Chapter 98 - Troop of Satori

~Content Warning: Body Horror~

I grit my teeth as we fly away from the village. Stupid! How much trouble have I landed Her in now? The King's first cousin, dead at the hands of one of my Servants! Even if it was to keep him from sowing chaos, I should have kept a better reign on her!

"M-Master... I apologize."

Seeming to sense my anger, the Yuki-Onna quietly reaches a hand towards my shoulder. Thanks to the barrier surrounding us, the wind is neither felt or heard, letting us converse freely.

"You should. Couldn't you have just- I don't know, froze off the hand the ring was on or something? Instead of freezing him entirely? Your kind is supposed to be masters of manipulating cold magic, rivalling even the Elder Dragon of Cold themself." My scathing tone causes her to flinch back, retracting her hand as if it hurts to touch us.

I ignore her reaction, a brief dizzy spell hitting me suddenly. Shit- our SP-

"Master- You're weakened... Please, let this one offer herself so that you might regain some strength. Consider it a small penance for the trouble I've brought the Master." Our bond tells me that she is genuine in her offer. Whatever, now that we've cleared the snow you're not needed anymore.

I target her with Vitaephagy and Manaphagy, leeching both her HP and MP to recover my own SP. Eating her body would be impossible, as it would just scatter into Mourning Air once her HP runs out, leaving the Hitodama behind to be reclaimed by the Soul Core.

"A-a-ah" A whimper of pain escapes her as I empty out her MP. A few moments later, her body brightly flashes before dissipating into a murky purple mist, in the midst of which is the Hitodama that acted as the Yuki-Onnas' Soul.

Both the mist and the Hitodama are sucked into the Origin Soul Core, leaving nothing behind to suggest there ever was a Yuki-Onna sitting on my back. I shudder slightly, my other half stirring from her slumber ever so slightly.

Seems I disturbed her with that. Let's try to not be as ruthless going forward. She needs all the peace of mind she can get. I'm just worried as to how this experience has changed her... My newfound emotions...

I sigh. I am Shadow, the repressed part of Millibelle. I am the parts of her personality that she deems inappropriate to display to the world. If the experience with Esmer and the Hitodama has caused her to fear expressing her feelings...

Or worse- She begins fearing the repercussions of letting someone that dislikes her go free... I feel that she would have wanted to kill Almus- to keep him from becoming like Esmer.

*Destination reached: Tropical biosphere*

World Knowledge's announcement rips me out of my introspection. I stop and hover over a vast stretch of rainforest. A wide, slow flowing river snakes through it, making it look almost like an aerial shot of the Amazon river.

The presence of neon-colored fruits and the colossal snake-head rising out of the river sure makes it clear that this isn't Her old World.

I land on the river's bank, the giant snake flicks their tongue in my direction before submerging and vanishing into the river. I'm not even able to pick it up with Awareness. Oh well, it wasn't edible to humanoids anyway.

Double-checking my MP reserves, I should have enough. Once this is done, I'll be resting until we need to get back to the villages with the food, so it should work out.

I focus, breathing deep as I bring out ten Hitodama.

*Suggestion: The Eastern Spirit, Satori, is an adept forager that is also able to bring down prey on its own.*

Hm, let's go with that then. Pouring MP into the Hitodama, I observe as the silhouette they take on is reminiscent of a chimpanzee. However, once they fully transform, they look more like man-sized snow macaques- those hot-spring monkeys from Japan- that walk upright.

*Satori*

*An Eastern Spirit that bears some similarities with the Orang-Utan, though these similarities are superficial. The Satori is much more intelligent, to the point of employing several Skills that require high Intelligence to use, such as Predict Movement and Mind-Reader. Due to these Skills, it's almost impossible to outwit or outmaneuver a Satori. Only by overwhelming it with numbers can one even the odds. Due to this, unless a Satori is enroaching on humanoid habitation and being a danger, it isn't normally hunted.

Its pelt is popular to use as an accent piece on quivers, said to endow the arrows contained within said quiver with added accuracy, though it's unknown how true this is.*

*Rank: 3 Stars*

The ten Satori stand at attention, their faces flushed red with excitement.

"Gather food- fruit, meat, herbs- doesn't matter. Find it and bring it to me. I'll be waiting here." I instruct the monkeys. They excitedly chatter amongst themselves before running off into the forest.

I settle down by the rivers bank. Time to rest.

Meanwhile

Valena's POV

"W-What the fuck happened here?" Brocken is the first of us to break the horrified silence that's struck us since we laid eyes on Telal, a small village to the south-east of my hometown. We, the Champions, had been sent to check on the situation after a lone, battered hunter arrived to the Hall.

They had managed to relay their message: Something horrible had attacked the village during the High Cold Event. Only because they were a mage specializing in Cold were they able to brave the blizzard to get help. They died a few hours later.

Now, the eight of us are staring at the remnants of the village. The snow's piled high here same as everywhere else, but it's colored a strange, shimmering blackish blue.

'Que-uerue~'

Oyvinds monster companion, Rafflina, a Great Armolisk, chitters gently to her master. "She says there's living things inside, but they're not shaped like humanoids." Oyvind translates for us. His closeness with his companion is astounding, to the point where he seems a completely different person when she's around.

"Do we go inside?" Merkiv asks Peony. She gets thoughtful for a moment before turning to Brocken.

"Could you scout with your Invisibility Spell? We just need to know whether or not to expect hostility." She asks. Brocken nods before shimmering slightly and then vanishing. Unfortunately, his footprints are still visible in the snow.

