Chapter 19: Mystery solved

"A pleasure", Lorthic said as he nodded his head in greeting, while Annabel did a small curtsy in greeting

Their movements breaking Zazi out of her fright, she immediately calmed herself and gave a short bow of her own, "My name is Zazi, a pleasure.", Although she was shocked and a little frightened she was a Champion after all and she had her own pride as one, even when facing someone that she knew she could not defeat she did not allow herself to seem subservient.

Gerbaute and Xasix immediately greeted them afterward, it was not that they were afraid of Lorthic but it was just that they gave him the respect he was due as someone that stood at the peak of this world.

After the greetings Zazi decided to not beat around the bush and rather speak to the heart of the matter, "I wonder what would cause sir to seek us out by traveling to our humble home.", after asking her question Zazi watched Lorthics face closely, trying to figure out what his was thinking, but to her disappointment, Lorthics face did not even twitch when she asked her question and his eyes remained as calm and tranquil as ever.

Lorthic slowly raised his hand to his chin as if pondering something, after a short moment which felt inexplicably to Zazi he finally spoke, "Not long ago I happened to be staying in a small tribe in this forest...", Listening to Lorthics words Xasix visibly paled and Gerbaute's frown deepened.

"This particular little tribe asked for my aid in defending themselves against some inexplicable monster...", Lorthic continued and threw a casual glance at Xasix, to which he unconsciously winched. "I helped the tribe by creating an undead for them to use and help protect themselves, but who would have thought that the monster they had feared so much was in fact part of an intelligent race, and after sustaining some injuries it would flee. Because of my curiosity, I decided to follow him, I could think of many different reasons for asking for these offerings, all of them were evil and cruel. Now my reason for being here is to ask a question", after his long speech Lorthic smiled at Zazi as if telling her it's her turn.

Zazi's face had drastically changed after listening to Lorthics words and with a sad and self-deprecating tone, she asked. "Sir wishes to know why we had to use so many humans as sacrifices?"

Lorthic said nothing and just calmly stared at her, Zazi took it as a sign to continue, the other two at her side were remained quiet knowing their place, this was not a conversation they had the right to be a part of since it involved two champions.

With a sad smile Zazi started speaking, "Truth be told I never thought I would one day have to use such a cruel form of magic, but please don't think of us as cruel, we truly had no choice but to resort to this.", she sighed as she explained herself.

"Please explain", Lorthic asked after thinking about her previous words. He was not so naive as to take all her words to heart, but he also didn't outright write her off as a liar, if she could explain their situation while also giving physical proof he would of course believe them, if they weren't able to he would have to resort to less pleasant ways to gather the tooth from them.

"Long ago before we met her our mistress fought against another Champion, although she came out victorious with her enemy fleeing with his life barely intact, she did not come out unscathed. The fiend had been able to taint her with a minuscule amount of the poison he used in his attacks and with many serious wounds needing urgent care she was unable to tend to her poisoning, unfortunately after having made some recovery she found that the poison had already seeped too deep into her to be cleansed by ordinary methods. Thus she traveled in search of a cure, on the way she found us in different parts of the world and took us in, at our time of need.

Unfortunately, none of us would have expected that the enemy that escaped her would have survived long enough to reach his people and relay to them about what happened before dying as such, they had hunted my mistress for the past thirty years. Unfortunately, six years ago the poison in her body flared causing her to fall into a coma as it slowly devoured her life force. Not having any other way..."

"You kidnapped people and used their life force to feed the poison so that it would not take any from your mistress or used the life force from your sacrifices to bolster your mistress's life force, am I correct", Lorthic asked interrupting Zazi.

Zazi opened her eyes wide in shock as she stared at Lortchi but soon calmed and smiled wryly as she said, " Sir is far more knowledgable than I thought",

"Not really but the methods you are using should be a form of necromancy if I am not mistaken, one that carries life force over from one host to another with a certain percentage of the life force lost in the process. ", Lorthic said.

"That is exactly what it is, has sir heard of this kind of magic before?", Zazi asked in shock

"Yes and I have studied its uses as well, but let us end this discussion here. If you would please lead me to where your mistress is so that I can verify your words.", Lorthic said, much to the shock of the others.

Showing a troubled face Zazi spoke, "This is not an easy request to grant if something were to..."

"I assure you nothing will happen to your mistress, in fact, if what you said were the truth I would even be willing to help your mistress overcome her current situation in return for the leftover life force from the sacrifices.", Lorthic said causing everybody's facial expressions to suddenly change, Zazi and the two others looked hopefully but hesitant, while Annabel as if she had heard something frightening couldn't help but pale as she erratically tugged at Lorthics robe causing him to turn his head towards her.

"What do you want the life force for, it is wrong to take it from people, if you save their mistress there would no longer be a need to take their life force and you could release them.", Annabel said hopefully.

Looking at her face Lorthic couldn't help but smile helplessly as he stared at her and answered with a soft voice, "Silly child if Xasix was sent out to look for new sacrifices, it means that the old ones life force have all but run dry after a year of it being forcefully sucked out of them, to those people right now death is not cruelty but a blessing.

Annabel's eyes lost their shine when she heard this and just stood there in a daze, Lorthic lightly rested his hand on her shoulder and spoke gently to her, "I will immediately siphon the rest of their life force from their bodies ensuring that they feel no pain", having said that Lorthic silently cast a spell on Annabel to ensure that she would not be scared by what she was about to see.

[Iron Will]

Light quickly came back to her eyes as she exited her daze in shock only to meet Lorthics eyes, which caused her to feel calmer for some unknown reason.

"Let's go", Lorthic said to Zazi after having made sure that Annabel was fine, having heard Lorthic and after a moment of hesitation Zazi lead Lorthic and the other to the back of the cavern, where a simple wooden door was placed to close the passage to the next room.

With a gentle push Zazi pushed the door open revealing a much smaller cavern on the other side, when Lorthic saw its contents his eyes could help but flash in surprise for a second, as he stared at the massive spell formation in the room.