Flora put on her cloak, then came over to my cell.
"{Heat wave}!"
The bars melted on my cage door, allowing me to walk out.
"I thought magic didn't work on theses cages?"
I curtly asked.
"Only on the inside, but if they wish to open the cell or incapacitate a prisoner, they'd need to be able to use magic outside of the cell. A major design flaw in my opinion."
I nodded as I left my cell.
"What about us?"
The man from before asked.
Flora regarded them with her shit eating grin.
"Depends, what can y'all give me?"
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"That's a pretty self-explaining statement."
Flora said while shrugging.
"Don't you work for the government?! Protecting the citizens is your job!"
One of the women decided to try and shame Flora, too bad shame only works on people with a conscience.
"I don't get paid enough to care about you."
I walked past Flora, and headed for the exit hole made by Basha.
"Release them Flora."
"What?! You can't be serio..."
I don't know how I looked to her, but she didn't continue to argue her point.
"I... I'll get right on that, but you better pay me back! I used my contingency on the giant, and that shit was expensive."
I barely heard her as I walked outside.
It was pandemonium; witches, beasts, and slaves running to avoid becoming squashed like those who moved too slowly.
Ironically reminiscent of the village of Holzdorf.
I activated 'Combat Camouflage' and ran off towards my goal.
I knew exactly where to go because of 'Perfect Recall'.
Most everyone assumes that memory only involves what you've seen, heard, and smelt; but it doesn't.
Equilibrium, temperature, pressure, and much more is remembered even while you are asleep and stored in the back of your head to be ignored, but due to my ability I remember it all.
In other words, I can't get lost.
Every turn, step, and stop I repeat in reverse until I'm standing in front of Minthe's place.
I walk in and see her at that table messing around with some more samples she had taken from me.
Bors was staring at me, or to be more precise, at the place I'm standing while invisible.
He doesn't growl however, just looks over at Minthe.
The message is clear, kill her.
"{Ice spear}!"
An ice spear shot towards her, she spun around, and blocked it with a swirling column of air.
Her two acolytes came out of hiding, ready to attack.
"Did you really think you could sneak up on me? I sensed the mana from you the instant you came within five hundred feet of me! Though I will say that I'm surprised that you escaped from the cell, and I assume all of the commotion outside is your doing as well, right?"
I just growled at her.
"Well, not that it matters. Time to go to sleep."
All three witches started to glow...
"{Flare}!"
All three witches recoiled in temporary blindness.
I used this time to reach Bors' cage, and rip it open.
"{Heat wave}!"
A stream of heat started melting his binds.
I had just finished most of them, when I got flung to the side by a blast of air.
The witch who did it was one of the acolytes.
A piece of broken glass stuck out of her shoulder.
She must have fallen into a mirror when I set off that flare spell.
She stalked her way towards me.
"You fucking piece of shit! I'm going to rip your internal dick out, and make you ea... Aaaaaah!"
Bors broke free of his remaining bonds, pounced on her, and used his huge teeth to savage her.
Once he was finished, he looked up at the other acolyte. She too had tortured him.
She saw the blood from her sister drip off his fangs, his eyes burned with rage.
At this time Minthe got her wits back, just in time for her to see the acolyte gauge the distance to the door.
"Don't you dare! You aren't leaving me to fight these two alo..."
"Fuck this shit!"
She took off running, and Bors followed after. Crashing through the wall with the corpse of her sister witch in his hand.
"{Forced slumber}!"
Minthe hit me with the same spell they've kept hitting me with, but this time I was ready for it.
I stabbed my claws into my palms.
"{Shocking fingers}!"
The pain of the electric shock kept me wide awake.
"You're still awake?! That's..."
"{Boulder}{fire ball}{wind blade}!"
All of my spells hit a stone shield she placed before herself.
But by the time she made it disappear, I was across the room gut punching her.
She crumpled to the floor.
She raised her hand to attack me, but I grasped it and rent it the wrong way.
Her bone protruded nicely out of her arm.
"Aaa... Umph!"
Before she could even finish screaming, I kicked her in the chest - breaking at least four of her ribs.
