The Shadow of Xerxes Pt 2

"Ah, that'd be my squadron. I sort of left them behind in my haste to get here. Ahaha." Rize dropped her head for second. "I really need to put them through remedial training."

"…Right."

"It was nice meeting you, Mary. And hey, thanks again! You really did some good here. Don't forget that."

Rize spun on her heel, jogging over to her currently gasping for air squad of fellow soldiers.

Mary watched her begin to berate them, before turning away.

It was time to leave, for certain now. Tanya would probably be back at the inn by now, finished doing whatever she'd rushed off to do this morning.

As Mary made to leave, a conversation between a few of the remaining members of her fan crowd caught her ear.

Oh, Degurechaff will definitely want to hear about this.

-=-=-=-

Around the Same Time

Centermost Section

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

"Well, have you made the rational decision yet?"

"Get away from him!"

"Quiet."

A man, wearing the black uniform of the Xerxes military branch, frowned. The metals along his chest and the patches along his shoulders denoted him as a Lieutenant General, and the tag on his chest showed him to be 'Drake'.

This man was powerful; it was clear even without knowing his status, just from the lines of his body and the weight of his magic. In the city of Xerxes, his standing was second only to General Garmstrong. And in Scylla?

He was the First Head.

Drake spared the trapped humanoid Dragonewt an annoyed glance.

"I wasn't talking to you. Wait your turn, or you'll waste both of our times."

Souka snarled, yanking uselessly at her chains. The rune-inscribed magisteel didn't even budge.

"I was talking to this fine gentleman here, who not once has lashed out nor even spoke a word since his capture. I admire that tenacity, truly."

Drake leaned in, gripping Souei's Body Double by the chin and tilting his head up.

"But you should be smarter than this. Be reasonable. You were able to infiltrate our headquarters so thoroughly before being caught. Yet, none of that intelligence or reason is showing here. Just look at you."

The Body Double was a horrid sight indeed. His horn was broken off halfway down, the top half of his outfit completely ripped away, showing a bare chest littered with gashes and bruises. Magisteel cuffs, inscribed with runes the same as Souka's, ensnared his ankles and attached to the wall by way of chain, which led to a loop of metal stuck in the wet stone-brick wall. Another cuff encircled his right wrist and was similarly connected with the wall.

There was no need for a cuff and chain for his left arm.

Souka had nearly burst into tears when she'd seen him, though afterwards she was far too busy being chained up and smacked around herself to really let it sink in.

"You should have realized by now how helpless this is by now. Tell me what you know already, and I'll have one of my associates heal you and let you free. That's only fair, I think?"

Drake pressed his palms together, clawing his fingers and making some sort of hand sign. Underneath his boots, his shadow stretched out, a creature materializing in a flurry of bubbling shade and sparking gold.

"If not, I'll just have to move on to your friend here. Maybe then I'll get an actual answer, and you both can stop wasting my time."

The creature finished forming at his side, standing on two legs just under the man's own six-foot height. It almost looked like a canine of some sort, though its limbs were too long, and its form was just slightly… off, in a way that made it hard to properly discern. It raised its arms, black dripping claws extending from each finger.

"How well does she deal with electricity, I wonder? Most people can't handle it at all, so I'd like to think I can make this quick."

Souka flinched, as a sharp crackle of golden sparks and bolts danced along the beast's form.

"Well?" Drake leaned in, gripping the Body Double by his hair and yanking.

Not-Souei narrowed his eyes.

Ptoo.

Drake's expression went carefully blank. He let go, reaching into one of the breast pockets of his uniform and pulling out a handkerchief.

"Perhaps we'll stick with you a little longer." He dabbed at his cheek, wiping away Not-Souei's spit. "You've clearly got something more to tell me. Lycaon."

The creature turned.

"I want you to-"

A buzzing came from Drake's chest. He paused, before reaching in his collar and pulling out a shivering silver medallion. Sitting on a chain around his neck, the medallion featured the image of a six-headed, serpent-resembling beast on one side, along with a large number "1" on the other.

He held the medallion up to his face, the "1" flashing gold for a split second.

"This is the First Head. What's going on?"

"Drake! You need to get over here right now."

"Sixth?" He glanced to the side, "I'm busy right now. What has you in such an uproar?"

"Whatever you're doing is less important. We've got a serious problem on our hands."

