Chapter 55: Heretic Hunting

We spend a week working our way through the jungle with minimal monster encounters. I haven’t gotten any great information regarding the church from anyone, but it’s been pretty fun exploring, even if we’re moving at a snail’s pace.

We walk past the edge of the jungle in the early afternoon and take a short break at the foot of a small mountain. I make cold water blobs for everyone, but Spike refuses his.

“We’ve cleared the jungle, which means everything past here is minimally explored,” he says with a furrowed brow and motions to the mountain before us, “we know there’s a camp at the summit, and it’ll give us a good vantage point to look at our surroundings, so let’s make it there while we still have light,” he finishes with a clap.

The group marches with me at the rear again, but I can’t take my eyes off the skies. The harpies really left an impression.. but I sense missile lizards all over. They’re perched on rocks, taking sunbaths a few hundred meters to our left. The further up the mountain we go, the greater their numbers, and there’s something big mixed in with them. Like, school bus, big.

I keep my magic detection low, the way I’ve been practicing, and they don’t seem to notice us before we reach the summit. Most of the camps we’ve seen have been stone pillars with a magic current without any surface structures to stay in, and this one is no different. We split into groups to make camp. Celeste, Seira, and Spike are setting up camp and planning a travel route while Jack, Norman, and I go past the summit to a patch of trees for firewood.

I sense a few rabbits.

“Hey, guys, there’s brush up ahead where there could be animals – mind if I leave the firewood to you two?” I ask.

“I’d do disgusting things for fresh meat,” Norman says with a serious expression, and Jack nods along.

“Yea.. same here, see you back at camp,” I say with a wave.

I jog away from the two and into the thicker part of the trees. I use earth magic pedestals to shoot a handful of rabbits from their burrows, then decapitate them and toss them on my belt. I put up light refraction and rise into the air above the trees. I can see the camp at the top of the mountain where Celeste and Seira are setting up tents while Jack stands on a pillar and looks around the land. I stretch out in the sky and spin myself around a few times – I’ve missed being up here.

I fly higher and make my way to the east face of the mountain, where I sensed the lizards. There are hundreds of them, each the size of a german shepard. But the big thing I sensed is far worse. In the middle of the pack of lizards is a frog the size of a small house, but its skin doesn’t look soft. It looks scaley, almost like it has layers of metal plates coating its body for protection. I watch them for a while and contemplate – do I wipe them out with a shower of fire? Send hundreds of stone spikes out of the ground? The lizards are fast. At least a few would run up the mountain and smoke the group if I don’t kill everything instantly. And I don’t have practice using magic on that large a scale..

As my pondering yields a headache, the creatures start to move. They recede down the mountain and into a large cave system. Damn, I gave myself a headache for nothing. I drop back to the ground and walk to camp with the rabbits to make dinner. I make Ricardo’s sweet sauce, fry the rabbit meat, and throw everything over rice. It’s a nice change from the stews we’ve been having.

After dinner, Norman and Celeste take seats next to me at the fire.

“Sio, we had a question for you,” Celeste says as she sits elegantly.

“Please listen, Sio, it’s important,” Norman says in an oddly serious tone.

“Sure.. what’s on your minds?” I ask and raise my eyebrows.

“Would you register as an adventurer and join us more permanently?” Celeste asks bluntly.

“Please, Sio, you can cook and make hot baths anywhere. I’ve never had so many hot baths..” Norman trails off.

“Aha, I don’t know if I can commit to being a party member, but I could come back in the summer and take another trip here,” I suggest, “Is everyone alright working with me?” I ask.

Celeste nods as Seira and Jack join us around the fire.

“It’d be nice to have you, Sio, and we get more work from the church in the summer,” Seira says with a pleasant smile.

“Besides taking trips here?” I ask with a tilted head.

“Yes!” Seira beams, “We get heretic hunting work over the summer!”

“Heretic hunting?” I ask. The fuck is that?

“The dirty work,” Norman says flatly.

“You know better than to talk about it like that, Norman,” Celeste says with a sigh, “the church doesn’t share this with everyone, but there’s a group of heretics that didn’t receive god’s blessing after the holy war,” she adds.

“Didn’t receive god’s blessing?” I repeat back to Celeste – what in the fuck are we talking about?

“Heretics, or beast people as some adventurers call them,” Celeste says, “they can look like humans, but they normally have weird hair, and the church can use relics to bring out their true nature – some of them even have tails, Sio – it’s quite hideous,” she adds with a look of disgust.

“Exactly! They’re beasts!” Seira screeches excitedly, “The church hires us to go with their missionaries to expose the heretics! They can be pretty strong, and sometimes they run, so we’re there to stop them!” she adds proudly.

“Exactly right, Seira, last year we had many great hunts when heretics ran..” Celeste says with a euphoric exhale.

“We cleared Oisha last summer, and we should be able to finish Albert this summer – then we’ll really get work when we start going into Calter..” Norman says apathetically.

The blood drains from my face. Calter.. that’s where Lucy is. I can kill them. I can feed them to the lizar-

“Aha, Celeste, remember that family that all grew dog ears and tails?” Seira asks with a giggle, “They kept flinching before you even activated your magic.”

“Oh yes, I lit their tails on fire as we dragged them back,” Celeste answers, “fire is purifying after all,” she adds with a smirk.

I make a spatial opening behind me and reach for the wire I used on the Alarians..

“Fuck, will you all stop being sick?” Spike yells from beyond the fire, “They don’t seem so different from us,” he adds sadly.

“Your heart’s too big, Spike, they get what’s coming to them, even if it is nasty,” Norman says with a shrug.

“You always drink on those jobs..” Jack chimes in.

“Hmm, that’s why you have us, Spike, to do what needs to be done,” Celeste says, then turns to me, “what do you think, Sio?” she asks with a smile.

“I’ll have to think about it..” I reply while trying to stifle my facial twitching.

Spike’s face is covered in despair. He glances at me, then heads into his tent. Norman, Jack, and Seira head to their tents as well. But I can’t move. If I move, I’ll kill everyone. I could kill everyone without moving. But maybe Spike doesn’t deserve to die.

Celeste leans into me and runs her hand down my back.

“I hope you’ll consider the offer, Sio, I’d love to have your strength,” she says seductively. But I want to vomit acid all over her. She heads to her tent and leaves me alone, staring into the fire.

It’s easy to kill them. But Spike will fight me if I do it in front of him. How do I kill everyone but Spike – without him knowing it was me?