Stratothrax
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Chapter 162
🕑 Added 2022-02-25 09:00:00 +0000 UTC◈ Chapter 162:
Baera stepped out onto the streets, her metal heeled boots clicking against the white flagstones.
She wondered for a moment if it really was wise to leave Jilli with Bane. The hellhound had been… problematic. While it was highly useful to have someone with her who wasn't related to the inquisition, and who was also highly motivated to hunt their quarry, that didn't stop her from wondering if the man had quite mentally survived being subsumed by the hellhound.
There was an almost feral air to him at times, as though he was barely restraining himself from ripping out the throats of those around him, barely holding back an urge to kill like a crazed wild animal.
That wasn't how she recalled the man, no, this seemed more like something of the hellhound, what was in effect a demon.
Concerning.
Still, Jilli should be able to keep him from getting into trouble, and it was a responsibility the girl needed, she had spent too long being coddled after her traumatic experience in the dungeon, she needed a kick up the rear.
She hummed as she traversed the city, her long legs eating up the ground before her. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. The seedy back streets near her apartment. That was why she had chosen this locale as a base originally, the place was a nexus point for all kinds of gangs and all types of crime, available victims just wealthy enough to be prime prey yet too poor to afford decent security and all within walking distance of the slums.
The problem was as soon as she stepped into a potential alleyway its occupants took one look at her and scattered like rats under the lantern light, fleeing into buildings and slamming the doors behind or disappearing into the various other spoked alleyways spiking off from the one she was in.
With a sigh she stepped over to a dirty shack leaning up against one of the walls, took hold of it with her huge metal hand and ripped it apart in one motion, planks and bits of wood sent scattering and bouncing down the alley.
She peered down at the cowering lapine within, crouched down with his hands over his face, long floppy ears held down over his eyes.
"D-don't kill me!"
"I'm not going to kill you Ryo, at least not unless you annoy me."
The lapine let his ears spring back up and peered up at her from over his paws.
"Y-you said last time that if you saw my hide again you'd turn it inside out!"
"Did I? Amusing. No, I'm not going to flay you alive quite yet." She moved her metal arm down threateningly and rolled the massive blocky fingers each as thick as a thigh. "But do try not to annoy me, I've acquired something that would make it quite easy to pull you apart with just my fingers and I do want to test that out at some point."
The lapine stared wide eyed at the moving metal before him and visibly shuddered.
"Now get up."
He scrambled to his feet and backed against the wall, chest rising and falling like an angst riddled blacksmith's bellows.
"It's been some time since I've been in the city, how is Florens?"
The lapine nervously licked his lip. "It's… fine, Elzodium is still Ranker, no ones even attempting to take his place these days, the dungeon is still a miserable death hole that acts as a giant poor person meat grinder, the nobles are still cunts."
"Anything recent?"
"The dungeon surges have been getting bigger and more dangerous, the Panthara hives are full and they're trying to claim the surface again." He shook his head. "Last surge killed thousands before the guards got it under control. There's also been disappearances within the gangs, and that one noble got offed, probably by one of his countless kids."
"Wait, what was that one?"
"The noble?"
"No, the disappearances."
"Well it could be nothing, but a few peers of mine and ours have started vanishing, always of the gang persuasion you know," he scratched his hip nervously. "Started out as just being cattle and horse stock disappearing, which just seemed like something to take advantage of, but when the gangs started making moves they started to disappear too, night after night a group of a dozen or more just doesn't come back, it's like they fled the city, but our people in the guard ain't seen hide nor hair of em."
"I… see."
Disappearances without a trace? could that be the anomaly? But then the monster left an unbelievable mess when it killed and ate from what she knew. Perhaps it was somehow kidnapping them and carrying them away to devour them.
It wasn't good whatever the case.
"Good. Good information."
She moved her huge metal hand down and flicked Ryo in the stomach. It felt like a full on punch to the gut and the lapine bent over winded, gasping for breath.
"Congratulations. You get to live another day without being flayed alive and turned into a fur lined coat."
"Th-thankyou?!" wheezed the lapine.