"Calm down. Listen, I'm currently dealing with those nuisances that were knocking at our door. Just tell me what's-"

"It's Nin. And if you don't hurry, we're going to have one much bigger nuisance on our hands. Our whole operation might just go up in smoke."

Drake froze, then let out a tired sigh.

"Alright, I'll be right over. Where are you?"

-=-=-=-

Contrary to Mary's thoughts, Tanya didn't want to hear shit from anyone, at the moment.

This had been one hell of a day, and it was only just past noon, and now, she had this bullshit right in front of her, further cementing today's events in the realm of "Incredibly Annoying".

Quite honestly, she felt like throwing hands. Ignoring the fact that she had spent the pre-noon section of today doing exactly that, Tanya was irritated and wanted to punch something.

Preferably Nin. Too bad he was currently unreachable at the moment, despite her knowing exactly where he was.

Let's backtrack.

-=-

"Mother!"

A spurt of heated air. A collapsed pile of dirt and rock melting and burning away.

"Fucker!"

Tanya burst from the collapsed section of tunnel, pieces of earth and melted stone lodged in her hair and cloaking her clothes and skin.

She'd managed to keep from suffocating, thanks to the same spells that allowed her to breathe at high altitudes and her barrier spell. But that could only do so much, and melting and blasting though what felt like a kilometer of collapsed earth – though in reality it was closer to a quarter of a kilometer, at most – with bursts of magic and controlled explosions did not lend itself well to the cleanest of appearances.

Perhaps a drilling formulae of some sort would be the next thing on her agenda. Perhaps she'd file that under her "attack and dethrone God" agenda.

Always nice to have a proper tool for piercing the Heavens.

At a later date, when she was in a better mood to contemplate such things. Right now, Tanya looked, and felt, absolutely fucking terrible.

And after the way the past 10 minutes of impromptu explosion mining had gone, Tanya was more than willing to fist fight anyone who decided to point out this fact.

Luckily, she had just the person to take out her anger on. Two such persons, in fact.

Nin, and whoever his serpent-controlling friend happened to be.

Where the fuck did you go?

Tanya activated Magic Sense, brushing off as much dirt and mud as she could in the meantime.

Immediately, she recoiled, a white-hot stab of pain lancing through her brain. Before she could deactivate it, the feeling disappeared as quickly as it came, fading away into a slight mental pressure.

"The hell?" Tanya murmured, rubbing at her forehead with a grimace. She focused all her attention on Magic Sense for a moment, zeroing in specifically on the blood tracer she had on Nin.

Something had changed.

It was… stronger? More specific. More attuned, maybe?

…Well, it wasn't hurting her, at least. And in fact, she knew exactly how far away and in what general area Nin was now, as opposed to the vague tug her tracer's previous iteration had provided.

So that was… a good thing?

The red magic circle around his finger. Was it that?

Tanya shook her head.

Not important right now. Later.

She could catch Nin and his interrupting compatriot now, and that's what mattered.

So, where were they, exactly?

The strengthened tracer pointed slightly ahead of her, and to the right. Right at the curving tunnel wall. So, the tunnel probably was circular, or just curved inward heavily at a later point.

That was just fine.

Tanya took off, jumping and flying down the tunnel as fast as the not incredibly large area would allow.

She'd find them, that was for certain.

-=-

Tanya had, in fact, found Nin and his compatriot.

Or rather, she'd found the place they retreated to, which she assumed to be their base of operations.

Only…

"Dammit." Tanya clicked her teeth, staring at the familiar moat-surrounded compound with a mix of annoyance and exasperation. "There goes that."

She had surfaced at the tunnel's end, emerging from a warehouse similar to the one she'd found Nin squatting in earlier that day. After stepping out into a side alley, Tanya had followed her tracer a block or so north, until she had arrived at her current position.

Just outside the centermost section of the city.

In other words, just outside the borders of Xerxes Military HQ.

I'm in no position to storm a military headquarters. I need to retreat and form a plan of action.

Tanya sighed irritably.

"Souei. Souei's Body Double. You there?"

Nothing. She'd been trying sporadically since this morning, but nothing had gone through. Trying to contact Souka gave her a similar amount of response, which meant nothing as well.

They were either out of range or under some sort of jammer. The former was extremely unlikely, so...

Fuck's sake. It's annoying, but there's nothing else I can really do. Not without the right information. I suppose I could get a better mental map of the tunnels. And maybe I'll try to reach out to Armstrong.

She turned to walk away.

