Towards The Unknown

I listen to the surprisingly loud noise of the phantasmal horse pulling The Traveler's Dream as I idly study my gamer interface. This odd terminology refers to the series of menus, icons, and strange bars that litter my field of view.

The simplest of these strange, decidedly unnatural additions to my perception has to be the series of symbols associated with my party feature. It is a simple thing that consists of the icons of the people in my party, which at the moment consists of my dolls, the mannequins, and myself. This numbers nine in total, my two dolls, the six mannequins, and myself. This is the maximum number of party members I can have at any one time and it has worked out perfectly for me over the course of the last few months.

I gently pull the reins affixed to the speeding, insubstantial horse and guide it as it races towards a mysterious destination. The horse, not a real living thing, is smoothly traveling through a wild forest. I pity the animals we are spooking as we dash through the untamed woods.

One of the newest additions to the series of strange symbols that I can see superimposed over reality is a circular map that is filled with various symbols of a range of colors. This new ability is a handy thing known as "Mini-Map" which allows me to possess a mental map of my surroundings which reveals plenty of details about what surrounds me.

I cautiously glance at the map, studying it carefully even as I patiently guide my steed deeper and deeper into the forest. I'm completely sure that the noises are frightening any nearby woodland critters who are just trying to get by, and for that I feel the slightest pang of pity, but given the necromantic nightmares just a few miles away from here… It'll be better for the rabbits, foxes, snakes, birds, and whatever else lives here if I frighten them for a few minutes and save their lives then if I do nothing and they die at the hands of the necromancer.

Our trip began hours ago and it's been a bit of a journey. Nothing spooky has happened yet, but we are drawing nearer and nearer to our destination, a village just past the edge of this dense forest and I know better than to think we'll be able to waltz into the village unchallenged.

We continue our trek for another half an hour before I spot a clearing in the distance. I grin as I note the thing and transmit a silent message to the people in my party confirming our proximity to our destination.

I take both reins I use to steer the horse in one hand and I wordlessly draw my elegant blade. I know I need to be ready for anything now that we are close to our destination.

Behind me I hear the sounds of one of the carriage's windows opening and I listen to the sounds coming from inside of the strange vehicle. My companions are readying themselves for the battle we are sure to face once we get closer to the village. I think that's the correct move since we don't know what terrors we are about to have to face to rescue Titania, or to see if we can find more clues guiding us towards Amy.

My massive birds fly out of the window, freely modifying their sizes so they can take to the air and fly around the carriage. They deftly bob and weave around the trees that surround the carriage, and I grin as all of us close in on our destination.

As we draw close to the edge of the forest I am unsurprised to see a dark miasma come out of nowhere that immediately surrounds the carriage and to sense the sudden emergence of two flying undead creatures made of an inky mist. The incorporeal creatures have lower bodies that are made entirely of shadowy mists and upper bodies resembling thin humans.

They both wield narrow blades made of magical metal, and they both stare into the windows where my companions are located. They easily keep pace with the carriage and for a split second merely stare into my vehicle.

The birds squawk at them, but before any of the birds can launch their feathers at the beasts I hear the faint sounds of a knife being dipped in something and smile. A heartbeat later a subtly glowing knife is chucked at one of the monsters, hits it square in the center of its ethereal stomach, and causes the monster to screech in pain and then fade away into nothing, apparently slain.

Raquel has just launched one of her knives at the thing. Presumably after dipping it in holy water. It seems that that is an effective strategy.

The other monster roars in something like fury and attempts to stab into the window, but not fast enough. I don't bother looking at it, and instead I gesture in its direction and activate "Cloth Combatant". I aim, using my connection to Raquel's senses, and smirk when my enchanted sleeve, infused with holy energy, turns into a thin blade and rockets out towards the ghost-like monster. The beast is stabbed and emits an unearthly wail as it suddenly slows and begins to fade. In seconds the thing has become so insubstantial that we can't see it at all. I get a notification alerting me that the two monsters are dead and awarding me loot for their shared defeat.

"Nice one master!" Shouts one of the mannequins, its voice a strange combination of the doll's voices and the voices of the amazon customers she's assisted over the course of her time in my service.

I smirk and thank the mannequin, even as I motion for my phantasmal steed to go faster. I know that what we just encountered was the necromantic equivalent of an alarm. There's no way our enemies don't know we're coming…

The beast tasked with transporting the carriage speeds forward, moving faster thanks to my coaxing. I study the clearing as we approach it and I begin to shout instructions for my allies.

"Open the door leading in and out of the carriage! And be ready for battle! There's no way that's all we're going to have to fight." I roar. I hear the sound of the door leading in and out of the tavern and stage open and I sense the subtle redistribution of weight as Beth positions herself at the edge of the tavern. I appreciate the beautiful redhead and her sometimes curious courage as we sprint out of the forest and into a massive clearing.

Some miles ahead of us is the village that Sara warned us about. The skies over the village are noticeably darker than the skies elsewhere and I can see a foul tint that is the color of a gangrenous wound coloring the village. It's an uglier version of what happened when I saw Sophia attack Oceanos…

I spend a second thinking how odd it is that it seems so calm, right before the skies turn a foul shade of red and I hear a supernaturally loud sound emanate from the village. The ground underneath the carriage quakes slightly and I hear the dolls and the walking animals groan in annoyance, but no one falls out of the carriage.

