White

"High ho, Silver! Away!"

"How is she still so energetic after all this in the middle of the night?" Roko muttered as he watched Helena gallop on her horse in front of them.

"That's Helena for you." Corissa laughed gently as she hugged Varis, the two traveling together on their horse, "Nobody has as much energy as her."

"Well there's Roland."

"Dash, Midnight! To battle!" Roland cried.

"Two of a kind, they are." Roko sighed.

After a minute or two of traveling, they found Nate the cultist on the ground, having spun out on his eldritch motorcycle and now lying on the ground, twitching and paralyzed.

"What did you guys do to me?" He growled as he laid on the ground struggling to move his body.

"A little bit of poison never hurt anybody." Roko said as everyone stopped their horses and dismounted a few meters away from him.

"Says who?!"

"The medical field." Roko replied, "Now, I suppose you'll be nice and let us take you back for interrogation."

"Go jump off a cliff!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're so brave." Roland rolled his eyes as he drew one of his swords, "But what are you going to do with your body like that?"

"Don't you underestimate me!"

"Well, he's either stupid or has some sort of plan." Helena sighed, "Which do you think it is, Roko?"

"The best way to get rid of a trap is to spring it." Roko drew his sword and approached the young cultist, "Let's see how he feels after a couple of stab wounds."

Roko drew his sword back to jab at the young man but as he expected, the fallen fluid motorcycle shifted forms and jumped to defend its master. Roko jumped back as the oil mass slammed in between him and Nate.

"I guess paralyzing him wasn't enough to get this damn monster to go away." Helena sighed as she summoned some ice, "Shall we handle them?"

"You got a plan?"

"Just watch." Helena smirked as she tossed up three pieces of ice into the air. These shards quickly expanded into giant spears of ice and at a word from Helena, the spears pierced into the moving wall of black liquid. Her attack lodged itself into the wall well enough but the overall monster didn't seem that affected until frost began to creep out from where her attacks had landed, solidifying the monster until the space in between her icicles were completely frozen over.

"Roland!"

At Helena's command, Roland dove in with his two swords, smashing right through the frozen portion of the monster with ease.

"Haha! How do you like that?!" Roland smirked as he pointed a sword at the cultist.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Nate said, completely underwhelmed.

"Say what you want but your monster isn't going to recovering from that!"

"I think you're underestimating us."

The oil wall swirled around and tried to grab Roland. Helena dove in through the hole and grabbed Roland, pulling him back through the opening with Corissa's help before he could get grabbed. As they pulled the knight away, the ice around the hole in the wall began to crack and break as the monster reformed itself and it turned to face them again.

"It's hard to tell if this thing is damaged isn't it?" Helena said as she helped Roland back on his legs, "But I swear it's a bit smaller, right?"

"Maybe?" Roko shrugged.

"Oh well. No matter." Helena said, "We'll just keep freezing and breaking it until it's dead!"

Helena summoned more ice in her hands until Varis came and placed an armored hand on her shoulder. Helena turned around, confused, as Varis gently moved her aside. Facing the monster alone, Varis waved one hand towards it and instantly froze the entire thing solid.

"Oh." Helena said, "I forgot we had a Varis."

"It's shocking how little we get to use him." Roko sighed.

"Dude's broken." Roland grumbled, "It's not fair."

"W-Well, we're done now." Corissa smiled softly, "So let's just capture Nathaniel and-"

The sound of someone getting up drew everyone's attention around the ice sculpture as Nate picked himself off the ground.

"I-I can move again?" Nate said, a string of black oil connected to a small knife wound on his side, "The monster have drained the poison from me! It must be telling me to escape on my own!"

"Yeah, we have horses." Roland jabbed a thumb at the idle horses a few feet back munching on some grass, "So you're not going to get far."

"I'll run into the forest!" Nate stuck his tongue out at them, "Then you can't use your horses!"

"Or I can just shoot you." Helena pointed outwards and summoned a small icicle, "Your pick."

"Good luck trying to hit me as I dodge in between the trees! See ya suckers!"

"Is this guy for real?" Roland scoffed.

"This isn't even going to be good target practice." Helena pointed her ice at the fleeing cultist.

But Nate didn't get far before he collapsed onto the ground. Confused, he turned around and realized the monster was still draining his blood.

"No..." Nate gasped as his body already began to shrink, "No wait!"

Everyone turned back to look at the monster encased in the ice and saw the fluid beginning to flow again, turning from a leaky black sludge to a collection of streams interlaced together and taking on a red tint.

"Watch out!"

