Racknar looked down at the sword that had pierced his heart from behind and twisted and before he could react he heard Kenneth's voice shouting. “Call lightning!” Racknar felt as the lightning moved through his body and the blade. Even with his rage and damage reduction, there was no surviving a blade through the heart. No amount of numbers could prevent his death if his heart was pierced. There was just one number that mattered in this moment. Six. Six seconds is the amount of time it takes for the body to die after the heart has stopped working. Six seconds was the amount of time it took to perform a single round of combat.

  Racknar's rage went beyond anger, and as it did his blood went from a boil to a chill as the blood red flames that licked off his body were replaced with slightly bluish snowflakes coming off him as he turned around and grabbed Kenneth by the throat. “I'm not mad, just disappointed.” He growled out before punching the Rune Knight several times and throwing him at the healer of his party while his Angel-blood tattoos glowed and shifted to a light bluish white with one word repeated over and over in Celestial: Betrayal.

  Ariagoria shouted at Kenneth. “Why would you do that!” Racknar fell to his knees as his hands clasped at empty air next to the sword. “(This is taking a lot longer than six seconds.)” The rest of Kenneth's party looked back and forth between Kenneth and the now glowing tattooed Racknar, not sure what to do. Kenneth fell to his knees. “I… I didn't know he was an angel-blood, I didn't even know that a Beast-kin could be an angel-blood, even if they are a Reborn. Archbishop Frederick he… he told me you and your party were trying to resurrect a fallen pagan goddess, a heretical goddess of spiders that predates Lolith. Although I know you're nice people I couldn't stand by and watch as you misguidedly resurrected an evil false god of old, even if you had to kill a different false god to do it.”

  Ariagoria kept up healing magic on Racknar, trying to keep him alive. “God damn it Kenneth we were trying to get rid of the tyrant Lolith who tricked the drow into following her and replacing her with the person that actually liberated them. One who wouldn't be as quick to want to wage war on us. This has nothing to do with Arachne's claimed status as a divine being, we're just trying to make the world a better place. Frederick is twisting things to make us look bad to get rid of us because we challenge the main beliefs of the church like the human supremacy bull crap they like to feed people. That and we aren't afraid to use artifacts from the nine hells if it means getting things done. These artifacts are checked for curses that might make us evil before we use them.”

  Kenneth started having tears run down his face. “I’m so sorry. The Archbishop was just so convincing in saying you were serving evil and although I've only seen your party do good even the good can be misled. But seeing those tattoos and knowing Racknar is part divine… I know now that it was I who was misled. Please, can you ever forgive me?” Ariagoria struggles with healing magic as Racknar slumps to the ground. “God damn it, I'm not a high enough of a level to stabilize something like this. Especially if the sword is still inside him.”

  Racknar reached for the sword and pushed the tip, forcing the thing out of him as blood gushed all over the place. He then managed to stand with the glowing bluish snow still coming off him. He wobbled as blood poured out the open wound, his eyes glowing white-blue as he glared at Kenneth. “Was it worth the thirty pieces of argentum, Judas?” His hand clenched and touched his chest as the blood on his chest froze and the bleeding stopped. “Fun fact about spiders, their hearts are in their thorax. As a hybrid creature, I have a secondary heart in my spider butt.” He then took a few steps forward. “Something I only just now came to know when I realized how long it was taking for me to die after you destroyed my main heart.”

  He then placed his hand around Kenneth's throat again. “That and I'm far too stubborn and angry to die.” Kenneth flailed and signaled his healer who cast a spell on Racknar, restoring his body. Racknar let go as the snow died down and the tattoos went to their normal red and purple. Kenneth pointed at the tattoos. “Why would you hide your Celestial markings?” Racknar flopped to the ground and patted the spot where the hole in his chest was. “They only seem to light up when I'm in danger or otherwise aggravated and don't show up through the illusion. So unless you already know about them my ring hides them. However, they can overpower the illusion.”

  Kenneth shifts around. “How far separated are you from an angel and what one is your progenitor?” Racknar lets out a loud exasperated sigh. “I'm the grandson of Arachne, being related to a divine being is all that's needed and you don't literally have to have an angel’s blood. Being closely related to what you call a false god works just as well. Considering many of them have angelic servants as well, your entire idea of how Celestia works is flawed and even flat out incorrect. The so-called false gods live there with the angels. There could be a god above all gods as king but there definitely isn't a one true God as far as I know.”

