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Chapter 664 - Inheritance
🕑 Added 2023-05-24 13:00:05 +0000 UTCHera and Adriel were walking with Reynara through the city. By all effects, they were escorting her to Multrak's home, even if both of them would categorically deny that claim. If anyone asked, they were just walking along with her as emotional support. As they arrived at the town hall/ tree house, the huntress stopped while looking up at the door leading to the current chieftain's house.
"Are you ok?" Hera asked.
"Yeah… just… am I doing the right thing? Accepting this? It doesn't feel like the right thing," Reynara grumbled.
"I don't think we can answer that. No one can. In this situation. It's the type of thing where you have to do it and just face the music," Adriel said.
"What music? Are you spouting nonsense just so you can say you are better than me?" Reynara stepped in front of Adriel, staring him down.
"Reynara, stop that shit. It's just an expression. He is not trying to patronize you just because he said something he thought you would understand," Hera rolled her eyes. The huntress antics were exhausting, and the whole idea of this day was already stressing her out.
"So you are saying I'm dumb?" Reynara turned back to Hera.
"Yeah, I'm saying you are stupid because there is something you don't know. Unless you know everything, you are dumb. Do you even hear yourself when you talk?" Hera scoffed.
"Hera…"Adriel tried to stop her.
"No, fuck this. We've been nothing but nice to her for the past week. We keep quiet every time she lashes out just because we know she is going through some stuff, but I don't care anymore. Grieving is no reason to be a dick. So she can either apologize or I'm leaving," Hera stepped up to the huntress, "So what is it going to be? Are you still going to act like a child, or are you going to stop thinking that everyone and everything is out to get you?"
Reynara looked at Hera, the two of them staring at the black voids that had replaced their eyes. The difference was that Reynara still had red irises, while Hera had the black veins coming out of her eye sockets. That happened when the Empress asked the curse to hold back Kadhan's magic. After a long, tense moment, the huntress snarled like an animal and started walking toward Multrak's home.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? She is going to be the chieftain," Adriel whispered.
"I honestly don't know. But I don't think she would abuse her power like that. It will be hell for the newcomers, but anyone she can already trust will be fine. Also, I think this is why she liked Grilat so much. He pushed back; no one else does."
"Are you… trying to hook up?" Adriel tilted his head.
"What? Of course not! Do you have any idea what the mess that would be? I'm just saying that she doesn't want to be treated differently from anyone else. Not just because of who she is or how she acts. If you do that, she will act out, but in the end, you get some respect because she won't think you are being fake around her. Did I get it right?" Hera looked to the bottom of the stairs where Reynara was watching them. Being a fox beastman meant that her hearing was much better than that of Hera and her friends, or in other words, she heard everything they were saying.
"I don't like being analyzed by people," Reynara said in a more subdued tone.
"Then don't force people to analyze you to understand what is going on," Hera shrugged and started walking.
There were enough people in Multrak's room to call it a crowd, even if the wide-area let everyone have a comfortable amount of space. Aside from Hera, Adriel, Reynara, and, obviously, Multrak, Berylla was there, along with three of the hunters that Hera never got to know. Plus, two of the guards. The guards and the hunters were known for being amongst the strongest people of the Vanguard.
Seeing the group arrive, Multrak opened a smile, "Thank you all for coming. And Reynara, before you ask, yes, everyone here is to stop you in case things go wrong, but no one is doing that because they think you are a problem. Instead, we are all worried about what my legacy might do with you, or anyone who gets it for that matter."
"I was expecting something like this already. And I'm not sure if I believe you completely, but it does make sense," the huntress said.
"Before we start, there is one thing I want to give you," Multrak gestured to Berylla, who walked over with something large wrapped around a blanket.
Reynara looked at the chieftain, who just nodded, letting her unravel her gift. It was a translucent blue bow that seemed to be made out of crystal or something, with a pair of jagged blades on each end and a dark blue crystal that she would hold to fire an arrow. The string was green and had a couple of leaves here stuck to it as if it was actually the vine of a tree. It took her a moment, but eventually, she understood where this weapon came from.
"You used the Night River and the Boulder of Vine to make this?" the huntress asked.
Multrak just nodded, "I did. If you have water on hand, you can make water arrows using a little bit of mana or vine arrows using more. You can also use the bow as a staff or change its shape to make it easier to carry, but the string will always be connected. That's the caveat. Hera and her friends had the presence of mind to grab the Night River's core and some of the vines from the Boulder. I spent the last couple of days making this for you. As a gift to the new chieftain."
Reynara nodded, "Thank you. This… is beautiful."
"I'm glad. I know it's been a while since you lost your previous one, but I hope this will serve you just as well," the two of them shared a moment with both smiling at each other. Then came the next part of this meeting, "Now. I will pass you my legacy. As everyone here knows, this might cause a problem for a simple reason. To get it, you will have to drink my blood."
"I have to bite you?" Reynara gasped.
"Oh, no. I'll place a few drops of blood in a spoon for you to lick it. We are not savages here," Multrak turned to one of the hunters wearing only a leather skirt and scratching his back against a large pillar of wood, "Well, most of us, anyway."
"Ah, ok. Is that it?"
"Not entirely. Then you will receive a notification. When you accept, a mist of blood will come out of me and go inside of you. I'm told this won't hurt, but it will feel weird."
"You are told?"
