33 - Show Them Fear (Patreon)

Nothing seemed to be going right for Roimeldor. Despite being the immortal Hollyhock Caste leader of the Soul Reapers, he couldn’t seem to catch a break in achieving his goals on either of the planets he had set their forces on.

If things kept going sideways for him, then he would need to get directly involved and that had its risks. Mainly the cost of just existing in a lower Caste area and needing to supplement with either [Hollyhock Mana Bits] or slowly drain his mana and increase the risks to his limited immortality.

While Hollyhock Casters couldn’t die from aging and were resilient to the extreme, they could still be killed. That wasn’t as concerning a risk to his people, with their technology to capture souls in transit and reconstruct a physical body for them. However, those magical devices required a Hollyhock Caster to operate and it cost them more resources the higher Caste the soul was, not to mention that there were only a handful of Hollyhocks within their ranks.

Frankly, he didn’t fully trust his Caste peers with his own immortal survival. They were the types of people who would rather take over his position of authority for the power trip rather than further their organization’s mission.

Roimeldor watched the planet with twin moons and a small ring of green-tinted debris circling its equator that might have once belonged to a comet or shattered moon. From the large windowed wall of his office, he contemplated all these various things along with the movement of his forces, the concurrent skirmishes currently taking place on the surface, and awaited the reports for the subsequent harvests.

He was almost tempted to pray to the Creator Trinity that this time, this reality, this planet, would have the one thing he had been searching the last few millennia for… or was it eon now? Time was an odd thing and practically impossible for him to accurately keep track of across realities but surely it had been almost an eon by his homeworld’s standards.

The Commander didn’t pray, though. He knew the Trinity wouldn’t answer, even if it could know every thought he had. That just wasn’t how those particular beings worked. Instead, he waited, watched, and strategized.

Asyamil entered, dressed in the usual black body armor most of their people wore, himself included, but they both currently lacked the glossy helmet that could simply reappear at the press of a button. She didn’t announce herself and promptly went to his side as he gave the familiar command, “Reaping report.”

“We’ve collected another 56,377 souls from Makera but still no sign of Naira,” the tall elf said.

Roimeldor felt the wave of disappointment despite trying to convince himself to stop hoping in the first place. That small tiny sliver of hope was the only thing keeping him going, though, so he asked, “Notable conflict updates?”

“Fire Four Squad has run into interference from the Queens of Lona Laress in the northwestern quadrant,” his second-in-command continued, “Water Two Squad, which was reassigned to Tulim in the northeastern quadrant, has reported that their alarms were triggered and the locals have discovered them. They are requesting permission to advance before a defense can be mounted.”

“Discovered? Did they mess up the aural detection negators?”

“No, sir. It was a physical ground discovery,” she stated, hesitating a moment before adding, “The sensors picked up the presence of a Wayfarer with a lot of Divinity affecting their aura signature.”

Roimeldor clenched his jaw as he growled, “Another Wayfarer?”

“Yes, sir, only Daisy Caste but the amount of Divine influence is concerning and would explain how they discovered our location.”

He contemplated a moment longer, debating on just biting the bullet and going down to the surface to take care of these annoyances on his own. The Abyssal Dragoon was still down there somewhere after having completely derailed his plans on Erythrós but the appearance of another Wayfarer was disconcerting and entirely too coincidental that he didn’t want to leave the potential threat. Almost a million souls awaited… a million chances for him to find Naira.

“Sir?” Asyamil prompted.

“Call for the advance on Tulim. Burn them to the ground. Show them fear. I will reap every soul from any who dare to stand in my way.”

“Yes, Commander. It will be done.”

Phoenix was happy to find her friends alive and well as Rayna and Saiya both crushed her in a furry hug of tails, the twins gushing about her cute green curl. The full group reunion wasn’t very long, however, as they all wanted to get a few things done in town before being given their next mission. The AOA and Ducal government had been frantically organizing a counter-assault on the discovered army before the enemy decided to mobilize against them.

The duchy-wide Call to Arms being announced at the fort cities was causing Adventurers to return en masse to the Capital, putting aside the remote monster-culling missions, for the more immediate direct threat against the specific cities of Tulimeir and Souja at the southern end of the Razorteeth mountains. They assumed the Soul Reapers were after the Reality Rift below the capital but didn’t want to leave the nearby fortress town completely unguarded.

Rayna was adamant about going shopping for supplies and a Spirit Gem before the confrontation and Saiya wanted to visit the Temple of the Traveler, though clarified that she was still ruminating on the idea.

Dazien and Uriel both wanted to check in on the temple of the Parent and the children there, hoping to reassure the young ones and make sure the clergy were prepared for the upcoming conflict.

Phoenix opted to join the men as she had enjoyed her previous visits and thought she might be of more use there. She had been a couple of times now and the small Lilly had become quite attached to Tala and she figured a quick check-in would be a nice break from all the fighting and monsters she had been dealing with.