Unless she's involved, of course. How much of the military is involved? And here I'd hoped this would be simple, for once. As if-

Someone stepped a little too close while strolling past. A large man, tall and powerful and adorned in crimson, bumped into her.

After the day she'd had and the irritation-inducing realization she'd just reached… on someone with less self-control, that would have been the straw to break the camel's back.

Relax. Don't prioritize an emotional impulse over rationality. Relax.

Tanya merely paused, taking a sharp breath.

"Watch out." She said quietly, instead of snapping like she'd wanted to.

"…My apologies." The man inclined his head. "My head was elsewhere."

Tanya shook her head, walking away without another word.

Octavius watched her as she went, a curious expression on his face.

Was that… Nin's target? Tasha, or something like that.

She was stronger than he'd expected. Much stronger. Her magic was...

"Hm." He turned, resuming his stroll towards the HQ's entrance.

For the first time in a long time, he found his boredom waning.

-=-=-=-

"Eve!" The infirmary's door burst open, and Drake stepped inside, "What the hell happened?"

Eve glanced at him from where she was sitting, cleaning the scales of a smaller snake with a small hand brush.

"Nin picked a fight with someone way past his paygrade, is what happened."

Eve leaned back in her chair, tossing a glance at the unconscious form of Nin. His skin was still partially melted, charred flesh and burnt blood slowly knitting itself back into a something resembling a healthy state.

"Why is he taking so long to heal?" Drake strolled over to Nin's side, brow furrowed in concern. "He should've recovered from this level of damage already."

"I'm not sure the exact number, but Nin defintely should have died several times today. His regeneration must have been working on overdrive the entire fight." Eve sighed. "It seems his opponent knew that too. If I'd been a few seconds later, he would have been dead for real, and I would have had to bring him here in an urn."

"Tell me about this fight, if you would. Nin's supposed to be lying low and focusing his efforts on his Shades."

"Well, there's not much more to say. I only arrived after he'd lost." Eve said, putting away the brush in her satchel and leaning forward, "I can tell you a bit about his opponent though. It's some adventurer Nin got on the wrong side of. Apparently, she tracked one of the Goblinas he had a Shade kidnap from that new monster city, Tempest, and they fought outside the walls. This was a couple days ago, by the way. He escaped, and somehow, she tracked him down again earlier today."

"Why wasn't I informed of this earlier?" Drake's tone was that of carefully concealed fury.

"Why do you think? He wanted to handle things himself, make sure his mistake didn't screw over our entire operation." She scoffed, tilting her head slightly as her snake wrapped itself lightly around her neck, "Of course, now we're in even deeper shit. If she tracked him down once, I wouldn't be surprised if she came knocking at our door soon. And let me tell you, she had power to spare, even after putting Nin through the magical blast burner. Poor Lucy here was shivering from the weight of all the magic saturating the area."

"God dammit." Drake shook his head.

He pressed a hand against the unconscious Nin's forehead, a deep blue light emanating form his palm. Slowly, Nin's remaining wounds closed, his burns and bruises fading.

"This damage is much more extensive than it looks." He frowned, pulling his hand back and wiping it with a handkerchief from his belt. "It's not just his physical body that was damaged. You're right; he'll need to replenish his stockpile."

"Hm." Eve murmured noncommittally, "So, what now?"

Drake watched Nin for another few seconds.

"Keep an eye on Nin. When he wakes up, tell him to wash up and come to the council room. You as well, when that's done. I'll contact Tear and try to find Octavius." Drake said, already making for the door, "Scylla's meeting has been moved to today. Be there."

-=-

"What's the big idea, calling me out here?" Tear stood up on her chair, her sleeve-covered hands on her hips, "Scylla was supposed to meet tomorrow. You know the excuses I had to make to get here?"

"I'm sure you didn't have to do anything of the sort." Eve propped her head up on her hand, "No doubt your fellow clowns jumped at the chance to be rid of you for the afternoon. And if not, then I'm sure you had nothing better to do anyway."

"Hey!" Tear pointed at her, "That's fair. But also, you're a jerk! I had plans today. Plans to do nothing but plans nonetheless! Now I gotta do nothing tomorrow instead! It's a real scheduling issue, so don't make light of it if you please."

"Fine, fine." Eve said without care. "You can teleport though, so scheduling can't be that rough. But fine, act like a child, like always."

"Why you-!"

The door slid open.

"Ah, Nin. You're looking much less like a corpse now."

"Quiet, Eve." Nin grumbled, sliding into the seat to Eve's left.