"Yes, this is another thing. When you get the legacy, you will be able to talk to it in a way. I will go over the specifics later, but don't be afraid. The most important thing is that after getting the legacy, you must either have the skill of Impulse Control or get it. You can take it to pay it back later; remember that this is the first thing you must do. Ask to get that specific skill. Do you understand?" Multrak was very friendly so far, but when he started talking about this, his voice turned somber, and everyone inside the room could feel the importance of his words.
"I do."
"Repeat what I just said to you. About the skill."
"I'm not a child," Reynara rolled her eyes.
"Yet you are refusing to give me a basic confirmation like this. I need to be sure."
"After the mist gets inside me, I need to ask the legacy to get me the Impulse Control skill and be ok with paying whatever the cost is. Even if you didn't tell me what the cost is."
"Thank you. For what's worth, the cost is just taking longer to get more skills from the legacy. It's nothing big. Are you ready?"
Reynara nodded, and Multrak pulled a small knife from the side of his bed, as well as a wooden spoon wrapped around some cloth. He pricked his finger and let a couple of drops of blood hit the spoon before passing it to Reynara, but he stopped as she reached out her hand.
"Before anything. After she takes the legacy, the cravings should start. While she struggles, no one is to do anything against her. Let her push back the legacy by herself. If she attacks me, which is likely since the taste of my blood is what will trigger the frenzy, then you can stop her. Not before, not if she seems like she will attack. Only when she does."
Everyone agreed, and Hera called her court out. It was a precaution that all of them, even Reynara, understood. What they didn't know was that the Empress had a different plan. Frost managed to tweak the poison reinforcement enough to give everyone else some insight on how to change that to apply different types of poisons. So far, they were only able to use one other type of poison, but it was the best option for the situation. She wasn't the only one making preparations. The hunters and the guards also pulled their weapons and got ready. Not directly aiming at her just yet, but prepare to move at a moment's notice.
Multrak turned back to Reynara, "Are you ready?"
"No. Just give me the damn spoon," Reynara snarled.
"You are really not making anyone feel more comfortable here, but it's not like waiting will make that change," Multrak sighed and gave her the spoon.
Reynara frowned while looking at the utensil before licking the blood. She closed her eyes, almost waiting for something to happen, but everything stayed the same. Only when she opened her eyes did she say a soft 'oh' and move her hand, pressing something in a window that only she could see. Some odd particles started to come out of Multrak, it wasn't dense enough to be considered a liquid, but it wasn't quite a gas either. Everything was red, blood red, to be precise, and Reynara just stared at it for a moment before that weird liquid gas mixture slowly floated toward her. It hovered just above her body before gently landing and being absorbed by her skin. Hera could sense Reynara's mana being pushed around, opening a path leading to her veins. There was a pause where the huntress just shook her body as if she was getting used to her clothes, then turned to the left, staring at seemingly nowhere.
"What are you?" before any reply came, Reynara started sniffing the air and turned to Multrak. More specifically, she stared at Multrak's finger, the one he had drawn blood from. Her black eyes became bloodshot, with red veins coming out of her irises. She opened her mouth, already salivating, while her eyes locked into the chieftain's finger.
"Reynara, focus. Ask for the Impulse Control skill now!" Multrak called, but his voice didn't seem to reach her.
She opened her mouth and jumped on top of the bed, going after the blood that she just tasted. The moment she moved, everyone else sprung into action. The guards pinned her down as the hunters activated some snares to lock her in place. Hera also sent Dao out, but the blade was too big to reach everyone. Reynara kept snarling and trying to reach Multrak like a crazed monster. Hera walked forward and asked Edge to reach her hand. He was already covered in the new version of her poison reinforcement and stepped in front of the chieftain, blocking the blood-crazed huntress from reaching him. The Empress then just made a small cut on Reynara's face and felt the poison starting to spread.
"Reynara, listen to me. What I did right now is use a paralytic poison that will first start to lock up your muscles, then your mind, and then your organs. The part that locks up your mind is to show you that nothing is wrong. During that time, ask the herald for the skill. You don't have to talk with your mouth; they can read your thoughts as long as you want them to. It's weird, but it works, trust me.
Reynara snarled again, but she quickly stopped moving. The first stage of the poison would act somewhat fast, taking only two minutes to lock someone up completely. The second stage, where the poison starts to slow down their mind, would take 20 minutes to complete, and the last stage, when everything stops, could happen over the course of one hour. Using her poison control and the [Naga Poison] Hera could increase the speed of those stages, but that would require a considerable amount of mana, and even the early stages could already hinder a monster's ability to fight back.
Everyone waited, and waited, seeing a struggle inside the huntress, even with her being completely still because of all the snares, the poison, and the two guards who were still holding her down. After around half an hour, the huntress' eyes returned to normal, or what was normal for her, at least, completely black but with black irises.
"Keep holding her down. I'm going to pull the poison back. If she still is like that, I can trigger it again," Hera told the group, who just nodded in response. She used the poison control to remove the affliction.
Reynara groaned, "I got it. The skill, I mean."
"And are you doing well now?" Multrak asked.
"Yeah."
"Ok, then. Go home; I'll have a couple of people watching over just to make sure you are not lying, and tomorrow we can talk about the legacy and what you can do with it," Multrak yawned, "Now, if all of you don't mind. I really need to sleep."
Hera didn't wait for anything; she was tired of all this and decided to leave right away, dragging Adriel along. Reynara could be lying, and if that was the case, she wanted to be close to her friends so they could be ready for anything.