Roland and Varis quickly moved to cover the rest of the party as the monster broke free from the ice, sending shards flying everywhere. Nate laid on the ground, completely drained of his blood, now a dried up husk of a man. The oil monster was now enormous, bigger than it was before, with a more defined body, giant arms and legs. No longer a weak looking slime, it had now become almost like the monster that Bedlam had become when he fused with the black liquid. The monster roared a screeching inhuman scream that seemed to shake the earth.

"Umm..." Helena gulped, "If I remember this correctly, I couldn't freeze this the last time we came across it."

"And it doesn't have a weak point we can exploit either." Roko scowled, "This is a problem."

"Varis, I don't suppose you have any secret attacks under your sleeve?"

Varis nodded.

"Wait, you do?!"

"Watch out, here it comes!"

Roland's warning gave everyone enough time to jump out of the way of the giant monster's attack, scattering in different directions.

"Varis, if you've got anything special, feel free to use it right now!" Helena called.

Varis nodded and sheathed his sword, taking a stance like he was going to unleash a powerful attack when the monster turned towards him and began to draw its own fist back. As the monster swung its fist back, Corissa was right behind it, just getting up herself before she realized she was in the path of the monster's wind up. Corissa yelped and covered her head with her arms in defense but Varis quickly sprinted in between the monster's legs, drawing his sword again and blocked the monster from hitting Corissa.

"Shoot, we have to do something too, Roko!" Helena shouted, "Any bright ideas?"

"I'm thinking..." Roko scowled as he tried his spells to no effect.

"Roland and I will distract it! Think quick!"

Roko stood back trying to think of some plan as everyone fought off the revitalized monster, now of oil and blood. As Roko has seen, the monster's new flowing body shrugs off attempts to freeze it, like a river. The only spells on hand right now are Fire, Ice, Lightning and Curse, the majority of that selection coming from Varis. Of those, fire was probably useless against the creature. Despite its body seeming like oil, it certainly wasn't oil chemically as from prior experience, exposure to fire didn't light the entire thing on fire. That's not even considering the idea of lighting a giant "oil" creature on fire with so much forestry around would probably be a bad idea. Lightning was the obvious weapon against a water monster if every RPG he's ever played was anything to go on. And maybe it would work if the creature had a core or nerves. Something vital that could be damaged by electricity. As he understood it, the monster was just water. Like the monster Bedlam had become but without the weaknesses of Bedlam's body or the grimoire inside of it. Water itself isn't technically damaged by electricity, it just carries it. Unless he can hit it with enough lightning to fry the water or...preform electrolysis he supposed, one or two bolts would barely register. If he had Momo then yeah, they probably could blast a hole into it with the assistance of amp but she wasn't here right now. Plus the monster was part blood right now and who knows how much that would complicate things. Curse was an unknown quality. Roko's seen it before but it was mainly on human or otherwise living creatures. This was just water. He couldn't imagine it would be effective.

Roko bit his lips. The only spell he could double up on was ice. But it would be extremely hard to freeze this flowing mix of water and blood. There has to be something he can do though. Something…

Roko looked at monster, trying to find some sort of weakness. The black water was flowing around the monster's entire body, tinted red and with multiple streams interlaced with each other. Flowing over and under, weaving together like sinew or rope. Multiple strands of rushing water intertwined. What if he could...pull them apart?

Roko's eyes widened, "Helena! Varis!"

"Got something Roko?! Come on Varis, we're needed!"

"Wait does that mean you're leaving this thing to me?!" Roland cried as Helena and Varis disengaged, "Wait, you can't do this to me! What the hell guys?!"

"So what's the plan, Roko?" Helena asked excitedly.

In hushed tones, Roko explained his idea to the two of them.

"Wait, can we do that?!" Helena cried.

Varis nodded.

"Holy shit, we can do that!" Helena said gleefully, "Let's do it!"

The two magic users turned around and faced the water monster. Helena pointed at the monster, summoning her usual ice spell with Varis' assistance. Carefully, she took aim at the monster's arm and fired her spell at it. The ice impacted one of the monster's veins of water but like attacks before it, struggled to hold the rushing liquid in place and broke apart. But this time, a single slab of ice, thin and flat remained on the monster, riding the flow of the liquid until it disappeared into the folds of the monster's body. And in an instant, ice broke out from inside its body, not quite able cut the veins but able to push them apart from each other with thorns, pushing these rivers of oil and blood away from each other and dismantling the monster's stability. The veins thrashed about, trying to reconnect with itself but the ice continued to grow, splitting the monster into more and more parts, moving through to the rest of the body like a skeleton that was rejecting the muscles above it. Like a sick virus the ice continued to tear the monster's body into strands, growing ever larger to keep it from reforming its body.

