House of Memories [Closed]

The humanoid creature growled as Valen pressed it down with its foot. He'd feel it try to push itself back up strong enough to lift his feet up by a foot before stumbling back down on the ground. Liseran stared at it in dismay while the man clicked his tongue.

"I can't give you proof that it's undead, but you're only putting yourselves in danger by keeping that thing alive," he said. "Look."

The man pulled a paper out of his coat pocket, revealing a Missing poster with the face of the creature on it.

"This is one of the people who's gone missing, and, based on the pattern, every one who goes missing turns up like this or dead," he said.

He groaned.

"Keep it the way you want, if you like, but I'm not sticking around here to see what's going to happen."

He was about to walk away before Liseran grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait!" she said.

The man looked at her.

"Coming downhill we saw a farmer but the next minute he was gone," she said. "Just a few minutes ago. Did you happen to see him?"

The man shook his head and then pinched his nose.

"So now there's another one," he said. "This is bad. That's already five people this week. If they all turn like this we'll have a big problem on our hands."

"Well then, will you help us figure things out?" she asked.

At this, the man broke into a mocking smile and laughed.

"Help you?" he said. "You two look like nothing more than two kid helpers. Don't you think you're a little too big for your britches?"

"Well, he caught the monster, didn't he?" Liseran pointed out.

The man sighed and turned around.

"Look, I don't like working with other people," he said. "Especially annoying brats like yourself who try getting in the way of me killing monsters. Unless, of course, you can convince me you can actually be of help or a nuisance."

"Well, I--"

"I'm talking to him," the man said pointing at Valen. "You're far too talkative and all you're being is annoying right now."

Liseran's eyes widened and her face flushed furiously. However, her eyes waited for Valen's response.

The monster underneath his foot continued to struggle, though it seemed to be getting exhausted.

"He's not wrong," Valen chided in towards the end but otherwise remained silent. He stared blankly but intently at the stranger before them. To be frank, he didn't want to deal with such an unknown factor but understood that this was a situation that required information and he was possibly the only source. He also understood the man's logic. This thing, whatever it was, was a complicated matter and potentially very dangerous. Despite its arms bound, it was able to lift itself up against the pressure Valen was opposing on it with his leg, meaning its lower body alone had some notable strength. He was able to entrap it because it was focused on something else. He couldn't be certain that he could emulate the same thing if necessary.

Valen was staring at the struggling creature but looked back up at the stranger, narrowing his gaze. He opened his free hand that wasn't holding the magical chain to the side and a purple and black light started to weave into a distinct shape of sorts in his grip. It was a long, straight blade about a meter's length. He moved it, positioning it by the creature's head like a game of cricket. He raised his sword overhead and swung in a flash!

"There," he said matter-of-factly. "This way, even it it breaks free, it won't be as problematic to deal with it."

Behind him, the cleanly lobbed off left leg of the creature would be lying a few inches away.

"If there does turn out to be a way to revert these things to people, then I will personally take responsibility for that later," Valen stated blankly. "But most importantly, we can't dismiss any possibility no matter how unlikely and we need to collect all the info we can."

Both Liseran and the hunter stood in shock as Valen cut through the creature's leg. Loud, gurgling shrieks filled the air and the monster thrashed.

"Valen, what in all that is holy!?" Liseran gasped.

If they observed where the creature had been cut, they'd see that the interior had completely dried out blood on the inside and desiccated muscles. The leg, meanwhile, lied limp on the floor. The hunter pointed at the leg.

"Yeah, I'm not carrying that," he said.

The hunter sighed as he slung his crossbow behind his back again.

"But I'll except this compromise," he said. "Just keep it away from people. Anyways, I 'guess' if you really want to keep this thing, I could use that info. First thing's first, I'm Travis Bellvue. I'm a wandering hunter who tracks down necromancers in particular. I came to this town because I worried that the missing people are being used for sacrifices. From the way you're acting, I'm guessing you're a hunter...and she's a brat."

Liseran scowled and this time promptly kicked the man in the shin. The man yelped and doubled-over for a moment before growling at the girl.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"What do you think!?" she said back. "And I'll have you know that if I wanted to, I could bind you and leave you lying on the ground next to this creature."

The man loomed over the short woman, glaring and staring straight at her eyes.

"Listen, you little--"

The moment he got closer, though, his eyes softened and he looked surprised.

"Wait a minute," he said. "You look familiar. You look like Tala's girl."

Liserans' eyes widened and she started to step back.

"Wh-what do you mean?" she said, her eyes averting from him. Valen would notice her slowly moving back to his side, and even grasping the edge of his vest.

"Tala Dormirse," he said. "The hair, the eyes, you look just like she did. You're not related are you?"

Hearing the surname, Liseran perked up slightly.

"You know her?" she asked.

The man let off a small smirk and touched his chin.

"Oh, I did more than just know her," he said with a knowing grin. "But long story short, in my younger years I came across her and her ragtag bunch several times. She helped me bust out a secret sect in Saoirse once. Quite the fighter, and the lover, if you know what I--"

The man would receive a second kick to the shin. He'd yell again, but refrain from glaring.

"Okay...I deserved that."

Liseran, meanwhile, was extremely red-faced. She did NOT need to know that much.

"W-we shouldn't be straying off topic!" Liseran said. "You said you hunt necromancers and think this is their doing. Have you ever dealt with this kind of creature though to competently say it's undead?"

The man regarded the question quietly.

"Not with the features you pointed out, I'll admit," he said. "It is strange. I'm hoping there's not any more of these though. Right now for me what's important is finding the missing girl and finding leads."

