Two Phenomena Are Better Than One

Kitezh was sitting at the guild hall with her somewhat close acquaintances, Nadia and Jadwiga. Kitezh and Jadwiga have accepted phenomena would come after them at any time, but they couldn’t just sit around and waste their lives anticipating an attack.

The whole reason Jadwiga was still living was that Kitezh wanted to demonstrate how much better it was to use her powers to help society anyway.

They were currently mid-conversation with Marigold, who was apparently waiting to see Kitezh again.

“Yes, I am currently studying at the magic academy! I want to improve my spells so that I can be the gleaming light of cuteness for everyone,” cheered Marigold, as she did a cute twirl in front of Kitezh and the others.

“How do you know I attend it, anyway?” Marigold suddenly asked.

“Marigold, I asked because we saw you there yesterday,” Kitezh replied in a perplexed way.

“Uhhhh… You were there? When? I would’ve said hi!” Marigold said shakily.

“We met in the bathroom stall. Remember? And you had to like, use the toilet badly?” Jadwiga questioned.

“Met in the toilet? That would be crazy, hahaha!” Marigold laughed.

Kitezh and Jadwiga had an awkward staring contest, seeing if Marigold would break character. The game suddenly ended when a monotonic voice showed up.

“Kitezh, I’ve got a new task for you.”

Grigori showed up in his usual black and white captain's attire. He pulled out a letter like he was passing a formal invitation to meet the king.

“No hello or anything? You’re just making me do a task right now? We just got to the guild!”

“This mission is very critical. It could affect our kingdom. I know I originally assigned you to take smaller tasks to lay low, but it appears that did not work.”

"But I totally defeated that pantomime phenomenon in the end."

"And that's why I'm putting you up for this new mission."

“Are you saying it’s a phenomenon-level threat?”

“From what I have gathered, the chances are very high. We’re dealing with an outbreak of the demon lord’s monsters again, but at a much larger scale. They are not the usual wave of attacks from the past. They are exponentially upgraded.”

“Come on, that’s just an exaggeration to make it more urgent than it is.”

“Great, then this must be an easy task for you. Get to it then. The city of Kitezh puts all its faith in you.”

Grigori turned around and marched off.

“I didn’t even get to give my pointless argument for the sake of pissing him off,” Kitezh sulked.

“Kitezh, it’s going to be another fight with someone who is potentially a phenomenon. You going to be okay?” asked Nadia.

“I’ve fought two of them before. And one of them is right here with us! Two phenomena against one would be an even fight!” Kitezh gloated.

“Kitezh, didn’t we go on a mission with another phenomenon, and he ended up trying to kill the two of us?” Marigold asked uncomfortably.

“Whoa, we’re cool now! I’m cool now, don’t you think so, Kitezh? We’re both stuck in the same boat!” Jadwiga defended herself nervously.

Nadia put her hands on Kitezh’s shoulders, and started massaging them. Though, she started speaking solemnly.

“Kitezh, be honest right now. Are you certainly okay working together with Jadwiga?”

Kitezh looked at Nadia and back at Jadwiga. Kitezh still had the idea in mind that no one was completely trustworthy. Though, due to a change in circumstances where she is pretty much marked for death no matter what, she came up with a conclusion.

“All it takes is one betrayal to destroy trust. At this point, we are both in a position of trust. The better question is, am I prepared to face betrayal? Yes, I am.”

Nadia patted Kitezh’s head.

“Ohoho, great! I no longer need to babysit you right now!” Nadia suddenly said carelessly.

“What the hell? Stop treating me like I’m five!” yelled Kitezh.

“Sorry, but mommy Nadia has a task already. It’s actually a task that Frigyes submitted. I’ll be working together with him!”

“More like HE just wanted to stare at your tits and ass all day.”

“I believe he wants to help. We’re going to be fixing up the destruction at the tavern and the observatory. Frigyes submitted a report that an attack had happened without mentioning any of our names. That way, we’re not liable for the damages. I would be fixing up everything for money rather than free labor.”

“Nadia, I think that’s called insurance fraud.”

“Insurance fraud? What is that?”

“Forget it. You just do your thing, and I’ll see what my task is.” Kitezh sighed.

Nadia, Jadwiga, and Marigold crowded to read the letter.

“Up in the Whistle Mountains. Hmm, I guess if the demon lord’s army takes over that area, it would be tough to reclaim. They’d oversee everything, easily hide their forces in the cliff sides, and it would be a much difficult upward battle if we don’t stop them now,” said Jadwiga.

“Ugh, but that means we gotta do our own upward battle first!” whined Kitezh.

“Buuuuut, it got its name because it makes a cool whistle noise if you scream at certain parts of the mountain range!” Marigold attempted to bring up the spirits.

“Yeah, but the enemies that were detected are giant spiders from the demon lord’s realm,” Kitezh added to her complaints.

“Oh, the spiders that are half your size and like to bind you in their sticky web as you lie helpless, and then lay their eggs inside you like a living incubator? Yep, you’re going to have lots of fun!” jested Nadia.

“The phenomenon is going to make us pregnant?!” cried Marigold.

“I don’t know if spiders can be a phenomenon. So far, it has only been humans transported from another world. It sounds like you’re dealing with two threats, unless the spiders are related to the phenomenon.” Nadia explained.

“But why am I getting myself involved? I prefer doing a quest that is less mountainy and phenomenony, so I lucked out of this one,” said Nadia, as she got up and was ready to leave the others to their crappy task.

“I have a feeling you did the clean-up job just so you don’t feel responsible if I die in front of your eyes,” said Kitezh.

“Or impregnated!” shrieked Marigold.

“Nadia has a point, though. We’ll be facing a phenomenon in the mountains. With the way my ex-commander ended that meeting, it is highly likely he is the one behind the attacks.

“He was your commander. If we can capture him, we can interrogate him. Or even better, killing him would slow down these demon lord attacks.”

“I think I prefer getting answers than leaving things unknown. Either way, we can assume the goal of this quest is to stop commander Drevtvarz. I don’t fully know his powers, so he really is a wild card. Even if I knew his powers, the situation would be like seeing an open pit of spikes, and jumping right in,” Jadwiga clarified.

“Come on, we got this, Jadwiga! You almost killed me anyway, the invisible phenomenon herself, Kitezh! Plus, we’re bringing along, uh…”

“Me!” Marigold figuratively and verbally jumped in.

“And don’t underestimate Kitezh. She is an amazing hero!” Marigold continued, as she stuck out her tongue and squinted at Jadwiga.

“If she’s going to fangirl, it looks like we’re a solid team of three. Though I’m hoping your fan is not one of those lifeless wannabes,” scoffed Jadwiga.

“Alright, I’m calling the shots. Jadwiga, Marigold. We’re going to Whistle Mountain and kicking some spider ass,” commanded Kitezh as she got up from her chair.

“…and phenomenon ass,” added Jadwiga.

“Right! Don’t steal my speech!”

Kitezh, Jadwiga, and Marigold set off to the Whistle Mountains. The three already knew there was a phenomenon in the mountains, waiting to vanquish them.

Even Grigori knew what sort of monster the three of them were prepared to meet. However, he didn’t know how exactly it would play out, even though he concocted this very quest himself.