"The pope said the Saintess had a revelation. A horrible calamity was coming from the cursed village. So, we were hired. My party were all A rank adventurers; we tracked you through everything. We even found the remains of a dragon in the dungeon. When we got to this city, we got stuck for a bit due to that storm. the lower parts of the city had flooding, and we were stuck in some ruins. We thought when we saw the Alpha Wolf he was the calamity then I used mana sense on you and I almost puked. That's why your friend could get to me without me fighting her. My head still spinning from that, you are beyond any calamity. I doubt an S rank could even survive a fight with you. I'm sure they'll send the sisters next. Those ladies are absolutely devoted to the goddess Artemia." She explained.
I turned to Rea.
"How much of a threat is this cult?" I asked
"To you? It's not, I doubt they can even find one-person that's free at the moment to be able to take you on. they would have to have a team of the world's best adventurers to even stand a chance. That's my opinion though." She replied.
"So now what should we do with this one?" I asked turning back to the cowering girl.
"Please don't kill me. I'll do anything." She pleaded.
I looked at Rea and she lit up like she had the best idea.
"You will be our parties slave girl. Carry our stuff help us in a fight. You will sign this soul binding contract. That will be the only way you get to live." She said as she pulled a really old parchment from her bag. Desira looked scared but nodded her head rapidly.
Rea stood the girl up, nicked her finger with a blade she hid in her boot and put her finger on the parchment.
"Repeat everything, I say. I give my body and soul to my master John, I shall never bring him any harm, mention him in any hostile way, release any of his secrets and will even put my life on the line if he so desires. My will shall be his to command until death doth claim me." Rea said watching Desira.
She repeated each word carefully. The scroll glowed a deep hue of purple and then a static charge went from the scroll to Desira. She fell to her knees and cried out in pain.
"Sorry about that." Rea said with a smile.
Desira stood up sobbing.
"Kindly gather anything valuable your party had, we are going to need it and then you will take us to your camp, and we will take whatever supplies you have." Rea instructed her.
I walked over to the wooden chair and removed my helmet. I held it in my hands; the arrow hole was a gaping tear in the metal. I tossed the useless helm aside and sighed. Rea glanced over at me; her eyes grew wide and then walked over to me. She fumbled around in her back and found what she was looking for. She pulled a silver mirror from her bag and handed it to me. I looked into the mirror and almost dropped it. What looked back at me was something that was starting to resemble my old face. Hair was starting to grow from the top of my head, my pumpkin-like skin had smoothed out a bit and my skull had started to resemble more of a human skull.
"I wonder what caused you to change so drastically." Rea pondered.
"I killed Richard." I replied.
Rea looked at me for a few minutes lost in thought.
"Is it possible you get stronger the more humans you kill? That could explain it. Maybe you're turning back into a human?" She said taking up my hands with the biggest smile on her face.
She looked down at my hands and smiled.
"You even have fingers now!" She spoke.
I looked at my hands and noticed that the now resembled human hands but orange.
"That doesn't bode well for the pope and his little cult." I said with a laugh.
We finished gathering everything up and had Desira lead us to their camp. We took everything that we could carry. Another tent and enough food supplies for a while. There was a bit of money that the three had for travel expenses.
"The church would be upset to know that they are funding the calamity himself." Rea giggled punching my arm as we walked away from the city.
We walked for a few days towards the mages tower. We left the region and into another thick wooded area. Creatures seemed to outright avoid us now, which seemed to disappoint Anzar, who now went back out to hunt things that were nearby as we traveled. Always meeting us that night in camp, sometimes he would bring deer and other wild game, so we had fresh meat. I still had no sense of taste unfortunately and didn't have the need to eat anyway. Within a week of us traveling through the wooded area we started coming across signs of human ruins. First it was just a few ruined cabins. Nothing worthwhile in any of them. Then we saw the tower. It stood tall amongst the trees; the top of the tower was barely visible amongst the treetops. The front was surrounded by dead trees, overgrown with brush. We cut the door free and pushed it open. Bats cried out and flew away as we entered the massive tower. a single small flame lit up on the wall the moment we entered the room. The flame illuminated our surroundings. there was a large foyer with a grand oak desk at one end, behind that desk was a large circle platform. We walked over to the desk and checked around. Everything was scattered on the desk covered in years of dust and bat droppings.
"We make camp on this floor, get it cleaned up, we will get a fire going and get food cooking before we go any further." rea said putting her bag down.