"You know Panila, I heard you recently received some new guards from that science thing. How... Nice of them." Biz said with a light chuckle, cutting into her food as she stared at the Warden sitting across from her.
"They wanted to get in my good books... Like what you're doing now. Except they didn't have their guards hold a gun to my head." Panila motioned to the well dressed man in a fox mask holding a fleshy violet coloured pistol to the back of her head. It didn't really phase her, since this was a natural situation most of Biz's guest had come to expect.
Yet what did rub Panila the wrong way was the fact that she had been served an undercooked fish. But as with all business, she held her stone cold demeanour. "If I may ask, why have you invited me to this... Well, I would be lying if I called it lunch."
Biz gave a playful laugh and began typing something down on her robotic arm, displaying a holographic projection of a mangled deceased woman. "I wanted to ask you about her."
"And that is?"
"You don't recognise her? Heh, Fox really did a number on her. She was one of my operatives... Until I found out she had been secretly working under you. Your whole guard system is quite archaic, perhaps you should invest in a more experienced work force." The jackal headed woman grinned before taking a bite out of her fish.
Panila let out a cold sigh, taking a bite of her equally cold fish before getting a devilish idea. She pointed her fork at Biz with a condescending smile. "You know, Biz, you are right. I never thought of it before."
The jackal was starting to have concerns as she slowly sipped her wine, her eyes trained on the Warden at all times. The only thing that brought her comfort was Fox standing behind the ever fearsome being that ran the city. Yet even in the comfort of her own home, the few words out of Panila's mouth were somewhat frightening.
"What would it take for me to buy the corpse back from you?"
Biz was no stranger to strange dealings, mainly because she had learnt her trade secrets from the strangest person in the underbelly. But even she knew that if The Warden of The Damned herself was making a deal with you...
You take it.
"I want immunity for all of my little Biz-ness ventures. Past, present and future."
"Done." Panila said without a shred of hesitation. Biz held up her grin, yet her eyes were filled with a sense of dread. If the warden would easily agree to such a thing with such ease, it meant that she had just created a bigger problem for herself in the future.
Yet that didn't matter right now, and with an uncomfortably long dinner, Panila left with the body in chains like it was a piece of luggage.
As Biz ordered her servants to clean up her dinner, Fox questioned her about why she'd just sell his former friend's body so easily. Biz could only explain away that it was a tactical advantage for her future. If it meant she'd inherit Desires Domain, she'd do practically anything to get her way.
But it didn't sit well with Fox, and he later came to understand just how dire the actions of Biz's deal would later come to affect him...
"And yet you keep running! Mollia, could you slow down?" Vinea groaned as he tried to run after Nvr. The Bio weapon was dashing through the forest like a blood thirsty animal tracking the scent of injured prey.
Avis, who was being carried over her shoulder and acting as her personal tracker, pointed left. In a sharp turn and digging her claws into a tree just to help her keep her momentum, Nvr lunged forward, taking every direction Avis said yet completely ignoring the tired Fey King trying his best to keep up.
It had already been about twenty minutes or so since Grey and Mammy were taken, yet with Nvr's nigh infinite stamina and heightened senses, she was blitzing directly towards what looked like a ruined castle in the distance.
Vinea, having already very little stamina, used the last ounce of his energy to grapple himself to Nvr and wrapped himself in vines to protect himself as he was dragged behind her.
"And that's what I'm hunting. I've cornered it here." Pit grinned as he held the hilt of his sword, staring up towards the dilapidated ruins of a gigantic castle that stood before him and Grimm. The two had been talking during their expedition into the night and had come to an agreement.
If Grimm helped out with hunting the Beast, she'd gain half the rewards. Even though Grimm had no actual need to help slay the beast, it was clearly some sort of anomaly in this world. "Better to take care of something like this than let the Guppy claim all the credit." She thought to herself as they crossed the crumbling stone bridge.
Inside the castle didn't look any better than the outside. Filled with the debris of the people that once resided their, Grimm felt a ghostly presence in all corners of the structure. And as the moon shined down through the few holes in the ceiling, they heard a chilling laughter fill the halls as they explored.
Pit gave a light chuckle upon seeing the woman he assumed was human act so scared around ghostly laughter, since he was so accustomed to it with his ever present partner, Whip. And seeing as he felt so confident about fighting the beast, he decided to play a joke on Grimm.
