Quest X Quest

“What’s hanging, chat?” Sato yelled out into the crowd of people hurrying about, “You!” Sato pointed his sword at some random man. “Random citizen! What’s up?” The man looked at Sato, then at his sword before running off again. “What a busybody.” Sato scoffed as he looked up at the sky,

“You!” A guard ran up to the group,

“My name’s Sato,” Sato said, looking back at the guard,

“Are you traveling mercenaries by chance? We need your help,” the guard said before he started pulling Sato along,

“You know I’m something of a mercenary myself.” Sato smiled back at the group, waving them all goodbye as he allowed himself to just be dragged along. Idalec sighed,

‘How can someone do good when they’re always tired?’ Idalec asked himself as the other six heroes followed after Sato and the guard.

“Sir, we’re in luck; some mercenaries have answered our call.” The guard saluted a very distressed man pacing back and forth inside his manor.

“Really?” he asked desperately, looking at our heroes. “When can you start?” he asked,

“It’s nice to meet you, my name is Prix.” Prix introduced herself,

“Blessings,” the man said, bowing to Prix. “I’m Lord Pinker.”

“And where is Lady Pinkest?” Sato asked, looking around,

Lord Pinker looked at Sato with a funny look as he slowly said, “That’s why I sent out a request for mercenaries. To help me find my daughter, Lady Mary Pinker.”

“I was right?” Sato laughed, turning to Carrot, who laughed along silently; her mouth kept moving around,

‘Garia did say she put a muting spell on her.’ Idalec observed; he completely forgot why every second of the day wasn’t being taken up by Carrot.

“That was very clever. Yet frankly, in my humble opinion, perhaps a trite remark that one could have in fact deduced given the lord seemed to be suffering from some kind of distress, and the odds of his wife or female family-” Garia started saying,

“I get it.” Sato bemoaned, “You could have just laughed,” Sato added before turning to face Lord Pinker. Sato put his hands together, pointing them at him. “Now, is your daughter hot?”

“That’s not appropriate, Sato,” Prix yelled at Sato,

“Yeah, and using a fake name is fine?” Sato demanded, “Princess Maria?”

“Oh.” Lord Pinker was observing this whole disaster unfold. “Then are you here to fight demons nearby?”

“What?” Sato asked, astounded, “Are they hiding out in a cave trying to steal MY legendary sword?”

Lord Pinker’s eyes flicked left, then right and back left again. “Yeahhhh…” he said, unsure, “Princess Maria, I know your resources must be stretched, but could you please help deal with them?”

“We’ll deal with them and find your daughter.” Prix declared, “Now where are the demons hiding? We should deal with them first.”

“They’re about two hours west of here. I can send a guide with you.” Lord Pinker said weakly, pointing west, “But Princess Maria, could you consider finding my daughter first? I will compensate you well; the demons have been hanging around that cave for a few days already. They haven't even attacked anyone yet.” Lord Pinker asked as his voice broke up,

“I’m sorry, we’ll have to deal with the demons first.” Prix replied sternly, “They could also be behind the kidnapping of your daughter. Now can you provide us with a guide right away and a porter to carry food with us?"

“As you request.” Lord Pinker bowed sadly again as the seven heroes had another man temporarily added to their party, a guide and porter. “This is Gibson; he’ll show you to the cave where the demons are.” Lord Pinker sighed and disappeared before leaving back to his manor.

‘This is Gibson, fellow.’ Idalec watched as Gibson grabbed a bag of food and, without saying anything, started showing them the way to the cave. ‘I like him. I know this type of man, completely diametric to people like Prix… Marcus is probably a better example. After all, this man doesn't have a spark of evil in him in the same way that Prix has a spark of goodness.’ Idalec reasoned to himself as they moved through the birch forest.

“What do you want now?” Gibson asked, putting down the bag with their dinner and pointing over a small ridge and into a cave,

“Can you wait for us?” Prix asked, peering into the cave which seemed to show no signs of life. The entrance looked like a ‘K’ with the top and bottom triangles being cut out.

Gibson nodded to Prix’s request, sitting himself down against a birch tree.

“Thank you, Mr Gibson.” Prix said, “Now let’s go forward.” Prix motioned as all seven of our heroes advanced forward.

“Badump, badump, badu-” Sato was saying as they walked,

“Sato, stop that,” Prix said

“I was just building up the tension,” Sato said, upset sword in hand as they snuck into the cave.

“There’s already enough tension,” Prix said tightly as she peered around into the cave. A cleanly bored tunnel that sloped a few degrees,

“Let’s go. Three days ago I took Rome,” Sato bragged before just walking right in without an ounce of fear. “Two days ago I lost the love of my life, and one day ago I lost my footing,” Sato added, taking out his sword.

“He-” Prix took a couple of deep breaths, following Sato in along with everyone else. “If he takes the lead, let him,” she muttered under her breath.

As they kept walking deeper into the cave, voices began echoing through the tunnel: “Sato, slow down, there's someone ahead.” Prix hissed as Sato kept confidently striding forward.

“Don’t care, don't ask,” Sato replied, his voice echoing through the corridor.

“Did you hear something?” could barely be held, "Reinforcements?" “I doubt Candidate Balthazar would send anyone else.” “Candidate Hiegel?” “Maybe. His men are always a mess.”

The voices grew louder until our seven heroes, led by our ever-so-brave, or stupid, leader, Hero Sato. “Oh, look, there are demons here.” Sato pointed his sword at a group of eight demons who were standing around,

“They’re definitely not the men of Candidate Hiegel.” The eight demons formed up: four picked up their shields and halberds, with four others forming up a back rank, short sword in hand and a small shield attached to the same, one hand free.

“It doesn't look like any of the swords are all that badass. Onwards! Let’s just ignore them.” Sato said, pointing forward to the cave. This cave was interesting since the corridor they came from opens up into a large oval dome before once again condensing into a single corridor, much wider, and a clear white chalk line was drawn right at its entrance.

“Fire.” A demon ordered as the four demons in the back fired, lighting, some kind of mist, and two stones at them,

‘God bless Sato for he is too ignorant in his bliss.’ Idalec prayed as he put up Pure Shield, blocking every attack before it got close to them, cutting the demons off on their side of the oval dome.

“Who are you!” the demon who yelled fire before called out to our heroes.

“Me?” Sato turned arrogantly to face the demons, pointing his dull sword. “I have a very long title, but the long and short of it, I’m the best person to ever exist, the heavenly hero Sato Sato.”

“I will curse you to death, Sato Sato!” the demon started chanting,

Sato crossed his arms, looking him dead in the eyes, as a kind of tortoise spirit jumped out from him and scurried across the floor,

“Is it going to kill me of old age?” Sato joked as the spirit ran up to Idalec’s Pure Shield barrier and started bashing its head into it,

“Attack, Sato Sato!” the demon called out to his turtle, which was persistently trying to bash its way through Idalec’s shield,

“What’s that?” Prix whispered to Idalec, who looked curiously upon the creature,

‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’ “I-” Idalec didn’t have any words for it; its leaking blue form reminded him of a soul that was ripped out of the body. “Maybe it’s his soul or something?” Idalec guessed, walking closer to the thing,

“That’s most interesting that you know of such mystic things.” Garia followed after Idalec over to the wall, “You never strike me as the type to dig into the more esoteric and unfundamental styles of magic which so often flow like underground aquifers throughout our world.” Garia bent her head, brushing her face off as Idalec and she stood in front of the creature just watching it.

“I wonder if, like a soul, crushing it will also kill the owner?” Idalec mused as the tortoise started running back to its owner,

“Who are you?” the demon demanded. “To know such things, especially for a human.”