She couldn’t stop the smile from overtaking her face as the trio approached and the usual scramble of children rushing the Adventurers, who were orphans like them, occurred. Her party leader would turn up the Shiny charm to eleven at this point and she wasn’t entirely sure if he was even aware of it since it was just a part of who he was. It was kind of amazing to her to see how well he dealt with the overwhelming swarm of rugrats with such grace and humor.

Even Uriel was smiling at the sight, his ember eyes never leaving the gemite, as he stood back slightly but still greeted the kids that approached him. The Mage’s visitors seemed to be the quieter ones, shyly tugging on the cinderen’s tunic and causing him to squat down to speak with them better.

“King!” Brent called from across the yard as the young teen waved them forward towards the temple entrance, “Priestess Deserin wants you to see her in her office!”

Dazien’s smile only faltered for a moment as he called back, “Be right there!”

Then he told the others, “Well, you heard him, my loyal subjects, time for the King to hear the council of the divine. Time to return to your duties. Make sure to clean up those toys from the playground!”

Phoenix snorted at the nagging and wondered if the Defender had been taking notes from Paul lately about being a dad on top of the aura training they had been doing together.

There was a collective groan followed by a cheer as Rex manifested beside the Defender in a shower of golden glitter before leading the swarm toward the open area to clean and play. The giant [Avatar of Sovereignty] looked even more massive as the children climbed over him and spoiled him with pets and squeals of laughter.

She laughed along with them at the sight of the chaos and contemplated staying in the yard to wait for them when Uriel surprised her by taking her hand, saying with a shy smile, “I have something I want to show you.”

The Mage led her around the building to a smaller side entrance to the decently sized temple and into what appeared to be a kitchen that was already busy with a few cooks, “Uriel! Have you come to assist with the lunch rush?” one of the middle-aged runeforged asked, elbow deep in flour and kneading dough.

“Just stopping by to check on the litter,” he clarified with a shake of his head, “Has Jennica been taking care of them while I’ve been gone?”

“Of course, I have!” a young feminine voice growled from across the room and Phoenix saw a fierce-looking teenage girl who oddly reminded her of her best friend back on Earth with the straight hair that cut sharply at the jawline and lean muscles on display with the tank top.

“Unlike somebody we know, I don’t just abandon the kids depending on me,” Jennica added with a glare that could stab.

The human girl set that unyielding gaze on her then, looking the Wayfarer up and down as though she were a mere pest that had dared to infest their home, “Who the fu-”

“Language, Jen,” Uriel preemptively interrupted, “You know how the priests get on about that while living here.”

“Which is utter siva sh-”

“Jen. You know the little ones pick it up and don’t understand how to use them properly.”

The girl rolled her eyes at the Mage but corrected, “Who’s the girl?”

“This is Phoenix. I’m sure the others have told you about her.”

Jennica shifted uncomfortably and muttered, “Maybe. Some nonsense about a Princess but it’s not like it means anything.”

Uriel frowned, “Is that what you plan to tell Dazien when he sees you again?”

The teen, who was likely on the lower end of that range, jut her chin forward and said stubbornly, “Yeah, I will. He’s too old to keep playing pretend like that. Priestess Yavuz keeps saying he needs to grow up and quit fooling around.”

The cinderen’s frown deepened as he said, “I know we’ve mentioned it before but you shouldn’t just accept whatever someone else says if you don’t fully understand why they say it. That’s the case when it comes to Yavuz.”

“What are you talking about?”

He gave a huff and shook his head, “Don’t worry about it for now, I’ll explain more when you’re older.”

Jennica crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance, “You know I hate when you say that like it’s an answer. It’s almost like I shouldn’t accept it ‘cause I don’t understand why you say it.”

“Why don’t you just help me show Phoenix the pups?” Uriel asked, making his attempt to redirect obvious.

The girl sighed but nodded and turned to lead them.

Phoenix couldn’t help the excitement rising inside at the idea of puppies. And puppies were exactly what she got but they were obviously avals instead of the Earth-kind she was more accustomed to seeing on TV. They were currently being contained in a large pantry that had all the lower shelves emptied of items to allow room for the pups to wander.

Uriel lifted one of the husky-looking balls of fluff that had rounded shards of ice protruding from various places of the white and gray fur which had snow falling from it with every shake and scratch. They all had bright blue eyes and barked happily at the appearance of the Mage.

“These are Frolves,” the cinderen said, handing the chilly furball to her, “They’re avals domesticated from Snolves.”

She snorted a laugh, “Love the name,” she managed to say sarcastically before the pup attacked her face with its tongue, “Oh, ew, come on now. Not the mouth!”

Uriel burst out laughing before quickly calming himself, shaking his head as he attempted to also calm the pup down with a strong hand on its head, “You need to be firm with them or they’ll walk all over you.”

“Some kind of alpha dominance thing?” she asked.

“You’re familiar with the behavior?”

