Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 130

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Chapter 130

We brought Lord Vermin kicking and screaming back with us as hostage. I had him tied up on the mast of the airship. To say the fat imp wasn't happy was an understatement. He tried bribing and badmouthing any and everyone nearby to free him.

"Hey. Hey! At least look at me when I speak to you. Come on. I'll hook any of you up with a hundred-thousand krolins just to cut my ropes. You don't have to ferry me to safety. I'll do it myself. I have friends in very high places! I know the demon lord personally!" Lord Vermin shouted to a crew of sailors carrying barrels down from the ship.

I watched from the quarterdeck, wondering what to do with him when Kaoru came up from behind.

"This creature. He's loud. Can't we just kill him? I can do it out of sight if you don't want to see it," Kaoru said.

"You yakuza punks only think about killing and not killing. No, we ain't gonna off him. Jabba the imp down there is the closest thing we've got to Chika. He might know something. It's just a matter of how to ring it out of him." I vaulted off and landed on the lower deck.

Vermin snorted in fright, seeing me and Kaoru saunter up to him. The demon who hid behind his monsters was just another thin-skinned, weak little monkey after all.

"I-I gave you what you wanted. Surely you have no need to keep me hostage anymore, right?" Vermin asked.

"You hear that, Micchi? The demon says we have no need to keep him hostage anymore. That means I can get rid of him." Kaoru summoned Kamigoroshi to her hand and lowered the speartip to his nose.

"Hiiiieee— No! No! That's not what I meant! Please, don't hurt me!" he cried.

"Then you better tell us something we wanna hear. Like what Chika's planning." I squatted down next to him and cracked my knuckles.

"Look… if it's about the demon lord, no one knows what she wants other than herself. Oh, I know! Lady Katrine. That stuck-up bitch probably has a better idea. She was previously the undisputed lord until the new one came along to shake things up!"

Lady Katrine was the demon ruling the place Lilim called Roila. She and King Garran also had crystals needed to open the palace. Didn't matter who we went to first, we needed them anyway. Might as well hit the one who might know something about Chika.

"Well, what do you think? Ririko?" I asked above.

Ririko landed gracefully thanks to her being able to fly. In the back of my mind, I always knew she could outright escape, and we wouldn't be able to catch her. She knew it, too. If the caked up bitch hadn't left yet, maybe she could be trusted.

"Sorry, did you want my opinion? I was under the impression that you had everything going as planned," Ririko sneered.

"Tch… You're the one who was shacking up with demons. You got nothing either?"

"I only met with Chika briefly, and it wasn't in person. You want to know my opinion? Attacking Roila is suicide. Lady Katrine's city is defended by the same anti-air obelisks that surround Sathorayne. You would have to attack it normally," she explained.

"Our forces are too small to commit to a siege. We have to wait for the rest of the armies to arrive and hit it together," Kaoru said.

"Uh… Sounds like you ladies are coming up with a plan. Maybe untie me and let me go, so I can let you plan in peace?" Vermin asked with a toothy smile.

I backhanded the imp, knocking him out cold and a fang out of his mouth. Hopefully hard enough that he forgot what we were saying when he woke up.

"Oh, yes. Put him unconscious. You're soooo good at diplomacy," Ririko taunted me.

"Haven't met anything I couldn't solve with these." I raised two clenched fists. "Anyway, we'll be stuck here twiddling our thumbs until the cavalry arrives. After nabbing Vermin here, the rest of them are gonna be on high alert. Everyone needs to be on their toes from now on."

Over the next few days, the whole crew was hard at work building a forward outpost before the rest of the army got here. We put Vermin in a cell inside the airship. Melfyssa and Vistra village were grateful for what we did, so they openly traded with us for food and other supplies like medicine, manpower, and tools.

While walking through the outpost in the morning to make sure everything was in order, Pino came running up to me covered in sweat. Prince Kain promoted the cavalry-captain to legion-commander which put him directly underneath me in terms of rank. Kid's been growing, that's for sure.

"What's got you all winded, Pino?" I asked.

"Some of my scouts have been hearing things in the woods. Some of them returned… not like themselves. Even healers aren't sure what's going on. It might be faster to show you." Pino led me to the relief hut where the injured went when they needed healing.

Mildred was inside, looming over a soldier on a cot with her hands hovering above him.

"You brought her? What is Micchi going to do? Punch them to recovery?" Mildred groaned.

"Worth a try," I said, raising a fist.