Baera stalked away leaving the lapine to recover. She checked out a few other previous contacts, each just as ecstatic to see her as Ryo, but they all had similar things to say. That said she did find one piece of interesting information, a certain prized son of the city was having a party, a name she was familiar with, a one Brax Fenhorn, one of those with a direct connection to the anomaly. If that wasn't a lead she didn't know what was.
The rest of what she heard had the same theme, that gangs are disappearing, and a sense of growing panic was flowing through the criminal elements. All things that Baera had a certain appreciation for if she were honest. This monster knew how to pick its prey to avoid too much attention from the authorities. The problem was that it also meant it was growing stronger and more powerful with each passing day. At some point it would become strong enough that it wouldn't need to hide and would come out to eat freely, then it might be too late to stop it.
She had to kill the monster soon.
The thought gave her stride urgency and she made her way to her next stop, the great monumental building that was the inquisitorial HeadQuarters of Florens, a foreboding thing of dark stone unlike the typical white and fronted by great sixty foot columns.
Severe and serious looking inquisitors could be seen as she approached. Straight backed and no nonsense they held an air of authority, an authority that was respected as anyone directly backed by the dragon queen should be, at least by any sensible person who didn't want their home glassed by dragon fire from one of the queen's passing brood.
She took the steps two at a time and shoved one of the many doors wide, entering into the cavernous hall within. There more inquisitors hung about.
She approached the front desks and waved for attention, with her living hand not her metal hand of course.
"Did you receive my message?"
The clerk glanced up from bits of paperwork.
"Inquisitor Baera yes?"
"Correct."
"Then yes, First Line Inquisitor Jhaeros is awaiting you in her office for debriefing."
The clerk pointed across to one of the many corridors leading out of the grand hall and went back to her paperwork.
It didn't take long for her to find the door she wanted in one of the endless winding hallways and she pushed through, stepping into a windowless office, one lit overhead by the even stillness of magical lighting.
The room was barren and severe as all the best Inquisitors offices were, with bare stone walls and a sole wooden desk in the centre, a number of chests placed against the walls for paperwork and the like.
The pink scaled drake woman sitting at the desk eyed her as she came in. Specifically eyeing her new arm.
"I see you've acquired a prosthetic since you were injured."
Baera rolled the fingers of the great metal hand and smiled, pleased.
"I had to manage something, I could hardly perform as an inquisitor with a missing arm. In the end however this might actually be an upgrade."
She gripped the back of the chair with her hand, the hand was large enough that it enclosed the width of the top of it.
She pulled it out and sat.
"I see. And this loss is from… a monster?"
"Yes, one found in the Lynthia's dungeon, as per my report I thought it might have been a new kind of monster, but on further investigation I was mistaken, it was simply a Panthara obscuring and disguising itself in the dark to unsettle its prey. You know how cunning that kind of monster is. I successfully dealt with it by closing off the dungeon and slaughtering a dozen panthara including the one who by fluke took my arm."
Jhaeros folded her arms on the desk.
"You closed off the dungeon, taking with you many of the town of Lynthia's most powerful levelers, and in that time the town was flattened and all its people made refugees. You understand how this looks."
Baera remained silent for a moment, a stir of blood boiling fury turning her guts. That she even had to deal with this… ignominy, this shame, this embarrassment…
"Yes. A succubus was summoned by some unknown party. The succubus destroyed the town while I was in the quarantined dungeon."
Jhaeros pursed her lips. "My reports state staggering destruction, even of the local forest, I don't know if we have a record of a succubus causing such destruction in such a way."
Baera shrugged lightly. "That is the word of the townspeople who fled. Perhaps there was some other cause, I don't know. As I was entering the city I saw some of them beginning to arrive. It's probably worth interviewing them to find out more details. It might be that those who summoned the succubus are amongst their number and chose to summon it or just unleash it while I was in the dungeon so it could rampage unchecked."
Jhaeros tapped her claws on the darkwood tabletop.
"If that is all you have for me then I am disappointed."
"I don't know if much could have been done differently. Leaving my apprentice outside would have done next to nothing as she is far too weak to fight a succubus. Hunting down dungeon anomalies, even the hint of one, is our primary purpose, everything else is secondary. I did as I should have done."
