a beast~"

Of course, it wasn't as if this was all she felt at the sight of Kordelia's restoration. The return of her true form, from that beast controlled by those ghastly strings.

To see her again, back to normal... it certainly wasn't a bad thing.

However, there were other matters to attend to.

"Now, given this is your fault," Aleksiya continued, stepping closer to the other lord without pause as she gestured to her left shoulder, "You are going to find my arm and help me reattach it, and you are going to do it now. Or I really will refer to you as nothing more than a beast."

@Click This@Rune_Alchemist

[Click This]

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Perhaps Giselle had overdone it slightly. After getting beaten up by Paladins and then waking up in a degenerate post-apocalyptic world, she had an itch for doing something suitably grand, like shoving the whole bloody heart into Kordelia. Even if her only witness to the act had been just Aleksiya.

Besides, she was getting tired of carrying around a large serpent heart all the time.

She watched silently as the beast princess’s twisted body began seizing on the ground, before her finally began to shed her beastly form to reveal the more familiar form of the small ‘princess.’ Naked, of course. The white-haired princess raised an eyebrow as she ran her eyes across her form, but waited patiently for the vampire lord to stop her pained noises before saying anything.
“Well well, you’re finally back to your senses, Kordelia. Much has changed since your fall,” she greeted, deciding not to needle her as much as Aleksiya. Though, she did so a little bit anyway.

“The heart of a certain serpent,” she answered. “Perhaps it wasn’t completely necessarily, but I was still doing you a favor, and I didn’t feel like carrying it for much longer. If you don’t like it I can take most of it out again later. It should be fine. Probably.”

[Crimson Paladin]

Captain Argus Fellborn

"Aye, without your summons, lass, these people would have fared far worse," Argus complimented the vampire nun. "As for myself, I am Argus, a sailor driven landward by the horrors in and under the seas." He wasn't sure if the woman's nature as a vampire was known, so he did not say anything that would reveal either her or him to be one. If she was leading these people to believe that she was simply a warrior-cleric of considerable power, he would not want to break the façade. Vampire matters were best left discussed away from the prying ears of humans.

Argus put his sword away he looked over the remaining villagers. It was fortunate that the nun was here to summon those gorebats, because killing all of those beasts before they could kill more people would have been a challenge for two vampires and a human. However, as much as he wanted to call this a victory, their job wasn't done yet. Those beasts were still out there, and they couldn't afford to let the monsters chip away at what remained of the population.

"These people may not be safe here," Argus noted to the nun. "Those beasts could come back to finish the job." The pirate couldn't offer any suggestions, though. Having just reawakened without an astrolabe, compass, map, or sextant, he had no knowledge of his current location nor knowledge of any potential safe haven.

@Pyromania99

[Pyromania99]

The beast was beaten at last. The nun likely messed up her bones again which meant that she had to let herself regenerate once more. It was frustrating, but what can one do but go with the flow of things? It was then that Julene stumbled, complaining about feeling worse than ingesting poison. The vampire's eyes narrowed at this. Now why would she feel this way? That was... odd. Perhaps... That was when the girl mentioned the other villagers and wanted to check on them. Only to be interrupted by that Giles man Julene had mentioned and all of her Gorebats!

"Ahhh, my pretties." Akyasha greeted the Gorebats as they returned from their feast, "Good work out there." She said, seeing all the fat bats fluttering about. After letting a few land on her, she turned to look at the humans that arrived with them. So this is how many survived? She wasn't sure how many of them there were in the first place. After all, she went to go find Julene when she first got here. Then the sailor fellow, a fellow vampire as well, mentioned her summons were what saved all these people. "Now, now. These little guys just got a little hungry is all. Also, pleasure to meet you and glad to have your assistance here, Argus. My name is Akyasha, well, further greetings can wait a small bit, I suppose. I agree. We might want to move. Specifically, away from that thing. Not a thing for pleasant conversation." The nun said, pointing at the giant monster that she, Argus and Julene had just ended.

The vampire looked at Julene and moved a little closer. "You feel worse than eating poison mushrooms? Is it fatigue or did you get poisoned by something?" The vampire asked, seeming a serious question from the woman.

