CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Save the Master, Save the World

  There came a shriek so twisted it rent Bram’s heart to hear. It made him want to puke. For in his mind, Bram imagined he was no different from the two gods who had murdered Loveless’ innoce. Murdering her physically was another matter ehough.

  As he’d observed from their earlier frontation, the mad nymph’s body was incredibly resilient to damage. Despite the near-lethal wounds he’d dealt her, Loveless didn’t seem near death at all.

  “You!”

  Loveless’ cws dug into Bram’s arms.

  They rolled around on the ground while sharpened cws tore at his padded jacket so thhly that they raked against the flesh underh.

  “You!”

  Bram spat out blood, but he wouldn’t yield. He couldn’t. He had dohe unfivable thing and there was n back for him now. Again, he pulled his broken sword out of Loveless’ side, and gambling that her host’s body wouldn’t die from atack, stabbed her with its jagged bde a third time. This one was close enough to her chest that the mad nymph was forced to push him away. She kicked him so hard i that Bram was sent careening back-first onto the wide trunk of the great red pine.

  “Gaah!”

  He crashed onto the ground feeling breathless with pain climbing up his spine.

  “No…”

  Notifications popped up around him, but Bram’s brain was too addled to pay them heed.

  “Not yet…”

  Through sheer force of will and stubbornness, the prince shrugged off the bck spots h over his visiohen rose back to his feet on shaky legs.

  “I’m not allowed…to surrender…”

  He reached for his sword, but it was gone. Lost in that st scuffle. Bram wouldn’t right away, however, because he was no longer fag Loveless alone.

  “Boss!” Chris called.

  Right on cue, Bram’s legs gave out, f him to stumble right into them.

  “I’ve got him!” Hajime promised though it was clear that he struggled to keep the prince upright on his own. “I-I’ve…got…him!”

  “Good!” Chris replied.

  With Hajime lending his shoulder to Bram, the Texan was free to stand guard in front of them.

  “Bridge, get the first-aid kit!” he ordered, adding “And hurry…she’s limping our way!”

  Bridget arrived at Bram’s other side with the red backpack they stashed their party supplies in.

  “Ser Anthony promised this healing gel would let even a half-dead, idiotic teenager”—she spped a red packet onto the most garish of Bram’s wounds—“running off on his own without backup survive his dumb decision a ba the fight.”

  Her words were sharp like caltrops on bare feet because they possessed the sting of truth to them.

  “Apologies,” Bram managed a wan smile, “I wasn’t thinking properly.”

  “Obviously,” Bridget replied, though her anger waned quickly. “I’m gd you’re not dead…”

  “That remains to be seen…” Bram gnced down. “…Oh.”

  The mad nymph had done a number on his padded jacket. Its right side had been mostly ripped off him so that his chest was exposed to the elements.

  “By the Loom,” Bridget whispered another catchphrase she’d ied for the game, “it’s w!”

  The packet el pressed against the torn flesh on Bram’s right chest had already stopped the wound from bleeding. With the blood clot ihe healing process began. Quick as a snapping of one’s fingers, the wound stitched itself back together, closing into a red mass of scar tissue that would have taken a week to heal using ventioh treatments.

  ALERT! With your chest injury healed, the [Bleeding] effect is diminished. Your HP has beeored to a third of its total.HP:94/280“Amazing,” Hajime said—to which Bridget added, “I thought Earth’s medies were better than Aarde’s?”

  “Only against diseases.” Bram peeled off the now dry packet from his chest. “Be vigint…she’s here.”

  The mad nymph limped into view from just beyond Chris’ shield. She looked as injured as Bram felt, with dark ichor dripping out of the many wounds he’d dealt her. However, the fury in her expression told the prihat she was far from surrendering. Oher hand, the healing gel may have patched him up, but there were still plenty of wounds in his body to keep him feeling weakened.

  “You.”

  Her voice seemed strained. It cked the power she once dispyed.

  “You.”

  Her limbs twitched with every step as if it were a great struggle to move her host’s body.

  “Y—”

  “Z-Zombie!” Hajime pointed.

  He may have been the one who said it out loud, but everyohought Hajime’s parison ot on. Even Bram. Though the prince assumed this strangely familiar but otherworldly word of Hajime’s was like the ‘draugr’ Ser Anthony used to warn a young Bram was the fate of bad children who skipped lessons.

  “Dull boys who misbehave are kidnapped by dark sorcerers and turned intr by the bckest magics,” Ser Anthony once warned.

  The old knight would often tickle the little boy whenever he applied scare tactics to a young Bram. In hindsight, Bram’s ck of fear for dark creatures like the ‘Walking Dead’ and ‘Hex Hags’ could be due to him enjoying Ser Anthony’s horror stories a little too much. For suents, though far and few iween, were emories of warmth and joy for the ill-fated prince who rarely experienced such childhood whimsies.