"This is the tenth scout now," Pino began worriedly. "It starts with them coming back spooked. Say they saw things attack them from the mists, but none of them show any signs of injury. By the end of the day, they start getting restless, and then comatose."

The scout that Mildred was tending to tossed and turned in his sleep. He was drenched head to toe in sweat, so much that the sheets were moist. Occasionally, he made growling sounds like Kawa did when having a bad dream.

"Could be something attacking them out in the forest, and they just didn't see it?" I offered.

Pino shook his head. "Can't be. These are among the best. If they said they haven't seen anything… I believe them, and… guh…"

The beastling wobbled back and forth until he fell into me.

"Pino? Pino! Shit. You, too?" I carried him over to an empty cot.

When Mildred looked over Pino with her magic, she frowned.

"Hmm. Same symptoms as the other," Mildred said.

"You went out there, huh?" I sighed.

"As… legion-commander… I had to make sure… for myself… I feel so pathetic," Pino panted every word in great effort before passing out.

If this continued, we would eventually start dropping like flies. Better nip this in the bud before it was too late.

"Where do you think you're going? You don't even know what to look for or even where to begin to look," Mildred said.

"Someone's gotta check it out. You got a better idea?" I asked.

"Since you asked, I do." She flashed her usual patronizing smile.

We left the relief hut and found Naka by the pens where livestock were kept. She was rubbing Kawa's cheeks, and Kawa was licking her hands.

"Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl?" Naka cooed at the elemental wolf.

"Kawa can't guard the livestock if you keep playing with her." I made myself known from the fence and startled her.

The beastling jumped a couple of feet into the air. "M-M-Micchi? I-I was just seeing how Kawa was doing. That's all!"

"We have need of your talents, relic hunter. Let us find the succubus and be off," Mildred said.

The five of us headed into the forest alone. A thick fog carpeted the ground up to our knees. Mildred rode on her flying broom and Lilim flew with her wings. Meanwhile, Naka and I rode on Kawa to avoid tripping over roots, rocks, and other shit on the ground.

"It is believed that before Sathorayne was raised into the sky, the landmass was actually part of Mou'nan. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to back up those claims. It's all rumors passed down from generation to generation. There aren't any more maps to depict what Mou'nan looked like back then. The only people who may know for sure is the former demon lord Lady Katrine. However, we do know that deep, deep, deep north, there is a long stretch of canyon that's just covered in snow. If someone were to ever chart it out and outline it on the map, I'm sure Sathorayne would fit perfectly. Just imagine how many relics were scattered through, but oh! In that case, demons must have scooped them all up by now—"

"I don't believe it. She hasn't stopped talking since we left," Lilim muttered in disbelief.

Mildred believed Naka's hunger for knowledge and treasure-hunting ways were our best bet to figuring out what was going on. We finally got to where the scouts' last visited location in the forest. It should have been around here where they and Pino got hit by something.

"Alright. Assuming they were ambushed, then the same is gonna happen to us if we wait here long enough. Naka, I hope your notebooks got something. The rest of us, eyes peeled," I said.

"Right!" Naka rummaged through her knapsack and pulled out a bunch of wrinkly old books, containing maps, notes, and ancient writings.

"Wouldn't it be better if we asked the seer to help us, Master? She and her village live somewhat close. They would surely know something," Lilim suggested.

"I asked," Mildred said. "They told us to leave this place be. If they won't be of any help, then it is up to us."

I hopped off Kawa to look around with Mildred and Lilim. That was when something reached out from the ground. I stepped away from the two ghostly arms. They missed me by a hair. A dozen misty figures emerged and flew circles above our heads, shrieking like banshees.

"The hell's going on?" I shielded my face when a strong wind blew in and kicked up dirt.

"Wraiths! Don't let them touch you, or they will possess and drain your soul!" Mildred warned.

One of them detached from the halo of fog and came straight for me. I sidestepped it, and it disappeared into the ground.

"We supposed to dodge 'em forever? How do we fight back?" I asked.

"You don't! We need a priest or paladin to exorcise them!" Mildred exclaimed while dodging her own share of ghosts.

Maybe Lilim had something up her sleeves.

"Hey—"

"Master… give in… and let me suck your soul…" Lilim croaked, her eyes glowed white and she moved like an amateur puppeteer was controlling her.

"Well, shit. You're about as helpful as a turd stuck to my shoe." I grabbed Lilim by the back of her head and slammed her face into a tree.

The succubus slid down, clutching her nose. "Ow! What did I do to deserve that?!"