We wait for a few moments before Brocken returns, his face pale as he reappears. "I- I think there's Malice at work. Th-Those things... They look eerily like the illustrations I saw of the failed experiments."

"How many?" Terne asks sternly, a passionate anger glowing in her eyes.

"Five that I could see." Brocken turns to Rafflina. "Unless there's more inside the buildings." The monster shakes her head. Understanding Common isn't that unusual for a companion monster, as it's all a matter of exposure and experience to learn it. Actually speaking it though, is another matter entirely.

"Okay, so we've got five assumed hostiles. Do we engage?" Terne asks Peony. Although she's expressed the desire that we don't elect a leader, everyone sort of keep deferring to her anyway. The noblewoman gets a grim expression on her face before taking a deep breath.

"We probe them. If these are indeed produced by the Malice chimerifying humanoids, then we could only expect to face more in the future. Any experience fighting them we can get will only aid us." She turns to me before continuing.

"If things get bad, we run. If we can't run, Valena will call the Monarch." She looks me in the eyes, as if searching for my response to her words. As much as I want to not call on her ever again, I suppose if it comes to either calling on her or losing one of the Champions, the choice should be easy.

I nod in approval of her words.

"Alright, everyone, get ready." Dina gives the order as we all draw our weapons. Leading the charge is the Great Armolisk, her large frame easily clearing a path through the piled up snow.

As we pass the village wall, Dina suddenly tackles me out of the way. She'd been keeping pace with me before all of a sudden she'd sped up and brought us both flat against the ground. As I turn my head to give her a confused look, she brings my head down.

'Thunk'

Just where my torso had been moments before Dina tackled me, a large black object flew with lethal velocity. It lodges itself deep in the ground, though the bit that sticks out seems alive as it thrashes about.

"On that roof!" Oyvind shouts, once again translating for Rafflina. I look to where he's pointing, and spot something very... wiggly... moving just out of sight. "Merkiv, Rafflina has confirmed no humanoids in this village. It's completely empty other than those five things." Oyvind informs Merkiv, who gives a grim nod.

No civilians nearby means he can let loose with his Spells without worrying about anyone other than us. Merkiv pauses for just a moment before he raises his hand, and from it, a massive fireball erupts.

It shoots upwards in an arch. Even if it landed a distance away, I still wince from the sudden heat that erupts from the impact spot.

'Y̵̡̝̍̃̌͘ē̸̪̺e-ee-a̷̠͈̤͑͜r̵̩͕̈́͒̆̕g̶̨̦̜̱͛̿͗͘h̶̫̝͖͛̂'

The horrid sound of someone shrieking in pain comes from the roof that was hit by Merkiv's Spell. Moments later, a contorted, convulsing mess of limbs and flesh falls from the roof, coated in fire.

All of a sudden, I'm back at the town square, mother carrying me away as the Hateful monster rampages. I freeze-

"Hey! Focus!" Wanda hoists me up by the collar of my armor. My helmet's fallen off when Dina knocked me to the ground. "This is no time for fear!" Their words are harsh but well meaning. I get my feet under me and stare intently at the convulsing mass.

Although its limbs look humanoid, their arrangement isn't. Arms serve as legs, legs kick blindly in the air, numerous eyes glare out from between the mess of limbs. The only thing not blindly thrashing on its body is a strange arrangement of legs.

Six legs, arranged in a circular way. collectively, they seem to hold something- perhaps the same thing that narrowly missed me- The legs begin to tense, as if they were crouching. An intense sense of danger fills my mind.

"Get out of the way of it!" I shout to no-one in particular as the still on fire thing jerks this central 'apparatus' towards Peony. The six legs all simultaneously kick back, firing whatever was kept between their feet towards her at frightening speed.

"Milady!" Peonys Guard shouts as he knocks her out of the way, his greatshield raised in an attempt to block the hit.

'Twang!'

'Crash'

The greatshield shatters like glass, the momentum of the projectile being transferred to the Guards arm, wrenching it backwards and clearly out of its socket. The projectile keeps going, embedding itself deep into the wall behind Peony and the Guard.

A horrid gargle issues from the chimerified humanoid as another projectile emerges from between the six legs. Just as the legs tense back to receive this new ammunition, it's bathed in a bright ray of light.

It shrieks and spasms, thrashing about, but the Light Beam is joined by a Fireball from Merkiv. Then, a small orb of black is shot by Dina. It circles the beam of light before entering it just before hitting its target.

Light and Dark do not mingle well. Colliding Spells like this... The result is usually a massive explosion.

The blast from it is actually strong enough to knock us over. When I recover, there's no sign of life left in the chimerified humanoid. The limbs that remain attached to the central mass are still twitching slightly, as if it was an Insectoid, but the uncontrolled convulsing is gone.

"Grieg! Grieg! By Our Mother, are you all right?" Peony fusses over her Guard. It's clear that his shield arm is severely damaged, with how it's dangling uselessly at his side.

"I- I'm alright, Milady- I've had worse-" Grieg manages to say, his teeth clenched hard from the pain. "I think it's broken as well as dislocated-" He continues before slumping over, having passed out from the pain.

"Shit- oh fuck-" Brocken exclaims. He's taken a closer look at whatever it was that was shot at us. His face is pale- even slightly tinted green- as he scurries off just behind a building to throw up.

The projectile, it's not moving anymore, but I've read Grandma's books. She studied humanoid anatomy, searching for a cure to those ailments that Life Spells cannot cure. I recognize that arrangement of bone, loosely held together by black, oily ooze.

A human spine, complete with ribs and a skull.