Prickly

  Esstrey rummages about through the guts of a liquidator, the man iion was hit by a shot from a lich that went wide, and then happened upon some Bow. The flesh died where the spell hit, and now dead flesh fights living flesh, as the host hasn't died yet. The fighting across the city died down, and hope for a quick victainst Malencia with it. Somethirey is reveling in right now, as she occasionally looks to her tied up prisoner sitting in the er of the ste room. Doing surgery in ste rooms is surprisingly useful, as the ste anics usually includes keeping it away from a filthy enviro full of disgusting things like fungal spores, ra guts, as. Not that her current enviro cks any of those things, but the spores are Jesse's and the ra guts were carried in by a kobold-sized liquidator.

  The zealot tries to say something through his gag as some blood almost spurts orey's face, but freezes just before it makes tact. She just gives the padin one of her signature Big Smiles?, knowing that whatever the padin wao say was an insult. The reasons that he's close to Esstrey are quite numerous, attempted suicide, being strong, having actual holy power. Not the budget varia behind and used by local zealots. Esstrey doesn't o be a detective to figure out what's going on, first a crystal being escorted by the stro group of people on the phen holy knights to go with it all. Anod is interfering.

  dell enters Esstrey's shed at that moment, followed closely by Zha'klos, Cathy, Jesse, and Sofia. She could tell he eaking with Zha'klos outside, no doubt not wanting to enter alone. A quick gesture to a table with seats is enough to tell them why she summohem here.

  "I have gathered you all here today not just for a discussion on what to do with all these prisoners, but some other matters as well. I have relied on eae of you at least once so far, and pn to do so iure. First thing's first, I offer each of you a single wish that I will grant if it's within my means to do so. I'm sure there's o specify just how much is within my means." dell and Jesse look nervous, with Cathy and Sofia looking impassively, but Zha'klos is quip at the ce.

  "I want designs from your world, I want to know what it was like. ons, infrastructure, produ, historical records, the whole set." Or in other words, the secret to the envirohat could create beings like Esstrey. Not the titanic mermaid queerey, but the cold and calcuted Spetsrey.

  "Done, but I will not be divulging any knowledge reted to nuclear ons. ons of mass-destru... well, let's just say that if we release the genie from that bottle, we will not be able to put him ba." Zha'klos opens her mouth prepared to pressure Esstrey oopic, but decides that whatever the mermaid siders to be 'mass destru' draws too much attention for her purposes.

  "I want my position as leadership of humanity under your bao be a perma arra." dell moves quickly after Zha'klos, not wanting his wish to be invalidated by something done by someone else at the table.

  "Done, I'll... ahe requirements needed for a perma military junta under liquidator leadership, I'm thinking of liquidatarrisons whose of and could all be traced back to you so no one decre independence from you without having to fear the people standing guard outside their room." It's the best solutioher way, and it could even be enced if the alternatives seem so much worse.

  "This one... this one [requests/asks/begs] the dy for the same thing the dy did when we first met on this p." Esstrey thinks hard for a moment, trying to remember what Cathy is referring to. Eventually she makes up her mind, floats over to Cathy, picks her up, and-

  Kisses her on the mouth located on her face. dell diverts his eyes in shock, Jesse holds a hand to her chest, Sofia tilts her head in fusion at the rea of the others, and Zha'klos whistles like she's watg a particurly eaining show. After some seds, Esstrey finally puts Cathy down, who begins to melt into a puddle of herself. Esstrey floats back to her seat, goo still around her mouth.

  "Alright, who ?" Jesse looks in abject fear betweerey and the Cathy-puddle, sudderemely aware that she is up for her wish soon.

  "I would like all the adamantine, present, past and future." Sofia deadpans her wish, pletely ign the puddle that is starting to bubble a little.

  "That's fine, what about you, Katherine? Anything you want?" Esstrey taps her spine, indig that when she meant everyone in the room, she really meant everyone.

  "I am fine, I do not uand you materials with your base desires, uanding that is my want, which you will grant." Katherine speaks from Esstrey's mouth as fident as ever, making it clear she never needed Esstrey's offer.

  "I uhh... I think I'll just be takin' what Zha'klos is having." Jesse is still staring at the Cathy-puddle, having a hard time gettihoughts in order.