Liseran nodded.

"Well, we were going to town to look to begin with," she said. "If you need help digging info we can go where you haven't yet."

"The east district near the beach shore should do it," he said. "There's a house there that had two of their help go missing, but I haven't gotten the details yet. But...you aren't SERIOUSLY thinking about bringing that thing into town, are you?"

Liseran looked at the monster. It seemed fatigued now and had stopped resisting. It was just glaring at the ground at this point. Liseran looked at Valen.

"What should we do with it?" she asked. "We can't just leave it here. But we can't kill it either."

"This thing is...." Valen was looking at the dismembered leg and the way the blood and muscles looked, but he didn't continue his thought, turning his attention back to Liseran and the man named Travis.

"I don't want to leave this thing unguarded anyway," Valen stated. "We can split into two teams. One will continue gathering information on the attacks and investigate on where the missing girl is. The other will continue to study this specimen. Since it's my magic keeping it chained, I'll take this thing somewhere where it won't pose danger to others and analyze it. You two can investigate the attacks and what the locals know."

Valen glanced upwards as if staring at a floating thought before looking back at the pair. "Consider mental manipulation as a possibility moving forward."

Liseran looked alarmed at Valen's proposal.

"Y-you can't possibly think I'll leave you here," she said hesitantly. "Besides, I don't want to be with someone who insists on calling me a brat."

Travis frowned.

"Hey, the moment I got here all you've been doing is yelling and kicking me," he said. "So maybe reconsider my assessment."

He'd look at Valen.

"But you have a point," he said. "Someone has to study this creature who has the know-how. I guess we can leave you to it. Little missy and I can split ways and look for info. I suppose we can reconvene here in two hours' time? Though, if you'd like you can bring back the creature to my place first. That should give you a safer space. We can't risk you getting attacked while pre-occupied. It's just a small cabin up here in the hills too. So we don't have to worry about people getting to it."

"I suppose it'd be better to meet there, too," she said.

The monster was now trying to struggle against Valen's chains again.

"Though, carrying it might be a problem," she said. "Let me handle this."

Liseran would cast a glyph underneath the monster. It would gasp as it glowed and started to hover slightly in the air, the glyph affixed underneath it.

Liseran would look at the hunter.

"Lead the way," she said.

She'd have Valen tag along as they'd exit the forest and make their way on a separate path. There was a small cabin that looked more like a shack there.

The hunter would let them in and they'd see a small bed, a table, a cooking hearth, and a dresser. It was, by all means, rather bare.

"We can leave you here then?" he said. "I should have some undead books on the dresser. Feel free to look around them."

If Valen looked at Liseran, she was staring down at the ground with her hands clutching her dress. She had oddly gone quiet.

"Yeah. This is ideal," Valen stated, looking around the house. "I'll see what I can manage here."

Valen looked at the others when he noticed Liseran with a look of discomfort.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

Liseran didn't look up at Valen. She slowly shook her head.

"Mnn...nnn.."

She was quickly snapped out of it when Travis gave her a firm pat on the back.

"Come on, kid, we don't have all day," Travis said. "Quit stalling with your boyfriend!"

Liseran's face flushed.

"H-he's not my--!"

Liseran pouted and let out a sigh. She then looked at Valen, frowning.

"Be careful," she said. "You don't know if that creature can do other things. Besides...Remi would be really upset if something happened to you."

She sharply turned and skit away, following Travis' lead. She'd give Valen one more glance before going away.

This left Valen alone in with the creature which had been propped on the table. It had gone quiet again from exhaustion and had squinted its eyes closed. He could test it the way he wanted now.

Valen watched them as they left before to the creature.

"I went along with the most logical plan..." Valen muttered, "... But how do you go around analyzing this thing anyway?"

Valen crossed his arms and hummed under his breath.

"Guess I'll start with looking through the books."

Valen would start flipping through books, trying to see if anything remotely matched what he was dealing with.

"I suppose dissection is the most efficient way..." he muttered as he read. "But I want to avoid that on the off-chance there's a cure. Although..."

The book Valen got his hands on talked about how to be rid of the dead. Valen's best bet of non-damage would most likely be experimenting on the severed leg rather than the creature itself. Though the creature was near the point of exhausting, the leg, at least, had already been lost.

Unfortunately for Valen, the book only had Cartic spells to examine or purge the undead. There would be no way he could do it himself.

Another option was to simply test the durability of the flesh to things that naturally repelled the undead as rumored including St. John's Wort, and Hollyhock. Either would cause the flesh to necrotize. If Valen got his hands on these and brushed a little on the skin, it would indeed create a dark patch.

Mid-experiment, however, he'd hear running outside and panting.

"HELP!" a raspy male voice cried. "IT'S AFTER ME!"

There would be intense banging on the door, and from the window, Valen would see it was the cabbage farmer.

Valen flipped through the books while keeping the corner of his vision on the creature. He had a blank expression that slowly started to become disgruntled as his search only resulted in him learning more way to kill what he was examining. This was no help at all. Well, he accounted for something like this when he sliced off the creature's leg. While certainly not clean, he now had something he could examine and prod at without endangering the subject. Plus, since the limb has yet to disintegrate, he can conclude that at least it wasn't a corrupted beast, which narrowed things down.

As he contemplated this though, a rattle came at the door. He spun around and saw through the window that it was the cabbage dealer.

Shoot!

Valen hastily grabbed the bedsheet and threw it over the creature before running through the door and opening it.

"What's the matter?" he asked urgently.