  Kenneth rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Is everything I've been told in this life a lie? What about the teachings of my mentor Sir Cook? Judge not by the appearance of a man, but by his actions? That all with free will can choose god. ” Racknar sighed. “That's a good teaching. Sounds similar to a great man from my old world. Martin Luther King Junior.” Kenneth pirks up. “Wait, you knew him?” Racknar shook his head. “Not personally since he died before I was born but… wait… are you saying that Cook is King reborn in this world?” Kenneth nodded. “He told me his old name and did his best to keep me from taking the words of men of God at face value but I guess in my time away from him I forgot his teachings and lost my way as Frederick used his words to twist me against someone I considered a friend.”

  Racknar sighed. “I read over the Longinus Bible. It's an intentionally twisted version of a book of faith from my old world with lines that look like they came right out of the Neo Adamic Bible. A book made by a group of evangelists who believed that people of color were the descendants of Kain and dark skin was his mark. That they were prone to violence because of the bad blood in them. Rewrote a section of the Bible just to excuse their racism. In this world instead of becoming black, Kain became a Beast-kin. But it's the same story.”

  Davy finally broke his silence. “So what you are saying, is that they wrote an Evangelian Neo Genesis?” Racknar granny slapped Davy. “This isn't the time for jokes.” Ariagoria looked at Racknar. “There were Neo Adamics on my earth too. But to know the exact wording of a part of their Bible…” Racknar let out a loud sigh. “In my past life my grandmother Lorraine was a member. Thankfully my father, Jack Doe, stopped her from forcing me into that kinda life.” Ariagoria lit up. “I met you as a kid! You went to the church I trained at one time.” Racknar looked at her and narrowed his eyes for a moment. “That's… interesting but not relevant right now. If this misunderstanding is cleared up and we aren't killing each other can you take us to meet Sir Cook? I think he'd be interested in joining my town that allows people regardless of species or race or sub race.”

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  Kenneth got up off the floor and picked up his sword. “I… yeah. I suppose we'll move there as well. Then my party members wouldn't have to use illusion rings.” The seemingly human party members of Kenneth's party take off their rings of illusion. The rogue was an oddly svelte female Ork, the healer was a female light elf, the ranger was female fox-kin, and the healer was a female dwarf. Racknar grumbled a bit. “Yeah, sure, just don't stab me in the back again or I'll have to kill you.”

  Racknar started tossing things from the temple and on the corpses into the dimension door. Kenneth then asked: “If you have that, why didn't you take the bandits you fought in Midterranus alive?” Racknar looked at Kenneth. “They were wanted dead or alive, meaning they would have been executed publicly. Likely after a public humiliation. Would you rather die a warrior defending the first or naked and covered in rotten fruit?” The rogue chuckled. “As a former member of the Silver Hand Bandits, I can tell you nine out of ten would choose the first option. The ninth would only choose the second thinking he could escape before his execution.” Kenneth nodded. “Understandable.”

  The parties took the trip to the village Kenneth grew up on in mainland Ran to meet his mentor Sir Cook. Sir Cook was an older dark skinned gentleman, easily in his fifties and obviously retired from adventuring. Kenneth bowed before his mentor. Sir Cook, I've brought some people who wanted to meet you. They are all reborns like you, but unlike you were reborn as non-humans. Sir Cook, allow me to introduce you. This is Sir Racknar Aradae, Marionette Abstergo, Krys'tal, Ariagoria “Charity” Wrath, and Davy Jones. Monster Mashers, this is Sir Martin Luther Cook.”

  Racknar shook the man's hand “I'm guessing they wouldn't let you use King here. I'm a huge fan of your work. The year was twenty twenty when I died.” Martin took his free hand to his chin as he saw through the illusions. “Definitely an odd looking group. Tell me, did my dream ever come true?” Racknar let out a sigh. “There were improvements, but to say the struggle ended would be a lie. However, there were a lot more mixed race couples in my time than yours. You might be shocked to hear they even legalized same sex marriage.”