  These days, Bram didn’t fear most monsters, though he couldn’t deny that seeing Loveless shuffling toward them while twitg untrolbly was indeed a hair-raising sight.

  “What the hell’s wrong with her?” Bridget asked.

  Laughter, both girlish and impish, filled the air, and that’s when the party realized why their foe acted sely. The trickster’s ritual must be w.

  “Fee, fi, fo, fum,” a familiar voice resouhroughout the hall, “I smell the blood of a bad little nymph…”

  Loveless’ head jerked upward.

  “Be she living…”

  In that instant, the nymph’s madness left her.

  “Or be she dead…”

  For madness was repced by reition…and fear.

  “I’ll grind her bones…”

  Roeared o the frightened Loveless as if she’d been thrown out of the shadows on the floor. A malicious grin fshed orickster’s face as her bloody hand shot forward to tto Loveless’ brow.

  “…and see her dead.”

  Terror—the kind Bram had witnessed only once before back when he’d seen an assassin of the White Rose flee the redheaded maiden that had sin his fellow assassins—was now expressed on Loveless’ face.

  “I-It’s y-you,” she whimpered. “A-Ar—”

  Rowan made a shushing sound just before crimson light fred out of her hand. This light spread out of her like a myriad of red threads that pierced into the nymph’s body—and then Loveless screamed.

  “You should have aimed your ire on the gods who betrayed you…”

  Despite her voice being no more than a whisper, they could all hear Rowahe din of Loveless’ helpless screams.

  “Yet you allowed yourself to be corrupted by those seven fools…”

  A great deal of blood spilled from the nymph’s forehead. It spread down to cover her face.

  “…and used your blessing to taint the minds of helpless children…”

  Blood washed over her entire body, c it in a coating of dark crimson.

  “To bend others to your will, to force yourself oo do to them what was doo you…” There was the barest hint of sadness in Rowan’s voice. “To act like the hated gods…this I ot five.”

  As Rowan drew her hand back, the threads that were tched onto Loveless’ body receded too, and then the blood that coated her form was violently ripped off her.

  “Holy shit,” Bridget whispered.

  “Ditto,” Chris agreed.

  The mass of blood that was torn off its body retaihe form of the mad nymph. It struggled in Rowan’s clutches, its hands wailing against the trickster’s arm while its feet kicked in the air. It couldn’t escape Rowan’s hold though, for she held it aloft with a grip Bram recalled was as hard as steel.

  As for the body she’d left behind, a ge was beginning to show in it. For what was once flesh of a greenish hue was now turning bato the fair skin of a native-born of Lotharin. Her hair also lost its fiery tinge, repced by long raven locks that cked the supernatural luster they previously possessed.

  “Guys,” Hajime called, “I think she’s no longer possessed.”

  The pale-faced woman had just enough strength to turn her head and offer the party a grateful smile before she fell to her knees in exhaustion. She would have crashed hard on the ground too if Chris and Bram hadn’t jumped forward to catch her.

  “Bridge!” the Texan yelled. “We he first-aid kit!”

  The blonde archer arrived a moment ter with a b in her hands which she used to around the pale-faced woman’s naked body.

  “Here…this should help.” Bridget gently pced three red packets onto the three bloody holes in the pale-faced woman’s abdomen. “The nymph did a real number on you too, huh…”

  Bram, who had the pale-faced woman ed in his arms, looked away in embarrassment. He didn’t mean to wound her so savagely, but he’d been caught in the heat of battle and whirliions.

  Thank June she didn’t die from that…I gambled she wouldn’t, but still…

  A hand brushed against his arm, f Bram’s gaze bato the injured woman’s pale face. She didn’t yet have the strength to speak, but the crity in her gaze was more than enough to vey her thanks.

  Bram shook his head. “It’s not over yet…”

  His gaze snapped back to the se of Rowan subduing Loveless’ spirit. The nymph still struggled against her, desperate to flee the trickster’s touch, but Rowan held on while looking at ease.

  The way she smiled impishly at a foe he’d had such trouble with sent pride swirling into Bram’s chest. Indeed, he’d found the perfect parthere was no cause to believe the goddess’ lies.

  “Oh, very well…” Rowan sighed exaggeratedly. “I shall give you a ce.”

  Her crimson gaze slid over to where Bram, Chris, Hajime, and Bridget watched. A taunting grin appeared on her face. It was the face of a true trickster.

  Seeing it made Bram frown. “Perhaps she wasn’t pletely lying…”

  “Who wasn’t lying?” Hajime asked.

  Bram’s frown only deepened. “Wait for it…”

  It didn’t take long for Rowan to express her iions. “You’ve done admirably so far, but it's not enough to subdue a nymph in human form. Not if we’re to succeed in achieving all oals…”

  Then it was Hajime’s turn to frown. “Eh…?”

  “If you otherworlders are to be the bae of reat uaking,” Rowa go of Loveless’ spirit, “should we not attempt a more challenging trial of your abilities?”