Jurea taught me to keep her talking to avoid her using magic, but I guess putting her in this much pain works too.
"You like to hurt kids, huh?"
She was trying to crawl away with her one good arm.
I stomped on her leg, reached down, yanked her up, and bit into her neck.
Showering myself in her blood.
I threw her back down, she is half way dead already.
Her eyes were starting to glaze over.
No! She hasn't paid enough!
"{Healing palms}!"
Her bones and cuts mended themselves, color returned to her cheeks, and that's when I ended the healing and started punching her.
I would stop biting, punching, kicking, and clawing at her momentarily to heal her and start back up again.
This went on for a while.
"H... he... hel... hel... help... me!"
She was meekly grasping at the air behind me.
I stopped thrashing her to see who she was talking to.
It's Maire, the high priestess, and the one in charge of this hellhole!
She looked terrified of me.
"Ma... Mai... help me!"
I could read her emotions, she's going to abandon her.
Not before kill her!
I activated 'Dash' and was swiping down on her in a flash.
My claws scraped across her face, but she disappeared before I could finish the job.
A blast of air pushed me backwards.
That warning is new, but I can't worry about it right now.
I got back up, and went over to Minthe.
Tears were streaming down her face, and smell of piss filled the air.
She looked pathetic, almost too pathetic to kill.
All of my righteous anger left me, and I started to question wether I should kill her, but then I remembered the boy and all of the other children she'd hurt in the future.
A few years back on one of those late night hunting shows, one of the hunters was talking the camera about what his - in his words - grandpappy tol im wen e wos uh youngin.
Always shoot to kill, it's way crueler to leave an animal injured.
And that's exactly what someone did to her.
They hurt her bad, and now she hurts others, and they in turn hurt others.
It's a vicious fucking cycle that hurts innocent kids.
I bent down over her.
"I'm sorry."
Her one eye that wasn't swollen widened in surprise, right before I snapped her neck.
I collected her mana heart, it's a special one just like the slagan I fought back then.
I contemplated absorbing it right now, but I decided against it.
I heard that the commotion outside had died down, and so I went outside.
I saw that the giant was down on the ground, and she looked like she was drowning?
I also saw that the witches were either dead or captured, and the majority of the curse beasts were gone.
Bors was on the ground with serious wounds, but they were closing up fast.
No one was even paying much attention to him.
I turned my attention to Fayza, she was kneeling in front of a witch asking her questions.
"If you want to spare her from that fate, tell me where your high priestess is."
She said, I obviously was coming in at the tail end of the interrogation.
"She's gone."
I said, continuing to walk up to them.
They all were staring at me like I'm the only monster here.
"She ran, before I could kill her too."
I stopped in front of her.
"Huh, you can talk?"
"No shit."
"And you're an asshole, though I'm not surprised, given your company."
She was looking over my shoulder when she said the last bit, I followed her gaze and saw Flora coming up from behind me.
"Bout time y'all showed up."
"Look here..."
Flora held up her finger.
"I'll get to you in a minute sandeater."
Flora went past her to Manny, who was tied up and kneeling.
Manny was glaring at her with a burning hatred.
"What? Came to gloa... gurkle!"
Flora slashed her throat open with a knife I didn't see she had.
Fayza looked down at her side.
Apparently Flora stole it from her when she passed by her.
"I told you that you were going to die, didn't I?"
Manny just stared at her, while she drowned in her own blood.
Until she fell over dead.
Flora cut open her stomach, reached up into her chest from there, and pulled out Manny's mana heart.
She wiped herself off on the now deceased Manny's clothes, stood up, and held out the knife to Fayza.
"Here you go, thanks for letting me borrow it."
Fayza just stared at her.
"What? Did I miss some blood on my face?"
"No, it's just that you... killed her."
"So? She is - I should say was now - a monster, and I did tell her I was going to kill her."
Fayza took back her knife.
"Yes, but most adventurers not from here hesitate to kill a witch, they look too much like a regular human."
What she's trying to get at is that she's never seen someone as heartless as Flora before.
"Look, can we skip the whole being impressed at my genius, and get down to business."