“We have just regular wolves and dogs but they probably act similar. These elemental kinds are new, though,” she glanced down at the sharp-looking pup with two tails and saw the resemblance to the monsters she was often forced to slaughter. They had the same sharp teeth and claws that would snap at her as soon as look at her and she wondered just how “domesticated” these variants were.

When the little furball suddenly stared at her and growled, she felt her panic soar and Uriel quickly lifted the pup from her arms and scolded it, “None of that now, you be good.”

As he placed the pup back with its siblings he explained over his shoulder, “You can’t show them fear, otherwise they won’t trust you. They’re very sensitive to the smell of it.”

“The smell? I thought that was just like a saying,” she said nervously.

The Mage shook his head, “No, it’s definitely a thing,” and she was suddenly reminded about his passive perception ability being scent-based.

“Do I smell afraid?” the Wayfarer asked, lifting a hand to sniff at.

Uriel chuckled, “Not enough that I can smell it through the Silencer.”

That was when Phoenix noticed Jennica staring at her in utter disbelief and she instantly looked over herself to see what was wrong as she asked, “What is it?”

“You made Senesh laugh,” the teen said in awe, “Like, loudly, with the whole chest, and not just that tiny chuckle he does once in a while.”

It was Uriel’s turn to roll his eyes as he said, “I’ve laughed before. The earrings don’t shut me down all the time. Just when things get a bit too extreme.”

“You’ve never laughed around us,” Jennica stated adamantly, “Not like that. Not even when milk came out of Brent’s nose that one time.”

“Well, that was just gross,” the Mage retorted, as he sat on the floor to wrangle puppies more.

The girl promptly turned on her, both hands on either hip, and proclaimed, “You know King and Senesh love each other very much, right?”

That caught her completely off guard and she could only think of asking, “What?”

“Yup,” Jennica confirmed, proceeding to clear up the curiosity that had been lingering in the back of her mind, “I caught them kissing in the kitchen one time.”

“Jen, you know it’s impolite to kiss and tell,” Uriel lightly scolded.

“I wasn’t the one kissing!”

“It’s impolite to tattle as well,” Dazien said from the doorway that led into the pantry they were currently in from the main kitchen.

“Maybe don’t do that stuff in the kitchen then! It’s unsanitary!” the teen retorted in disgust, causing Phoenix to snort a laugh, then continued to address the gemite, “Anyways, my point is that by going along with your crazy idea of being an Adventurer, she’s putting both of you in equal danger.”

“Um, I don’t think not joining their party would have stopped Daze.” Phoenix muttered, remembering how persistent the young leader had been.

“It wouldn’t have. He’s pretty driven about accomplishing his goals,” Uriel agreed.

“We’ve talked about this before, Jen,” the warrior said as he moved closer to help his partner with the pups, “Adventurer first before I can properly aim for becoming a king. Besides, I’m the Defender, remember? I’m fairly hard to kill.”

“But not impossible,” the girl muttered forlornly, “It’s just that, if you or Senesh dies, the other will die too. Then everyone will be sad and forgotten. You two are the only ones who still visit us regularly and actually care.”

“Please tell me Dazien or Uriel didn’t make some insane Oathbond as a teenager to protect the other with his life,” she asked the girl, suddenly worried about crazy teenagers making stupid promises and losing both of her friends at the same time.

Jennica snorted a laugh, “Okay, that does sound like something they’d do but I meant the other will obviously die of a broken heart.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Dazien said firmly.

“It might,” Uriel interjected, looking up at the gemite with a grin, “I don’t know if I’d want to keep living without you. I might simply shrivel up like a flower without water.”

“You’re not helping,” the Defender sighed before turning to the Wayfarer and adding, “And just so you know, most teenagers can’t make an Oathbond. You have to be a Caster to make them.”

“Look at you trying to change the subject,” she said in exaggerated praise.

“I think she’s onto your tricks, Daze,” the Mage chuckled.

The warrior rubbed at a temple before turning back to the teenager and saying, “Listen, Jen, you know how much I plan and prepare for things, right?” the gemite said, placing a hand on the young teen’s shoulder, “Well, part of those plans and preparation was getting the best team together that can survive and thrive. Phoenix is an amazing Adventurer and she's even Favored by the gods, there's no way they'd let anything happen to her, right?”

“I am very good at surviving,” she confirmed with a grin.

“See? So even if one of us gets hurt, we’re always there to pick each other back up and make sure everyone gets home.”

“Which gods?” Jennica asked with narrowed eyes.

“Some of the most powerful ones,” the Defender said with a broad smile, “Warrior, Scholar, Cultivator, Traveler, Rebel…” he paused, then tacked on quietly, “Hero.”

The teen gave a loud groan and whined, “But heroes always die in the end! It’s like their destiny!”

“But everyone else is saved right?” the Wayfarer prompted.

Jennica hesitated then reluctantly admitted, “I mean… yeah, that’s why they’re the hero.”

Phoenix smiled, looking at her two friends then promising the young girl that so obviously cared about them, “Well… then trust me when I say that I’ll make sure these two get home no matter what.”

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