Chapter 37
Luna arrived at the adventurer’s guild two hours before midnight.
The ex-church loomed tall in the night, the moon barely a whisper in the sky. She didn’t enter. Instead, she found a ledge across the street behind a chimney on a tanner’s workshop and settled with her back against the warm brick.
She wore the Narcy-disguise outfit—the plain clothes, her hair tied in a ponytail—just without the facial change. She brought nothing other than the clothes she wore and her sleeping bag. There was no use bringing weapons tonight.
The guild hall sat dark. Maggie had closed hours ago. She still enjoyed the irony of them reusing a church for a guild hall.
The architecture left no doubt. One main entrance, a huge hall, tall windows that started high up above the ground, the arched ceiling. She wondered if any of them knew.
Probably not. Most likely even people who lived in the pre-dragon age didn’t remember anymore.
She watched the first few souls arrive, Maggie with a few guys from Torben’s group. She better go home early.
Luna stayed put. An hour and a half to go.
Others came, Derell and Malick. Not unexpected.
Ah, damn it. Why did Theron have to come?
Her heart sank into her stomach.
With Marena too. They both came, entering the guild. Maggie didn’t exit, either.
Luna heaved a heavy sigh. He really wasn’t supposed to come. But it was him, huge, built up, with his massive battle axe over his shoulder. He carried the conversation with Marena, both relaxed and unsuspecting.
More people came. Savnoj and his group. Five more guys from Torben. A few more thugs.
Arleria and Kern. Ah, great, those too.
Damn it, why did it always end up like this?
Somehow, no matter what country or city or world she was in, it always wound up like this. And she was always at the center of it.
Sure, she could abandon Alsen. Let them shackle and most likely cripple him. That would be the end of his life as far as his goals and dreams were concerned. She could move on and leave it behind.
But… she wasn’t going to.
With a sigh, Luna grabbed the sleeping bag.
Midnight approached. Nobody exited the adventurer’s guild hall. Light shone in the tall windows, and a touch over twenty people gathered inside.
Luna jumped off the ledge, landing soundlessly on the street. She walked to the guild.
In the moonlight reflecting off the stone, she could almost see the mirage of James. Her father did not want to raise her to be like him.
But no matter the world, the body, the timeline, she was always going to be the same person. The reaper from Nurnfell.
The door opened without creaking. She slipped in, letting the door close behind her. No one noticed. She dropped the sleeping bag on the floor, and pulled off her shoes.
Still, no one noticed her, everyone enjoying beers, waiting to see who else was going to arrive.
Luna pulled on the wardrobe next to the door. It toppled over, blocking the door.
As the wardrobe crashed on the floor, all other sound vanished from the guild hall. Twenty-four faces turned toward her.
Luna dropped her shoes by the side, next to her sleeping bag. She walked into the main hall.
Savnoj reacted first, jumping to his feet, drawing his sword. He wore a polished, dark scale mail, expensive cloak, chain pants, and was already unslinging the shield from his shoulder.
Kern immediately drew his bow, aiming an arrow. Everyone else started getting up, mostly following Savnoj’s lead.
“Buff up,” Savnoj shouted. His voice cut through the silence like a blade. “Use all prep you have. Now. Pop your one-use items. All of them.”
“Do you know what this place is?” Luna asked. She pointed at the wall high above her. “Do you know what symbol used to be up there?”
One of Torben’s men laughed.
Savnoj spared him a glare. “This is a trap, you dumb fuck. Pop everything you have, and most of us will still die here.”
“It was a sword with wings stretching from its cross guard,” Luna continued. “The symbol of the God of Thousand Faces. And you all gather here to make plans against his supposed harbinger.” She snorted. “How deliciously ironic.”
Marena raised her staff, motes of teal light floating out, their energy wreathing everyone around.
Arleria also clutched a staff, a web of darkness and pink light enveloping her.
The mage from Savnoj’s group produced swirling gray energy, which spun around him, part of it splitting to circle around Savnoj.
“What do you want?” Savnoj asked, picking a vial from behind his belt with his sword hand.
He played for time, risking a drink of the elixir. Some empowerment potion, apparently. Luna didn’t care. “You aren’t stupid, Savnoj. You know what this is about.”
He tossed back the elixir, the veins around his eyes and on his neck bulging. “Why do you care?”
“Because it’s all about me, so it falls upon me to clean it up.” Luna’s face split into a sour smile, glancing at Theron. He stared at her with a mixture of betrayal and disbelief. “And you all just had to show up.”
Most people now drank a potion or two. One of Savnoj’s men even cracked a scroll, the released spell forming a shining shield around him. Everyone now held weapons, in a combat stance.
“Anyway. Y’all seem to be ready. Just, what’s with those faces? You’ve all gathered here to fight the harbinger of the Thousand-Faced God. Well...” She spread her arms.
Partial transfiguration. Thirty percent.
In barely more than an instant, her body changed. Her bones grew denser, her muscles rewiring and concentrating. Her legs and arms stretched by more than a foot each. Her fingers doubled in length, an intoxicating influx of adrenaline flooding her mind.
Almost seven feet tall, proportions out of regular human shape, easily six hundred pounds in weight, but still as slim as a stick, Luna grinned. Her mouth split her face from ear to ear, jaw dislocating, the mouth filling with a nightmare of teeth. “… here I am.”
She charged.
The air exploded around her, blowing up eardrums through the hall. She reached Theron in a split second. Her clawed hand pierced his armor, his chest. She grabbed the heart inside, and punched out with it through his back.
She hit him with her shoulder, the impact shattering most bones and all organs in his body, sending him flying. He knocked aside a man, and hit Arleria, smashing her into the wall with a boom.
