Meet Commander Drevtvarz

“Being controlled by drugs or a parasite that causes one to do delusional actions can have a degree of forgiveness if it was all explained. However, what if one’s heinous actions were caused by manipulation from someone more powerful? It’s not a one-time state of delusion. It becomes a large chunk of that person’s character. Even if that person realizes they’ve been lied to in the end, the remnants will always remain.”

Kitezh, Nadia, and Jadwiga were walking inside an academy with marble flooring and walls decorated with wooden art pieces. Most of the art seems to be about nationality, such as swords, shields, and coat of arms plaques. As they ventured down the halls, they were surrounded by the academy alumni’s faces with names carved underneath.

The wooden faces mounted on the walls seemed to be staring at the three girls. However, the girls were having a semi-Mexican standoff. Kitezh glowered at Jadwiga, Jadwiga darted her eyes back at Kitezh and Nadia, and Nadia had green eyes of jealousy at Jadwiga and Kitezh.

“Is your commander really working at a place like an academy, a place where people are constantly doing research to fight against the Demon Lord?” Kitezh asked Jadwiga.

“You can say it’s quite conspicuous. One would say hiding in plain sight is the best idea. However, what’s even more conspicuous is right here.”

Jadwiga looked at one of the wooden heads mounted on the walls. She looked both ways before snatching it off the wall.

“Follow me,” Jadwiga quickly said, as she made haste to the toilets.

Jadwiga shut the stall door, and mounted the head on it. Kitezh and Jadwiga crowded with puzzled looks on their faces. They watched as Jadwiga worked her magic.

Jadwiga took out a stick, and shoved it into the wooden head’s mouth. She poked the back of its head like she wanted to make to cough up something. That’s because she actually was.

The head suddenly transformed into a fleshy face, and its eyes widened.

“Hack! Ahk! Ptoo!” The face suddenly gagged.

“Okay, I knew this wooden head mount was going to be your commander as soon as you took it, but this still is weird as fuck,” said Nadia.

“Ah! Jadwiga, you’re alive. I’m happy to see you completed the mission!” said the face in a delighted and polite demeanor that felt robotic.

The face began to contort his wrinkles as he looked around the room.

“Wait a second, who are those two? Jadwiga, I thought I specifically explained that you can’t bring anyone here! Silly girl. Don’t you realize how secretive these meetings should be?” continued the talking head as he barely changed his tone, despite the situation.

“Commander Drevtvarz, I will explain. This is my target, Kitezh,” said Jadwiga as she pulled her to the front.

“Uh, hello, Commander Drevtvarz?” Kitezh followed up softly.

“Are you Kitezh? You are Jadwiga are both alive?” Drevtvarz asked gently.

“I a- HWUP!” Kitezh gasped as Jadwiga shoved her in the stomach.

“Let me explain everything! I could’ve killed her, but things sort of fell apart when her friend here got involved!”

Jadwiga was suddenly speaking in a more meek and panicked tone. At the same time, she pointed to Nadia to blame her for this sudden turn of events.

“Commander Drevtvarz, I will guarantee she will let herself get killed, but she and I wanted to ask you some things,” Jadwiga pleaded, as she held the disembodied face uncomfortably closer to her own face.

“Hmm, I’m listening,” Drevtvarz said in a way like he wasn’t going to listen.

“Kitezh would like to know what exactly is going to happen to her when she is killed. I believe Koschei has plans for when we die, but obviously Kitezh doesn’t believe that. She is completely out of the loop.”

“When you die, you’re going to enter a state of purgatory, and then-“

SMACK!

Kitezh put her hand over the face’s mouth midsentence.

“I’m stopping you right there. Anything about this purgatory or afterlife has nothing on me. Unless I can see that land itself or any proof of its existence, there’s no way I’m letting myself get killed,” said Kitezh, and she stared at its blank eyes.

“My talk with you ends here, Kitezh.”