  It happened so quickly that all the party could do was wat surprise as the spirit freed of the trickster’s clutches fled toward the great red pi over one end of the hall. Loveless’ spirit slipped into its trunk—and then the ground began to shake much more violently than before.

  “Rowan, how could you?!” Bridget protested.

  “I’m afraid I had to,” Rowan replied with a shrug. “‘Tis a matter of training.”

  There came a loud groaning—the sound of a great mae beginning to turn its cogs after a long time of . Thick greenish miasma billowed out from the roots of the great red pine like the exhaust fumes from one of Earth’s shiny autes.

  ALERT! Poisonous [Miasma] is spreading through the air. Inhaling too much of it will render you with several possible status effects; [Looison], [Fear], [Panic], [Paralysis], and [fusion].Chris looked annoyedly at the Loom’s message. “Talk about a revolting development…”

  “We o go,” Bridget warned.

  They’d all backed away from the great red pihough ten to fifteen yards suddenly didn’t seem far enough.

  “It’s all right,” came a familiar voice. “I’ll hahis.”

  Ravi Samal strode forward, past Chris’ shield, his steps carrying him closer to the thick miasma billowing toward them—and he didn’t arrive alone. Floating on Ravi’s shoulder was a strange-looking creature; a winged, fluffy white beast with big doe eyes and a rotund, wrinkly faatch its small, chubby form.

  “Y’all have flying Frenchies over here?”

  “I don’t think that’s a French Bulldog, Chris…”

  “Bridget’s right. I see it — the starlight ed around its body.”

  If they were impressed with its appearance, what Ravi’s summon achieved caused all their jaws to drop. Even Bram’s.

  Just as the thick cloud of miasma reached the Shamvan’s front, the fluffy beast fpping its gossamer wings beside him opes mouth wide and unleashed a breath of air so powerful that it blew the miasma away, scattering it so thhly that most of its thick cloud was forced to dissipate, leaving only the dregs obsg the great red piouched.

  ALERT! The poisonous [Miasma] was successfully ralized. You are no longer in danger of being poisoned.“It’s not cheating.” Ravi gnced over his shoulder to look at Rowan. “I too am a member of this party, and, with his highness’ sent, shall bee one of the baes of the great uaking.”

  All who heard him uood the deeper meaning of his words. Finally, Ravi Samal, Vice Master of the of Stargazers, was ready to pledge himself to their cause.

  Bram gnced sideways at Rowan just in time to catch the smile that was quick to vanish, and he realized that this had been one of the reasons why she’d set the nymph free—party unity. Once more, Bram marveled at her capacity for intrigue in a way that would delight even his masters in the Delightful Troupe.

  “Yoing to have to teach me how to think as you do one of these days,” Bram whispered.

  “I’ve been teag you since we met,” she whispered back.

  As Ravi and his summon stepped back to where the others waited, the Shamvan moved to grasp his master’s hand.

  “Master Mina…” Ravi’s expression dripped with relief. “I’m sorry it took me so long to arrive…”

  “I knew you would, Vice Master,” she replied in a raspy and strained voice. “You’ve made…iing friends.”

  “Yes, I know… They’re a very reliable bunch.”

  With that said, the Shamvan faced the prince who held Master Mina in his arms and bowed his head.

  “You’ve kept your promise, Yhness,” Ravi said in a tone of deep respect. “Now I will keep mine.”

  “Ravi,” Hajime whispered.

  The Japanese man wasn’t the only one in his party who stared teary-eyed at the Shamvan. Everyone, even the prince, looked like he might shed a tear. In Bram’s defense, only oher Aarder had ever pledged true loyalty to him. Aher than Ser Anthony showing him such respect was a new experience for him.

  “Raise your head, Vice Master,” Bram insisted. “The fight’s not over.”

  It didn’t take long for the vestiges of miasma to settle, but when it did, the party witnessed something indescribable stepping out of the thick cloud.

  “K-Kaiju!” Hajime yelled.

  She was still half-veiled in miasma, but they were all suffitly terrified by the parts of her that were exposed to them. The nymph’s final form was such a terror-indug sight that even Rowan seemed impressed.

  “Now you look like a proper challehe trickster giggled.

  Somehow, despite her body formed from tree bark, Loveless mostly retaihe form she’d had when she possessed Master Mina. Only rger. Much rger.

  “She must be twice the size of the treants we’d wrestled,” Chris pointed out.

  Bram’s gaze drifted past her long, slender legs, up to the ample breasts ling over her ft stomach, and higher, toward the oversized head that now showed the nymph’s true face. It was the horrible visage of a crooked hag who might have once beeiful before she was cursed by a capricious god; a pair of deer antlers stuck out of red, needle-like hair framing a face darkened with a monster’s ichor.

  “Steel yourselves, my friends!” Bram roared. “We’ll kill her properly this time…”

  GD_Cruz