Jhaeros gave her a sour look but didn't seem to have an answer for that.
"Very well. I suppose we can revisit this after interviewing the refugees."
Baera nodded. "Did you get my request alongside my report?"
"... Yes, an interesting request. I have what you asked for, The question is, why do you need it?"
"Oh I can show you if you have it here,"
Jhaeros considered this but after a moment shrugged and stood from her desk, stepping over to one of the chests and flipping it open. She leaned down and then heaved up a wooden palette that nearly filled the chest. On the pallet was stacked a large number of ingots of what appeared to be various metals, varying from gold to silver to metallic red and blue, and more.
The pallet was placed on the desk which let out an alarming groan under the weight.
"Metal and alloys of varying strengths, melting points, and rigidities, all extremely rare and difficult to obtain without our connections. Do you intend to start a blacksmithery? What in the abyss do you need this all for?"
Baera didn't answer but simply lifted her metal arm over the desk.
The plates shifted apart and after a moment a chrome like blob of liquid metal descended, touching and feeling at the ingots before one by one pulling the ingots into its mass.
Jhaeros stared wide eyed at the blob.
"A monster… I did think it strange how you managed such dexterity, I thought you were somehow pulling strings or some such with your remaining musculature… but this…"
"I did say it was something of an upgrade. With this under my control I should have no problem keeping up with the demands of my position and more. The better the metals I can feed my slime symbiote the more powerful it becomes, more than enough to keep up with my own levelling pace."
"I have never heard of such a thing, h-how fascinating." Jhaeros voice held a note of uncertainty.
The last of the ingots were absorbed and the blob of metal slipped back inside, the plates shifting to cover over the whole.
Baera raised her arm, stretching it, then rolled her fingers.
With a metallic shunk, a series of enormous heavy swords shot from the knuckles causing Jhaeros to lurch back in her seat, eyes wide. Each sword was over a meter long.
She slashed down with the arm and the razor sharp blades sliced through the heavy wood like butter, the parts of the desk falling either side.
Baera stepped between the halves of the desk.
"Do you like it? I feel a promotion is in order, perhaps to First Liner like yourself. I of course would be quite happy to demonstrate my prowess in the assessment chamber, although I can't guarantee my opponents survival, still getting used to the new limb. You know how it is."
As she spoke she stepped closer, causing Jhaeros to lean back in her chair until it was pressing against the wall.
Baera leaned down, staring into her eyes. Her living hand came up and caressed Jhaeros' jaw line.
"Give me something good, something worthy of a First Liner, I'm sick of being sent to these backwoods dungeon towns after all I have done for the cause."
Her hand dropped down to the hilt of the sword on Jhaeros' side.
"I'll be borrowing this, I might not have mentioned it but I lost my weapon in the line of duty."
She plucked the thing free, a sword of a First Liner, a black dragon curled around the hilt, a trail of black scales scattered up its fuller.
"But-"
"Get me the promotion I deserve Jhaeros and you might get it back. Don't keep me waiting."
Baera turned and strode from the room leaving the other inquisitor staring at her bisected desk in dismay.
Baera felt rather pleased with herself. She had feared that her job was done for with how disastrous her time at Lynthia had been, but the inquisition was anything if not understanding of the primary cause, stopping anomalies, and cared little if something happened in the pursuit of that.
Better still she had managed to bully concessions out of Jhaeros, well, that was why she had made her report addressed to her in particular, she knew her nerves were shot much like Jilli, an anomaly had nearly killed the poor women and that had left a hidden mark, broken her.
Now she simply had to kill Rain and all would be well. Things were starting to look a little more positive, far better than the dark cloud that hung over her when she was at her lowest in Lynthia.
Humming to herself she made her way back through the city and to her apartment, practically skipping up the stairs until she was pushing open the front door to find…
Bane lazed on the couch as Jilli ate at the table checking over her notes. It seems all was well and nothing had happened while she was away.
"Master!" said Jilli, pleased to see her.
"Did Bane behave?"
"Oh, yes, he uhm, didn't really do much, just napped…"
"Excellent. You should prepare, for we are to attend a party."
