The trees of Kraude flitted by, and Henry could only watch them. The cart he was trapped in ran over a rock, and his head hit the metal cage's ceiling. He could have probably melted the bars, or frozen them and shattered them, maybe slipping through them with his mostly incorporeal form, but he didn't. He didn't, for he knew that these bars weren't meant to hold him, they were just a symbol of power held by his captors.
Sheila was in a similar position, and she too could have broken the bars and attempted escape. In addition, their equipment was taken from them, and they didn't know where to get it back. Henry still had most of his supplies hidden away in [Storage].
Henry watched the flowing rising and settling figures of the soldiers that held him. He was in between what would be the center of the formation and the rightmost side. Hours flew by while Heny could only watch his captors, unable to act.
Night struck and the unfazed soldiers began to set up camp. Everyone got to work on their own parts: some made fires, some prepared the food, and others kept a close watch on Henry and Sheila.
The soldiers, with the command of their superior officer, built a large tent around the two captives. Eventually, the lizardman that had beaten them and Eodum so easily entered the tent. They then pulled up a chair to sit down in, along with some paper and a clipboard-like piece of wood, so they could write on it easily.
The lizardman looked up from the papers with a glare and asked, "Okay, I don't want to be here, so let's just get this over with. First off, why were you here?"
"We were just some adventurers passing through town." Sheila responded without hesitance.
"Alright," The lizardman said while jotting that down, "Why was the town destroyed?"
This time, Henry answered, "Some necromancer folks were wreaking havoc. We managed to defeat them, but they had already annihilated the town."
Writing it down, the lizardman proceeded the interrogation, "Makes sense. Now, what was that rat-thing that you were traveling with?"
This time, both Sheila and Henry took a moment before answering. Eodum was… Something. The rat was something else. The way it evolved into new species after new species was strange. Extremely strange. When a new species is created, more species are created to be possible routes for the evolving creature. However, this meant that Eodum found ways to systematically become something the system couldn't anticipate without fail.
On the spot, Henry answered with mock-confidence, "I have some taming skills; that was my pet. It's name is Eodum."
The lizardman looked surprised, "You. You tamed that. From what I can tell, it was stronger than both of you. And you, the weakest of that group, are saying that 'Eodum' was under your control. I don't believe it." Turning around, the lizardman commanded one of his subordinates, "You there! Get me two [Identify] tickest!"
The strange eyeless, noseless, pink blob soldier hurriedly waddled away to get the ticket, looking kind of like a bubble gum bubble being blown away in the wind.
… Shit.
Henry wasn't sure if spirits could sweat, being only a skull, energy, and magic, but if they could, he would be. He would be sweating up a storm. No, a tsunami. While dreading his actions, the blob person came back with two tickets.
The tickets were strips of paper with blue ink and around the edges. In a nice contrasting trimming, gold was laced across the blue. In the center of the ticket was a complicated magical circle made up of different shades of gray and black ink.
The tickets began to hum, and the magic circle turned a deep blue—almost indigo—as the ticket was being brought closer to Henry and Sheila. Eventually, once only half a foot away, the tickets disassembled into thinner strips of glowing blue energy.
The energy entered Henry and Sheila, and after a moment, they left them. The strips of energy reformed in plain view of everyone as the glowing panels that could be seen inside of one's mind. Both panels displayed all the information of the ones they belonged to, or at least, they were supposed to. Something was wrong, wrong with Henry's panel. It was glitched.
The sight of the glitched panel brought a chill down the spines of everyone in the room. Like a tv that lost signal, parts of it fizzled out in glitching blocks of flashing black and white. Colors on it changed at random along with the numbers for every stat there. A high-pitched whining noise emitted from the should've been silent status.
A headache creeped on the edge of awareness of those who were near it. Except, of course, for the people staring directly at it. Henry used his flames to prevent Sheila from properly seeing it. He wanted to protect his friend from an inevitable demise at the hands of his status.
The lizardman and the people inside who were watching were frozen. Completely and utterly still. Unmoving. Unblinking. Unthinking.
A trickle of blood leaked from their noses—if they had them. Then, more blood and liquified brain goop ran from their mouths and ears. Next, out from their eyes came a little more organ and bodily fluid smoothie.
From trembling legs, they fell to their knees, and then proceeded to faceplant into the rough dirt and golden grass below. The bodies twitched as more and more blood, brain, and other parts of them poured out, draining into a disgusting puddle of liquid creatures.
It was now mostly silent, all except for the crackle of flames, whine of the status, and the creaking of metal… Wait, why was there the creaking of metal.
Henry shifted his attention to Sheila's cell, seeing that cage had rusted and started to fall apart. A gasp sounded and Henry turned again to see Sheila's shocked expression, all while also being able to see Henry's status.