We stared at her in shock. Lilim was somehow back to herself. A dazed wraith billowed out of her ears like steam.

"Did you just—" Mildred was interrupted by more wraiths flying out of the ground.

"Naka, tell me you got something!" I shouted.

"I… maybe? Buy me more time. I'm still searching!" Naka yelled back.

The wraiths formed a giant sheet of moaning ghosts above us. The giant mass beelined it for Mildred, capturing her and soaking into the pores of her body.

Lilim and I stood our ground as Mildred groaned in pain, then she stood up straight and flexed her fingers.

"Mildred? You in there?" I hollered.

"Master, that's not Mildred!" Lilim shoved me out of the way from Mildred's fireball and took the full blast. The succubus crashed into the side of a tree, toasted like a burnt marshmallow.

"Ahahaha! We like this body. It is powerful. Full of magic and capable of such destructive spells. Now, we can take our revenge!" Mildred cackled loudly.

"We? The fuck is wrong with you?" I asked.

Mildred turned to me with glowing white eyes and grinned. Magical energy danced across the surface of her skin like currents of electricity.

"Yes, we. For years our souls have been trapped, suffering in silence. Now that we have a vessel, it is time to enact our vengeance on those who imprisoned us. Your vessel is also strong. We shall take you, too." Mildred zapped me with lightning. Stray blasts started fires on the ground and trees.

"Wraiths… ghosts… trapped? I think I got it! There must be a soul conduit!" Naka exclaimed.

"Kawa, sniff out the thingamajig and dig it out!" I ordered.

Kawa pressed her nose to the dirt.

"No!" The possessed Mildred was about to fire a spell at them until I tackled her to the ground.

"Your fight's with me, bitch! Bitches? However many of you are in there, you're all dead when I'm done with you!

"We're already dead, you fool!" she fired back. "There's nothing you can do to stop us either. You're no priest, paladin, or cleric. You have no holy magic to exorcise us with!"

"Let's see you exorcise this!" I threw a punch.

Mildred raised a shield to block it, but my punch went through like nothing and connected with her gut. She dropped to her knees and vomited a slew of wraiths.

"Brute… Your barbaric attacks are working… keep hitting me!" Mildred mumbled before the possession took hold again.

Punch after punch, I laid into Mildred. Each hit knocked a bunch of wraiths out of her body.

"How… is this even possible? What are you?" the wraiths made her say.

"Say your prayers." I picked her up by the collar of her robes and clenched my fist.

"N-No more! If we had known living again would hurt this much, we wouldn't have possessed anyone!"

All at once, the wraiths escaped from Mildred and went back to a swirling mass in the sky.

"We found it!" Naka shouted to us. "It really was a soul conduit!"

Kawa had dug a giant hole in the ground and excavated a six-sided gray pillar with glowing symbols. I smashed it into pieces with Sacchan, causing the wraiths to shriek with each hit until they vanished. The fog cleared away with them.

"Is it… over?" Lilim asked, coughing up smoke and dragging herself back to us.

I went over to help Mildred up, but she waved me off and asked to be left on the ground.

"I'm utterly flabbergasted that you were able to do that." Mildred sighed and popped a healing potion into her mouth.

"I always say your fists are the most reliable tools. So, what the fuck was that anyway? Gimme the short, and not a long-winded history lesson," I said to Naka.

"Soul conduit," Naka began. "Ancient demon technology before magic crystals became widely mined for use. It drains living beings for their mana to power anything you can think of. Wish we could have brought it back to study, but I guess it was better to set those souls to rest."

After a short rest, we returned to the outpost and brought Mildred to the relief hut to heal what the potion couldn't.

Pino and the other scouts were still bedridden even though we destroyed the soul conduit. There were probably wraiths still inside them.

"Did you… find out what it was?" Pino asked weakly.

"Yeah. Also figured out how to fix you," I said, walking up to his bedside and putting him in the seated upright position.

"Uhmm… What are you doing?"

"Sorry, bud. Gonna need you to clench your jaws. This'll sting pretty bad." I balled up a fist in front of his face.

"M-Micchi, wait! I don't like that look in your eyes! Micchi, no—!"

I socked Pino across the face. Maybe a little too hard because it knocked him out. Loud enough, however, to wake the other scouts up. Everyone saw the wraith leaving their legion-commander's body and disappearing from sight. The nurse and healers rushed in to give him aid.

"Alright. Who else needs an exorcism?" I turned to them and smashed a fist into my palm.