As the Dullahan checked each room by kicking open the door and screaming for the ghosts to reveal themselves, the last door she kicked burst into ghostly flames as Whip jumped out with a ghoulish scream.
"Fire!" She screamed, tumbling backwards in fright. It wasn't so much the ghosts that seemed to scare her, but more the fact that the place was a massive fire hazard in her eyes. Despite the fact that the building was nowhere near a flame source or even had one for that matter, the headless horsewoman had an irrational fear of being burned.
In her tumble, she literally lost her head as it rolled straight towards the flames. Both Whip and Pit were suddenly on guard yet almost immediately laughed at the sight of Grimm trying to blow the flames away from her head as it rolled ever closer to the door.
After Grimm had managed to get her head back on, she decided to explain her head coming off as a curse she was inflicted with as a child. A common excuse when you're a headless woman in a fantasy world.
Pit was a bit sceptical, yet he came around to believing her as she had come up with a whole backstory on her family being witch hunters. Grimm was used to having to come up with backstories on the spot, just as her training had taught her.
In turn, Pit went on ahead and introduced Whip as his partner in Monster Hunting. It was a little bit odd to Grimm that people would just so easily reveal stuff, but she remembered that this world was literally easy. A world where strife was felt very little amongst humans and those deemed their allies.
With a bit more exploring, they reached the upper floors of the castle and silently approached a set of broken twin wooden doors that lead into a brightly decorated throne room that looked like it was in the middle of a ballroom party frozen in time.
A bizarre sight for sure, yet the three had seen many strange things in their individual times. But as they walked around the room, another chilling laugh was heard. "Hey, Whip, cut it out." Pit asked as he held up the lantern the spirit resided in.
"But I didn't do it this time..."
As if on cue, Pit used his Ego magic to mask their presence and quickly pulled Grimm behind one of two throne chairs. Loud foot steps began shaking the ground as something entered the room. Whatever it was, it began to sniff around, slowly creeping over to the throne the three were hiding behind.
But as a painting in the hallway outside fell to the floor, the beast was distracted long enough for Pit to slowly reach for his katana before jumping out and quickly slicing the beast in the back. It let out a horrid screech of pain as its silver fur seemed to melt and fester into a more monstrous shape.
The beast that Pit had originally thought to be a werewolf was in actuality a mimic. The beast's form became more fleshy yet resembled a bipedal wolf as it began to claw at Pit. With an effortless dodge at the reckless attack, he brought fourth his lantern.
"Will of the Wisp!"
The lantern suddenly burst into spectral blue flames that consumed the dreaded beast. In a sudden jerking motion, it was pulled apart from the inside out by something seemingly crawling around its insides.
Grimm, not wanting the story to not involve her, summoned a ghostly green scythe and leapt fourth, slicing open its chest to reveal Whip was pulling apart its insides like weeding out grass between stones.
It wasn't long before they had already beaten the dreaded beast was on its last legs before it had even attacked. Grimm began charging her final attack, mainly wanting to take credit for slaying the beast in the stories that would surely be written about this occasion.
The room began filling up with green lightning that crackled all around the room, and as Whip and Pit leapt backwards to let Grimm use her attack, she jumped forward and sliced the area in two. The beast was all but gone in a single strike...
"Way to go, headless." Pit smirked, giving a thumbs up to Grimm as she stood just outside the doorway. But she hesitated to turn around, muttering under her breath;
"I... Never hit it. My attack missed."
Whip quickly shoved Pit back as the corpse of the beastly mimic fell from the ceiling. It looked like it was torn to shreds in an instant. "T-That can't be... I-I sensed this was the beast!" Pit yelled as more green lightning began to cackle around and surround the room.
Grimm felt something swirl in her chest. This was something that wasn't supposed to be here. Something that shouldn't even be alive. A creature that was at the top of unlife. An undead that rivalled any she had met before.
As she turned back, she saw the green lightning fizzle out as both Whip and Pit had seemingly vanished into thin air. But she knew both were still in the castle somewhere, and with her job now at risk since she isn't meant to let native world beings get involved in her hunting, she was forced to try and find them.
Yet it was clear that this story wasn't over.