  Martin's eyes widened in shock. “Good Lord! Now that is a big change. Not exactly my thing… but pursuit of happiness and all that. I guess.” He scratched his head. “Same sex marriage? I would have never dreamed of such a thing becoming reality. To think, if not for my untimely demise I would have lived to see it. Not sure how I would have felt about it to be honest. My mother definitely would not have liked it. I guess that's not relevant now.” Racknar nodded. “I have a city in Bramble that I own, occupied mostly by goblins, kobolds, and Shatterkin. With a few humans. We accept anyone of any walk of life so long as they don't try to kill, rob, or hurt anyone. I figured you'd be interested. The Da Vinci siblings already made it their home.”

  Martin considered the proposal. “It's definitely closer to my dream than this place, but that's why I'll be turning you down. I'm needed more where the struggle is stronger. I think having help from Kenneth and his party would help move things along. I'll need someone to carry one when I pass from this world into another or perhaps the afterlife. Whatever comes next, I'll be ready when it comes.” Racknar nodded. “Understandable. I'll head home then to rest after your protege put a literal hole in my heart.” Racknar then started walking away with his party in tow, his chest still aching despite having been completely healed by the magic. He scratched at his chest a few times. “I think it's time to level grind.”

  Krys'tal looked at Racknar. “Are you sure it's okay to leave them alive after that? I mean… he stabbed you through the heart. If you were human and magic didn't exist you'd be dead right now.” Racknar grunted. “I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but it's the right thing to do. Kenneth isn't a bad person and he's far more progressive than most in this world. We can't make this world a better place on our own so having another group working on it separately from us will hopefully speed things along. Besides, if he betrays me again…” Racknar paused and looked Krys'tal in the eyes as his glowed an icy blue. “I'll turn him into an ice statue and shatter him into a million pieces.”

  Ariagoria chuckled nervously. “Remind me to never get on your bad side, geez.” Davy and Marionette nodded in unison with Davy talking. “You can be really scary when you want to be.” The party moved in peace and quiet as they gate hoped back to Bramble. As soon as they were there Racknar went to and crashed in his room for the night. He fell asleep quickly despite everything that happened.

  Racknar's sleep was restless as the moment his heart was run through played in his mind over and over again as he felt a chill run through his body. He knew path of the nine hells Barbarian had the potential to draw on other circles lore wise but the class on paper didn't really do much with the idea. To see that things were a lot more complex and different then in the books made things difficult. Racknar still had a hard time believing that Archbishop Frederick had convinced Sir Kenneth of all people to attack him. It was obvious now that the more antagonistic members of the church weren't going to simply let him live in peace and that it was likely the church would put a bounty on his and his party members heads.

  Things were going to get more dangerous vary quickly and Racknar was far from ready to initiate his plan his brush with death had him reeling. By all accounts he should be dead. He got lucky and was caught off guard. From now on he had to be vigilant. Racknar woke up in a cold sweat clawing at his chest where the sword had passed through. Not even a scar was left on his body, but it was heart to deny the scar on his mind. “I'm okay. I'm okay. I just have to adjust the plan and be more careful. Everything's fine. I'm alive, I'm unharmed, and things can still work out.”

  Racknar took several breaths before getting up and getting ready. He gathered several potions and scrolls from Ebony and then got the party before heading to the guildhall in Londinium. “We'll need to take the quest with the highest difficulty we can handle. The more higher ranked enemies we take on the better. By the book the only thing listed as giving Experience Points is combat even if that's not how it really works and most game masters award points for role play and diplomacy. However, we need as much experience as fast as possible so combat is the best way. We might have to take on multiple quests in rapid succession because we need to his level ten before this time next year when the timer runs out for Elizabeth to be engaged.”

  Ariagoria looked over the different postings and selected a few, as did Davy, Krys'tal, and Marionette. After Racknar looked at them he nodded. “All of these look solid, especially the ones posted by places outside the Empire where the risk of interference from the Empire or Church is minimal.” The party takes all the requests to the counter with Racknar confidently declaring “The Monster Mashers are taking in all of these, consider them as good as done.” The person at the counter gave them a brief look before doing the paperwork and handing over several slips. “Normally I'd advise against taking on so much at once but considering your reputation I'll allow it. Just don't burn yourselves out.”

  Racknar took the slips and slid them in his bag of holding alongside his potions, scrolls, and spending money. He then offered a simple nod before taking his party out the building and checking the locations for the closest quest. Once an order of operations for the quests was made, the Monster Mash started heading to the nearest location of a quest they had taken in order to start their level grinding journey.