[Rune_Alchemist]

Location:
Village
@Pyromania99@crimson Paladin

---

“Just tired. Don’t fuss over me, fake nun.” Julene rebuffed, clearly winded as she’d breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing Giles and the rest of the people here. “...Giles. No need to say it. What are we going to do?”

“Well, I don’t know Juelene. There’s about forty of us left now. Down from a good hundred or so. We could stay here, but…I don’t fancy our chances any more.” Julene frowned, sheathing her blade and folding her arms across her chest. “Those of us who are left are…well, terrified. Some wouldn’t come out of the tunnels.”

“...what about that large city in the distance?”

“Julene that cursed place is not for men. The dead swarm over that place and the beasts roam freely there.”

“Well, what are we going to do here! We won’t be able to survive another attack like that! We don’t have the manpower or resources any more!”

“Julene-”

“Curses Giles, if you’d have just got off your ass and actually took some initiative earlier this might could’ve been avoided!”

“Julene please-”

“Shut up you coward!” Julene shouted. “....I’m going for a walk.” She would start to leave, brusquely brushing past Akyasha and Argus both, heading for what was likely her home or somewhere nearby.

“...well…she’s right you know.” Giles watched her leave with a shake of his head. “You two…you and your companions are exceptionally talented at dealing with beasts. I don’t suppose you have some advice or judgment to offer here.”

Forest of beasts

---

@Click This@VitaVitaAR

“Shuddap.” Kordelia hissed in reply, slowly managing to struggle to her feet at Aleksiya’s jests. “You’ve…always been jealous of my body…urgh…” The vampire lord shook her head, wincing in still seeming pain as she’d glance over to Giselle. “I have no idea what you’re talking about but whatever it is feels…wrong…ugh…”

The vampire lord huffed at Aleksiya’s order, blood being drawn from the surrounding area towards her, covering her body as it would soon shape itself into a material similar to that of cloth. Similarly, two furry bat wings spread from just above her butt, a long sinuous tail also soon forming behind her as she’d dress herself in her old, usual fashion.

“Hmph, but fine. I guess I owe you some small token of appreciation for…waking me. What happened anyways? Last thing I remembered is getting filled full of silver arrows and then making a deal with some…woman in a purple dress I think?”

Kordelia would do as requested, looking about the battlefield and looking for Aleksiya’s arm. Considering the force and trajectory of it, it would have taken a bit longer had Kordelia not a few tricks up her sleeve as she began sniffing the air.

“I think its over here…”

[Click This]

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle gave her a glance at that and shrugged. “Well, Kordelia, if it keeps feeling wrong later on, talk to me and I’ll see if I can do something about it.” The Farisian princess allowed her fellow ‘princess’ a few minutes to collect herself and cover her body… although that wasn’t to say Giselle didn’t enjoy the show. In fact, if Kordelia kept being cluelessly unclothed, then Giselle wouldn’t have argued about her choice of clothing.

She raised her hand to forestall any unnecessary questions, as much as she wanted to comfy reminiscing with the fellow vampire lord. “Catching up… can wait for a little later. The long and short of it—civilization as we know it has collapsed. Before you came to your senses, you sent your cute beasties to destroy what may have been the realm’s last human settlements.” Giselle paused and looked her in the eye. “So the moment we find Aleksiya’s… arm, we’re making haste to the village. I hope you can still fight.”

Of course, it did take a little bit to find Aleksiya’s arm, so Giselle decided to fill her in on some more details as well. “Well, the paladins won, for all the good it did them. Their world collapsed, as did ours. The last I remembered before awakening to a dead realm was my last stand at the mountain palace,” she reminisced. “That must have been quite a while after you died. I made them bleed for every inch they took of my land. We blew the bridges, collapsed the mountain passes. Hundreds of miles of trenches, pre-sighted artillery… humans alongside us fighting for their livelihood. A beautiful, touching moment of the cooperation that I’d always looked to build, if it only wasn’t so futile in the end,” she sighed. “In the end I brought the entire palace down on top. I’m not sure if I killed any of them doing it.”

Giselle shrugged. “Then I found myself in this mess of a world together with some of the other Lords. Ichor bids us to find the rest and bring back the Queen. Maybe then there will be some hope for this dead world.”