"What business?"
"You owe me."
"We saved you!"
"No, I used you to escape, there's a difference, and in doing so I saved dozens of your citizenry - I told them to stay in building over there. Also, I led you to a coven that's been alluding you, and wiping out what I assume to be dozens of villages - going by the sheer number of captives they had. And I don't care about getting the credit at your expense, I just want to be paid."
Fayza shook her head in annoyance.
"Fine, what do you want?"
"First things first we need two horses, ours did not make the full trip."
"We can spare some horses, Arnulf, get two horses ready for them."
A lean man went and got two horses, and gave the reins to Lyra.
"There you..."
"Fayza what are we going to do about the curse beasts? Most escaped into the surrounding wood, including that massive one after you attacked the giant."
La douche decided to interrupt.
Huh, Bors is gone, I didn't even notice him get up and go.
Fayza rolled her eyes before turning to face la douche.
"Leave them be."
"What?! But they're monsters..."
"Exactly, monsters who are masterless, well over a hundred strong, and you want to hunt them in a forest they know better than us, while most of our forces are injured or at the very least tired."
"Well, I..."
"Just shut up, and round up all of the prisoners and witches we missed. Make sure the witches get the anti-magical manacles put on properly, I don't want another Black Grove situation. We don't have enough prison wagon space for all of them, so put the humans in the wagons, and we'll drag the rest of them behind us.
If there are reports that those beasts are attacking villages, we'll return in force then."
She turned back to Flora to finish their conversation, when a teenage witch stood up.
"Wait! I want to serve you!"
All of her fellow witches gave her death glares, as Fayza waved her over.
"You fucking warlock!"
"The Goddess will see you suffer for all eternity for this!"
"Pig-fucker!"
"Warlock!"
Insult after insult was flung at her as she made her way to Fayza.
She prostrated herself before Fayza.
"Please, let me serve you!"
Her face was firmly planted in the muck.
"You want to betray your own sisterhood?"
"Yes! I can be of use to you."
"You expect me to believe that, really?"
The witch swallowed hard.
"Please, we're not stupid, we know what happens to the witches who go to Hexenburg. The trials are a sham! Only death, or a fate worse than that await us.
I don't want to die!"
Fayza knelt down, and lifted her face to hers.
"Okay."
A smile bloomed on the witch's face.
"Thank..."
"What can you give me?"
Her smile wilted.
"What?"
"You said you could be of use to me, well? What information do you have? Are you super powerful? Or literally anything else?"
"I'm... I'm just an initiate, I'm not even an acolyte!"
"As I thought."
Fayza's eyes went cold again.
She raised her dagger.
The teen was sobbing.
"Please... please... please... I don't want to die!"
Right before the dagger came down, someone interrupted Fayza yet again.
"I'll take the fräulein."
A big man with a full beard and curly mustache rode towards them on his horse.
"Aksel, that is not necessary."
"Yes, it is. I expect this from you because you're from the godless south, but as for the rest of you,"
She rolled her eyes again as he looked over the men.
"I'm disappointed. As monsters, witches are soulless, so it is our duty as the force of the gods to show them the righteous path! So, if one of these lost souls decides to abandon their false goddess, we should welcome her with open arms!"
The other hunters groaned, showing this was a common occurrence with him.
The witch ran up to him.
"Thank you, sir!"
She knelt in front of his horse.
"Do you swear to serve Kriegskönig?"
He asked her.
"Um... yes... I... uh... swear to serve him!"
"Good. Now, you'll have to be bound on the trip to Hexenburg, but I swear on Kriegskönig that you will be safe.
Also, we'll find you something that's appropriate for a woman to wear.
You might not be human, but that doesn't mean you have to degrade yourself by dressing like a harlot."
"Of... course... sir. Thank you!"
Patty, who's this Craigskoonic they're talking about?
A decent chunk of my energy left me.
Before Fayza could continue with Flora, someone else asked her something.
Flora shook her head in annoyance, and came over to me.
"Take the the others and the horses back to the wagon, then loop back to here to pick me up."
I just nodded as I left to get the others.