Luna tossed the heart into her mouth, swallowing it whole while she spun, slashing the throat of one of Torben’s men.
Kern fired two glowing arrows at her, and Savnoj turned after her, slashing.
She could see all the moves as they started.
The trajectory of the arrows, the curve of the sword slash.
She slipped from them, running her claws through another grunt.
She grabbed his heart in his chest, and tore it out with a spin, her other claws carving Marena into ribbons, exploding her shields without getting slowed down the tiniest bit.
Luna tossed the heart into her mouth, and bolted at Derell.
He managed to turn, blocking with his shield.
Non-magical armor couldn’t even slow her down.
She jabbed into it, piercing the shield, the arm, the armor, the chest, grabbing the heart.
She tore it out, tossing it into her mouth as she bent back to avoid Malick’s swing.
Kern shot three arrows with curved paths, Savnoj’s wizard reached for her with a set of magical tendrils, and Savnoj himself tried to get to her back.
She slipped to a side, slashing Malick across the waist, severing him into two, hitting a grunt with her shoulder. His bones crunched, destroyed by the impact.
She bolted forward. Kern jumped, kicking himself off the wall. She leapt up with a slash. He threw the bow at her, drawing a dagger and an axe.
Luna met him with her claws, withdrawing the two that would collide with the axe’s blade. The two other claws slashed the wall, the axe’s handle, Kern’s arms, and his body.
She spun midair, kicking herself off the wall into a spinning kick at one of Savnoj’s men. Her kick cracked like a whip. Her shin hit his head, crushed his helmet along with his skull.
Savnoj’s mage released four burning bolts that curved through the air while Savnoj took position in front of him.
She could see the spell’s path the second it left his fingers. Luna kicked herself off the wall, diving in with a stab at another man. Mid-air, she bent her body to evade the bolts. They exploded on the wall, scorching the stone.
Luna dove into a man, piercing both hands into him. She tore him in two, slipped through, and bolted at the wizard. Savnoj jumped into her way with a blurring slash.
She bolted to him, sidestepped his slash, slipped around him, weaved away from the mage’s last-second bolt, got to his side, and ran her hand into his armpit.
Her claws shattered his shield as if it wasn’t there.
She pierced the ribcage from the side, grabbed his heart, and tore it out while evading Savnoj’s spinning slash.
He followed through, but she stepped past the mage, devouring the heart in the process. The last two of Savnoj’s men converged on her, each with a sword.
Luna stepped between them, slipping past the blades, slashing with her claws. She got one through the chest, the other across the stomach.
The first man bent back. She whirled around him, opened her jaws, and caught his head in her mouth. She crunched the skull, helmet and all, tore it off the body, and spat it at Savnoj.
He raised the shield to block.
She bolted to him. No one else moved, so it was his turn. He met her with a counter slash. She stopped her motion, leaned back from the cut, and swiped her claws at his arm, catching it across the forearm, her claws sliding off the protective plate, but still drawing blood closer to the elbow.
Savnoj stepped in, air booming around him, trying to ram his shield into her. She slid to the sword arm’s side, ducked under his sword slash, and ran her claws over the back of his knee, drawing blood.
He spun after her, the anti-magical shackles hung by his belt rattling. But she already stepped enough away for him to miss. “Damn it,” Savnoj said, fixing his stance, bleeding from the arm and the leg. “You really don’t fight how you look.”
She knew. With inhumane body proportions, mouth full of fangs, and foot long claws, she looked like an absolute monster. One didn’t expect such a monster to be a technical counter-striker. She grinned, stepped to him, and jabbed at his face.
He parried with the sword, again bolting in with the shield.
She slid to the shield’s side this time. He turned after her, lowering the shield to strike with it. She feinted following through the motion. He swung the shield.
Luna shifted her weight, evaded the shield, and stabbed into the opening. He jumped back. Her claws still sunk into his scale armor, and into flesh beneath. She crushed a couple of ribs before he got far enough, barely saving himself. She didn’t immediately follow up. “That wasn’t half bad.”
He spat out a bit of blood. “When I met you two, I thought my death-warning bracelet warned me about the mage. It was you. I suppose there’s nothing I can offer you to let me go, is there?”
“Not really. But we could make a sort of deal. Is there anything you want done after your death?”
He snorted. “The end never comes the way one expects, does it? I have a secret stash under the northern mill. My family lives on a farm east of it. Take the stash to them.”
A stash his family didn’t know of, and that his companions couldn’t deliver for him because they all lay dead on the floor around them.
“Cover for me in the gray realm. When you get there, resist the first couple of currents. When a pale angel comes to reap your soul, tell her that the Nurnfell Reaper sends Azaela her regards. Then resist the currents until the pale angel returns, and you’ll get preferential treatment. ”
She bolted forward, the air booming around her once more. He stabbed into the motion, his chest covered by the shield. Luna slid under the blade, and as he stepped back, she rose mid-step, and swiped her claws across his throat. One made it into the gap in the armor, digging into the flesh.
Blood flooded out of him as she stepped past him. He fell on one knee, clutching his throat with the shield hand. Luna spun, sank her claws into his back, and tore out his heart. She tossed it into her mouth, and went to check the corpses.
One moved.
Arleria had just crawled out from under Theron’s corpse, bracing herself by the wall, trying to get up. “Wait,” she stuttered, coughing out blood.
Luna raised an eyebrow. She didn’t expect her to be alive after taking that hit. “For?”
“I’m only here to find out what they’re planning against Alsen. I’d never betray him. I love him.”
“That’s what anyone would say.” Luna stepped toward her. “I have no way to verify it, and I can’t really leave witnesses of this, can I?”
“So, you’d kill an innocent just to not leave witnesses?”
Luna shrugged, motioning over the carnage around her. “What’s one more?”