  "Now on to the order of business, this little padio be from a different p, and the reports I gathered about padin presence from Zulie indicates there were plenty of them. Now I'm not familliar with the local emblems, but I'm sure one of you is familliar with this." Esstrey holds out the pommel of a shortsword, on the pommel is a symbol of a light shining on the nd below. dell and Jesse go quiet at the sight of the symbol, and Zha'klos snatches it out of Esstrey's cw to get a closer look. The three of them are all well-versed in politics for a variety of reasons, but only Zha'klos dares show any sign nition.

  "The Order of Melthazar, why are you here? I thought all of you had a treaty specifically against this type of intervention. If you guys are here, then I'm sure the... others are also present on this pell me did you pn to do the same here as you guys did to-" Before Zha'klos interrogate the padin further, the short amount of time ungagged is instantly used by the man to interrupt her.

  "Foul beings like all of you o be purged with utmost haste, if this p burns alongside you all so be it, it would be a better fate for the is here." There's a certain ck of remorse in the man's voice, Zha'klos somehow seems somewhat ticked off by it.

  "Bunch of fug hypocrites, you occasionally destroy some p, but if the st po rank up, and this p is any indicator, you are all going to destroy every phat suddenly bees valuable aren't you?" Zha'klos's voice carries a tone of disgust, her personal doe for quering is ao the style of the core worlds.

  "If such a p isn't full of heretics, salvation be earned by the locals. Brynya is simply too corrupted, just like Earth was." As the st words leave the padins mouth, the temperature in the room drops by multiple degrees as moisture in the room gets close to freezing temperature, the blood of all beings also runs slightly slower. Cathy is quickly ref, and taking her distance from the table.

  "Did you say Earth just now?" Esstrey's smile is strained, and she's behind the padin now. A cw holds the padins shoulder, and she's doing her best not to dig in. The padin for oices the ge, and seeks to take a verbal stab on his captors.

  "That's right, Earth. Are you from that pce? Your foul existence would make sehen, we didn't eve ons capable of killing everyoo the phose people had enough to kill themselves five times over. I heard it was through bombs that could be unched all over the p, if only they weren't corrupted, they could have been an excellent addition to Melthazar. Are you mad? You must be, do your worst you disgusting fish, you will get nothing useful out of me." For a momerey 'massages' the man's shoulder with her cw, his cvicle feels brittle under her hold, but if he wants her to do her worst...

  "Don't you worry, I will certainly do my worst. Since you seem to find my people's self-destru so amusing, I will take great joy myself in watg you be the demise of your own people. It's merely a shame you won't be aware to see it." fusins across the table for a short moment, as Esstrey backs up her words. A bright white light shines from the palm of her cw, making the man shudder. The spell has a tough time going through his internal reserves, but he has been exhausted for a while now. It's Esstrey's pool of magic against his, and he doesn't stand a ce. He goes unscious, and his body starts to ge. Skin bees scales, hands thi and sharpen, his head morphs to aodate the longer face. The e looks somewhat like a lizardman, but far more savage.

  [Failure to defeat [The Nightmare] has culminated in additional horrors! The [Mazurian Pgue] now stalks the nd, seeking to turn all into it's army!]

  [The tral Governor] alerts the worlds of Esstrey's a, dooming Malencia to a few paths. One [Mythical] being could be hidden, but [The tral Governor] just marked Esstrey as a high priority for everyone. She was always strong, but the mythic cssification had always felt undeserved to those who knew her. Perhaps her designation was never meant to be strong on its own, but instead worseuation for everyone over time.

  Esstrey for her part simply uhe Mazurian, telling him to write dowhing useful he knows about Melthazar and its order. The lizardman bows, and leaves the room, leaving the others to stare in shock. Even Cathy didn't krey would ever be pushed this far.

  "dell, prepare for an offensive in the dire of the capital, speed is now our only ally of importance. Jesse, set up a railway station in that dire as well, I'll write the theory on how it works. Cathy and Sofia, I need you two to design more advanced ons, Sofia should know enough about them. Zha'klos, I need you t me the prisoners, all of them. They want to watch a world burn? Fine."

  Prickly