"It's working!" Helena cheered, "Amazing! Good job Roko and Varis! This is all thanks to you!"

"Your magic is in there too." Roko said, "It's both of your doing."

"Everyone!" Corissa cried as she ran over to them with Roland following her, "You're amazing! I didn't think we'd beat the monster like this!"

"Yeah we're breaking it apart but the thing's still wiggling around." Roland frowned as watched the ice now dismantling over half of the monster's body, "It's still not technically dead."

"Now that it's in separate pieces, we can try to either freeze it or electrocute it. Without the support of the rest of the body, it'll be much easier to handle and-"

Before Roko could continue, the monster suddenly roared again, an angry shout that seemed directed at them. The tendrils that once made up its body suddenly lunged, no longer trying to reform themselves, now trying to pierce through them. Varis and Roland quickly pulled up their weapons, blocking as much of the attack as they could but even hiding behind them, Corissa, Helena and Roko all had to twist their body to avoid the tendrils that shot through their defenses.

"What do we do?!" Corissa yelped.

But Varis was already on the move, stepping forward and blocking a tendril with his sword but freezing the parts that he touched before slicing them off. The parts that fell to the ground wiggled a little but quickly dissolved into sludge, Varis moving to cut off as many pieces as he could until this hydra of tendrils could no attack them. In no time, Helena picked up Varis' tactic and called her knight into action, the two shooting the attackers with ice before cutting them off as well. In the middle of the chaos, Roko pulled Corissa to the side, trying to bring them into the woods for safety but a series of tendrils tracked them, pulling away from the rest of the body to launch at them. Roko stopped and readied his sword to try and fend off the attack but with his strength and lack of armor, he wouldn't be able to succeed as well as the knights. Even if he sacrificed his body to stop the tendrils, there were still too many that could slip around him and hit Corissa. But there wasn't enough time to do anything else so Roko just closed his eyes and prepared to get impaled.

Roko could hear the sound of ripping flesh but he felt no pain in his body. Anxiously, Roko slowly opened his eyes and to his surprise, he saw the figure of a giant white flesh monster standing in front of him, it's inhuman body impaled by the oil monster's tendrils. Roko could only stumble forward in shock as the white monster fell to the ground, riddled with holes. Roko wasn't sure what quite happened other than the fact that this monster, a different breed from any monster he's seen before but undoubtedly of the same nature, had just protected them.

"R-Roko?" Corissa asked nervously, "Is it okay?"

Roko looked over the monster's body. It's build was like that of a large headless ape. It's stark white skin was hairless and smooth, like a thin layer of skin wrapped tight over a muscular body. There were no other features other than some nails and now almost a dozen holes drilled into its body. The inside of the body was seemingly no different from the insides of a normal body with the exception for the fact that every muscle, every bone, every vein was black like the void. No blood dripped from the wounds but before Roko could examine it any further, the monster began disappearing, crumpling into ash.

"Wait!"

Corissa ran over but in the end, neither of them could do anything but watch as the white monster crumpled into dust. In the distance, the sound of Helena, Roland and Varis' combat ceased as the last of the black oil monster was sliced apart.

"Hey! You okay over there?!" Helena called as she turned back to them."

The galloping of another horse alerted everyone to the arrival of Kaguya and Mikado to the scene with still sleeping Momo laid across Kaguya's legs.

"Oh, did we miss everything?" Kaguya blinked, "What happened?"

"Roko?"

Helena and Kaguya turned to him but Roko was swimming in his own thoughts, trying to tread water with all the confusing ideas assaulting him. Corissa was much the same too, not quite as pensive as Roko but not quite articulate enough to explain what happened. Kaguya sighed,

"Seems like quite a bit happened. Let's adjourn to our rooms for the night. We'll be leaving the town for real next morning so let's just take our well deserved breaks and reconvene in the morning. I've secured some room back at our favorite inn."

The morning after, Momo was drinking some hot jasmine tea with an uncomfortable look on her face.

"Hey Roko." Helena greeted him as he came down, "Momo's having a bit of a hangover. Got any hangover cures?"

"Never had a hangover so I've got nothing." Roko shrugged, "Just drink some tea, I guess."

"How about some milk tea?"

"I don't see how that will help."

"It might actually." Momo offered a small smile.

"Why can't any of you make milk tea yourselves?"

"You're the professional bartender."

"I'm not professional. I'm not even licensed."

"Yeah but it's like, your signature drink."

"You know I didn't actually create this drink. This is just something I learned from my old world."

"Yeah but it's new here so it's pretty much like you created it."