“Oh… that was a quick conversation. One point for team Kitezh.”

“Now, Jadwiga, I will ask you this. Are you still willing to die for Koschei? You’re going to let Kitezh kill you?”

“Kitezh and I had a diplomatic conversation. Although she has some good points of staying alive longer in this world, I want to get some more information from you as well about this afterlife,” said Jadwiga.

“Your only goal was to kill Kitezh. If you’re not going to kill her, Koschei and I will have to summon the other phenomena to kill you two- AH! Careful, Jadwiga!”

Jadwiga suddenly shook Drevtvarz’s head in frustration.

“Hey, we might just kill you first. If you want Kitezh and me to die, you better have a good explanation about this purgatory thing.”

Drevtvarz started chuckling in an eerie way. The head was bobbing around while keeping an awkward smile.

“So, you don’t believe in Koschei, even after he saved you from your cruel past and granted you the phenomenon. If you can’t believe anything further said than that, we’re just going to end up in circles. From this point, we are no longer allies,” Drevtvarz said.

“You’re saying I’m free to kill you if you’re considered my enemy? You don’t even have the arms to fight back anyway,” said Kitezh, and she reached her hand into her pocket.

“I’ll just save you the trouble while preventing any satisfaction from you,” Drevtvarz said as he grinned at Kitezh.

SHANK!

CLONK!

Kitezh suddenly pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into the eye of the face.

“What the hell?!” Kitezh blurted out as the dagger barely stabbed through.

She saw that the face has turned back into its wooden form. Though strangely, it wasn’t like wood. It was more like rubber doll.

“Did I kill him? What happened to Drevtvarz?” Kitezh asked Jadwiga.

“He probably knew this was coming.”

“Bring him back. Have him wake up to a dagger in his eye!”

Jadwiga jerked the wooden head with the knife in its eye socket.

KNOCK KNOCK!

“No way is he waking up now,” said Jadwiga, as she nonchalantly tossed the head into the toilet.

“What?! He can’t just stay dormant forever!” cried Kitezh.

“You put your hand in that piss, and try to wake him yourself. My belief is that he is never coming back after your attempted murder. He did say he wasn’t giving you the satisfaction.”

“Damn it!”

Kitezh peered into the toilet one last time.

“And you didn’t take out the dagger before tossing it in,” Kitezh sulked.

“Well, at least you two are going to be alive still!” cheered Nadia.

“WAAAAH! Drevtvarz is going to kill us now!” Jadwiga suddenly cried in a childish outburst.

“Whoa, calm down! Come on, we’re all in this together now. We’re an unstoppable team!”

Nadia embraced Jadwiga from behind.

“I still don’t like you. I’m fine with you dying,” Jadwiga said as she suddenly flipped to her usual, serious self.

“Hmph! Kitezh bumped herself up on my favorite girl list.”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

“Who could that be?” asked Kitezh.

“OPEN THE DOOR RIGHT NOW! I REALLY NEED TO SHIT!”

BANG!

“OW!”

The door was suddenly busted down from its hinges and slammed on Kitezh’s head.

Kitezh pushed the door away and rubbed her head. She looked up and saw a familiar looking magical girl in a cute pink dress.

“Oh, Marigold! Of all people, I didn’t- AHK!”

Marigold grabbed Kitezh’s shirt pulled her to her face. She had a crooked smile, her face looked pale, and her face was dripping with tears and sweat.

“Kitezh… and your friends… get out.”

Kitezh and the others quietly and swiftly made out before dealing with Marigold’s rage, especially with the surprise she was about to see.

“AAAAAAAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS IN THE TOILET?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WERE YOU GIRLS DOING?!”

“Get out, get out!” Kitezh softly snapped at the others as they sprinted out into the hall.

Meanwhile, away from this comedic act happening in the academy bathroom, something was looming in the Demon Lord’s realm, or as we know now, Koschei’s realm.