I wasn't going to fight her on this, I'd like to get away from this place as soon as possible.
_______________
Many hours later we got the wagon, picked up Flora, and were back on track to Fischkopfstadt.
The wagon was just how we left it, it was bolted so no animal could get inside.
Too bad the same didn't apply for Marey and Ted, animals desecrated their corpses by eating them.
I buried what was left by the side of the road.
They're in horse heaven now, unless that bitch Anaviotis gets involved.
I used my ogre transformation to right the wagon, Lyra hooked up the horses, and we were good.
After we got Flora I let out Jurea, and was letting her rest.
Her wounds were healed up at least.
"How did you know all of that?"
I asked Flora as we rode along.
"Huh?"
"Your plan, it required them to not only not kill us, but a whole bunch of other things you couldn't have known."
She shrugged.
"It was easy. They are in a cult, and not a good one."
"Is there ever a good cult?"
"Sure there is. Like those groups who just live by their own rules in the wilds, they don't hurt anybody.
But pyramid cults that rely solely on how highly you are ranked for safety only breed disaster.
It means each one of its members will betray the collective for power, and I just used that to my advantage.
I knew if I showed them my power that they'd go against their better judgement, and keep me alive to breed or use in a ritual.
To that end I've been spraying myself and all of you while y'all slept with a tincture that has a barely detectable scent so that the slave could easily track us.
Then, all I had to do was play them against each other and wait."
"That reminds me, just how many spells did you keep from me!"
"Oh, plenty."
"What?! Why?!"
"Why would I show you everything I know?"
"Because we're on the same side!"
"Eh, debatable."
"And the air shield or any of the many other spells would have been highly useful in our fight against the bear!"
"To be fair, the defensive spells I showed you I learned after that fight."
"How? I thought you said you needed those scrolls to learn magic!"
"No, I said it makes it easier to learn, but I'm a fucking genus! I can learn anything."
"Well, you got to show me the rest."
"No, I don't, and you won't make me. But, here."
She pulled an eye the size of a basketball out of her capacity gem, and passed it to me.
"What the fuck is... Oh, shit. It's the giant's..."
She nodded.
"Yup, I wasn't able to get much, but I did get a piece of the giant."
"Why would you even want a giant's eye?!"
"Many alchemical recipes call for parts of sentient beings. Through many in the field consider it taboo, you can still get a great price selling to those who are willing to push the boundaries. But I decided to give it to you, eat up."
When she said that it reminded me of when she made me absorb the spider heart, just to make money off me!
"I'm not eating this, just so you can rip parts of me off to sell!"
She rolled her eyes.
"Relax, it wouldn't work anyway."
"Yes, it would. I make webs all the time!"
"Exactly, you 'make' webs, your body parts are apart of you, so they'd disappear as soon as you turn back. If it wasn't like that, I'd be making bank on cupra horns. Remember you ate one, so you can turn into one."
Yeah, I do.
I can turn into a cupra, I just never do because it fucking sucks! Only good thing it got going for it is its climbing ability.
"Wait, how do you know this?"
"I asked Patty, why didn't you?"
"Well, because... Hey! The only reason you'd ask that is because you planned on doing it!"
"No, duh. It would've been a great payday, but you let me down!"
I looked down at the eye again.
"Then, why?"
"Why do you think? We got our asses handed to us.
If not for me, we'd all be dead.
You need to be able to protect me at a moment's notice!
So, buck up, and eat your eyeball."
I did just that.
Eyes have the same texture as a grape, just wetter.
I have only really eaten monsters with super powers, the others were just regular animals.
I wonder if I'll get the giant's under-armor?
Also, if one were to slowly stab into it, they'd kill the giant no problem. I wouldn't tell anyone that, however, unless you're a raging idiot.> But will I be able to use it? Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I know they deserve it, but it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I know what will happen to them, some of them are just kids as well. How? "Violence, unprecedented violence." I said aloud. Flora looked at me weirdly. "Hehehehe! hahahahahahaha!" I couldn't help it, I burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter. Then, the rest of them were looking at me weirdly, and I just laughed harder.