"Now now, that's not quite the gratitude I'd expect from you. Who saved your life today?"

"Tch." He looked away. "…Thank you."

"That's better."

"Nin, you almost died today?!" Tear jumped onto the table walking across it to stand in front of him, "What happened? Who did it?"

"It's none of your business, clown!"

"It's totally my business! We're both Scylla Heads you know! Come on, tell me!"

"Now, Tear. Don't harass him too much."

Drake strolled through the door, still open from Nin's entrance. Octavius followed behind him, his massive frame towering a good foot over the just-above-average-height Drake. They both walked along the outside of the table, the other Heads' eyes following them as they went.

"It's more efficient if he tells everyone at once."

Octavius settled in the seat to Nin's left, whilst Drake sat at Octavius' left at the head of the table. Well, it was a circular table, so there wasn't really a 'head' per se. It was the seat directly across from the door, how about that?

"Orsted will not be joining us." Drake announced. "He is still on mission amongst the Dragon's Peak and will not return in time for our operation here. Tear."

"I won't be here either." Tear added on cue. "I've got some work for the Demon Lord Clayman that I've got to sort out. So, sorry about that!"

Drake nodded. "My apologies for calling you here on such short notice, Tear. I know you've been busy as of late."

"Ah, it's nothing." She rubbed the back of her head, "But you know, I can only use teleporting magic every so often. It's not a huge knock on my time anyway."

Eve shot her an annoyed look when no one was looking.

"With that out of the way, the meeting of Scylla's Heads shall now commence. First on the agenda: Nin, tell us about this woman you've been consorting with."

"Consorting?!" Nin slammed his hands on the table, "That bitch nearly killed me! Tasha! Tasha, she called herself. A hero from the Western States."

"As far as you're aware. Now, tell us about her. Everything you know."

And Nin did. He went into great detail, hiding nothing. Not even his own fuck-ups along the way were spared, and his battle and multiple near death encounters during it were described in thorough detail.

He already made the mistake of trying to fix things himself once, and he'd nearly died for it.

He would not make the same mistake twice.

Drake leaned forward once Nin had finished, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin atop them.

"Now, the question is what we should do with this information. Our operation is nearing a crucial stage; we can afford no delays at this point in time. Yet, if this Tasha is not dealt with summarily… hm, and we need to fix the tunnel as soon as possible as well…"

He shook his head.

"I'd like to put the question out in the open. What should we do? Octavius?"

"…You won't be able to threaten her." Octavius said quietly.

Drake blinked.

"Pardon? This Tasha woman is whom you're referring to, I assume." He shot the vampire an odd look. "What do you mean by that?"

"She's more powerful than you, Drake." Octavius looked across the table, "And Tear, as well."

"Really? What of Orsted?"

Octavius thought about it for a moment.

"The Fifth Head is a… unique power. I cannot say for certain. Perhaps it is possible, were the right individuals with which he's formed pacts, or indeed one of us even, to meet their end. Then again, perhaps not."

"That's a fair point. I trust your judgement." Drake agreed without question. "Though, you are certain then of this woman's power?"

"Yes. I ran into her earlier today, quite by accident." Octavius put a hand to his chin, "Just from brushing shoulders, I could feel it. Her power now is great, and I believe it could become far greater, should we let it. There is an air about her. One that is hard to describe. Coercion and threats are not an option."

"Could you defeat her, Octavius?"

"…I'm not sure." Octavius admitted. "It has been a very long time since I've fought an equal. I admit myself as rather… curious, to see this woman's true power."

"Alright. That settles it."

"You have a plan, then?" Nin raised a curious eyebrow.

"When doesn't he?" Eve said with an eyeroll.

Drake ignored them both.

"Octavius. I want you to bring her here tomorrow. Take Nin, use blood magic and Shades to find her, if you must. Bring her here. Willingly." Drake heavily emphasized this last word, "She sounds intelligent enough, and powerful, if her fight against Nin was any indicator. I don't wish for someone like her to get in our way. Not at this stage, not when our plans are mere days from completion. The most rational option right now is negotiation. Tell her that Scylla wishes to parley."

-=-=-=-=-=-

Known Skills List

Tanya:

Common Skill: Thought Communication

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication

Unique Skill: Formulaic Casting

Unique Skill: Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement

Mary:

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra/Intrinsic Skill: Physical Enhancement

Unique Skill: [Well, It Certainly Exists]