"We talking about Roko's milk tea?" Kaguya smiled as she joined them, "Cause I can use a cup."

"Not you too, Kaguya." Roko sighed.

"More importantly, you seem like you've sorted out your thoughts now." Kaguya nodded, "I took the liberty of asking Corissa about what happened last night and from what I understand, this white monster saved you two. Care to explain?"

"I don't understand it either." Roko sighed, "I don't know why but it sacrificed its life for us. From what I can tell, it...no, I just don't understand it."

"Hmmmm..." Kaguya smiled slyly, "Shall I take a look into your mind, then Roko?"

"You can read minds now?" Roko scowled.

"I can try." Kaguya just smiled, "From what we learned from the cultist, Nate was it?"

"Actually it was Nathan." Helena replied.

"Actually, it was Nathaniel." Mikado sighed.

"Really? Could have sworn it was Nathan."

"Anyway, we learned that this white monster appeared days earlier and attacked the townsfolk before him." Kaguya continued, "And due to this monster's attack, the cultist's kidnapping was much less effective. There were also no attacks or even sightings of it after Nate began their activities. We didn't have much time to process that information at the time but I think we all came to the same idea."

"The white monster appeared to warn the townsfolk?" Momo said.

"Well, it didn't seem like it could speak so it probably attacked the town early so they would be more wary when Nate attacked." Helena nodded.

"And from it protecting you, we can only assume one thing." Kaguya said.

"The white monster was friendly." Momo agreed, "Or at least, trying to help humans."

"And so we come to the crux of the problem." Kaguya continued to guide the conversation. "Helena?"

"Whatever created the monster or maybe just the monster itself, is not an enemy of humans." Helena leaned back on her chair smugly.

"Either way, it's the first instance of any of these monsters being remotely friendly." Kaguya nodded, "And so that begs the question, how many of these monsters we've met could have also been friendly? While it's hard to believe all of them could be simply misunderstood, the idea now exists that we've been mistaken. Perhaps we're just suffering from years of miscommunication. Perhaps we could reason with the monsters. Those sorts of ideas. The guilt of our actions should that be true. Those were the kind of questions plaguing you the entire night were it not?"

"..."

"And the reason why you didn't want to say all this is because you don't want us to feel as conflicted as you've been." Helena added.

"Or perhaps you don't want us hesitating the next time we come across these monsters." Momo added as well."

"Well there's no need to worry!" Helena grinned.

"Why?"

"Because we're still going to fight them! So long as you think we should."

"So long as I-ME?!" Roko cried.

"We trust your judgment." Kaguya nodded, "If you want to fight, we fight. If you want to parley, we'll talk."

"You're just going to leave it all up to me?!" Roko cried incredulously.

"Seems simplest." Momo smiled.

"Could you guys at least pretend to be concerned as well?!"

"Oh, we are." Helena chuckled, "But what can we do? What can any of us do? And yet, we can't just do nothing with the information. So we've delegated it to you."

"Delegated?!"

"Yep."

"What the hell?!"

"Roko." Momo smiled, "We're princesses. What do you expect us to do?"

"..."

"Hey can I get my milk tea now?" Momo asked.

"Oh can I get one too?" Corissa asked as she arrived with Vera.

"Oh hey, Corissa." Helena greeted, "What are you doing with Vera?"

"Oh, someone already took my room from last night so I had to sleep in Vera's room." Corissa smiled, "It's fine! I made sure to sleep on the floor!"

"Ummm..." Vera spoke up nervously, "I'm sorry! I got caught and made you all rescue me..."

"It's fine." Roko sighed, "It's partly our fault for endangering you as well."

"Still, how did you get caught?" Momo asked, "Why were you out?"

"I thought I heard some thunder and thought it was going to rain so I went to close the windows..."

"Oh." Momo quietly sipped her tea, trying not to look guilty.

"Thank you for saving our daughter." Mikhail and his wife, Barbara both showed up with a platter of breakfast foods, "I'm impressed that you had such an elaborate plan to catch the real culprit behind the attacks and I hope we didn't inconvenience you too much."

"Not at all." Kaguya replied, "If anything, we'd like to thank you for housing us again for a night on such short notice."

"It was our pleasure!" Barbara replied with a smiled, "I know you folk are going to be leaving soon so please let us give you a hero's breakfast. We even tried mimicking that milk tea that you showed us."

"Yes please!" The girls cried as Mikhail placed the plate of food down and immediately grabbed the drinks. Roko took a cup for himself and took a sip of their milk tea.

"How is it?" Barbara asked.

The princesses all replied in unison, "Roko's is better."

"What's wrong with your taste buds?!" Roko snapped.