My horse is not bothered by the quaking ground, partially since the horse is not truly real. The phantasmal nature of the steed allows it to be unmoved by what is occurring underneath its hooves, and I inwardly sigh in relief due to this little quirk.

My relief is short lived, as mere moments after I inwardly feel gratitude to my horse I hear the faint sound of distant, galloping feet and hooves. I turn in the direction of some of the noises and spot figures darting out of other areas of the forest. These figures are unholy, unnatural skeletons that are not centaurs but are clearly inspired by centaurs. They have the upper bodies of humans but are grafted onto horse skeletons, ones that have heads and everything. They are charging towards us, their eyes trained on the carriage.

I grimace as I reach into my inventory and retrieve a relatively recent invention of mine. A wand materializes in my hand and I lift it in the direction of my foes, my grimace turning into a scowl. I feel the odd sensation of a perk I've only recently begun to use activating, "Implementation", a perk that empowers my magic when I use it through some sort of magical focus or tool.

I quietly chant a spell and feel some of my arcane energy flow into my tool. My wand faintly glows and a split second later a pink ray a few inches wide and perhaps two inches long is shot from the tip of my want and flies towards my foe.

There is a vast distance that separates us from the monsters darting towards us, but since my projectile is fast and so are they I only have enough time to repeat this process a few more times, three in total, before the first projectile hits the nightmarish centaur ripoff.

When the projectile hits the monster it doesn't register the blow, but the point wasn't to deal direct physical damage. I snap my fingers the instant the magical blow connects with the beast, and activate another perk. This causes the centaur-like monster to abruptly collapse into an inanimate pile of bones.

My next few projectiles connect with some more of the monsters and I repeat my actions, leading to replicas of what happened to the other skeleton. Undead monsters behind the original centaur-ish monsters continue to charge towards me and trip over the inanimate bones that used to be their allies, causing more destruction and re-death amongst my foes.

I have just used "Arcane Dispersal" to combat the necromancer's forces. The hedge mage perk allows me to rather effortlessly combat low-level undead minions like this, since with it my magic is repellant and destructive to the magic of other people. I can use it to undo magic cast by other mages, which makes me a terrifying foe when facing other mages of various sorts.

I am about to catch my breath when I spot something fast darting towards the carriage on the mini-map. I turn to face this latest threat and do so just in time to spot it spewing some sort of miasmic mist at my allies and I. The creature is covered in funerary shrouds that keep me from seeing what it actually is but it has the rough shape of a horse, is massive in size, and is moving incredibly fast. It is too fast for me to just strike with a magical projectile and destroy using "Arcane Dispersal"! It even deftly dodges the feathers my companions are flicking in its direction, swaying gracefully out of the way of each carefully aimed strike.

I reach into my inventory and retrieve a small bottle of water while tucking my sword back into the void-like space I use to keep my items safe. The miasmic mist continues to shoot towards us, but when my bottle is in my hand I will the water inside of it to fall under my control and mentally prepare to make use of Lady Neptunia's blessings.

The water rockets out of the bottle it's in and darts towards the strange horse-shape charging at the carriage. The cursed liquid slices through the dark mist the creature is spitting at my carriage, and causes it to fade away even as it continues to snake through the air towards my foe. I focus on the water and infuse it with one of the curses I learned while fighting Sophia's forces. Funnily enough I first learned these curses fighting against Sophia and now I am using them against some evil warlord willing to do business with that smug style warrior…

The water darkens in mid-air and the strange steed charging towards us continues to dash in our direction. The steed crashes into the stream and is thoroughly soaked, and I grin when I sense the curse I inflicted the beast with, the "Curse of Weakness", take effect.

The steed's charge is noticeably slowed and I sense that now I can hit the creature. I immediately take aim with my wand and fire another projectile, the same sort of low-cost, low-damage projectile I've gotten used to using. The horse-like monster does not try to dodge the blow and when I hit it I immediately activate "Arcane Dispersal" but to my shock the perk does not destroy the steed. The monster does let out a pained winnie and stagger slightly but it refuses to collapse like the other horses have when they have been hit by my magic and then affected by my perk.

The beast's shrouded head rises up to focus on me and even though I can't see its eyes I can sense that it must be pissed. I grit my teeth and move slightly just to watch the creature's head follow me. This frustrates me and I wrack my list of perks to try and figure out how to deal with this. This asshole will ram the carriage without a care in the world at this rate!

I quickly come up with a desperate plan to avoid a collision and to enact it I begin to fire off more of my pink projectiles even as I feel the water bottle in my possession abruptly refill with water. That's the thing's central gimmick, it's a bottle of infinite water that will always refill seconds after I empty it. It's a handy quality of life item, and in my hands a great source of ammunition. The object is also fairly new, it was one of the secondary presents Lady Neptunia sent me after I helped her learn that Aquanos is still alive.

My projectiles hit the horse in its face, and I sense the rage it feels directed towards me increase, which causes me to smirk since I follow this up by activating "Arcane Dispersal" multiple times in a row. Each time I do the horse lets out more pained noises and I grit my teeth in annoyance to see its unending endurance.

In moments the horse is too close for me to not do something more drastic. I let out a piercing whistle, empowering the volume of the sound with a light application of "Songtress", a perk that lets me do the rather bardic action of performing song magic. The perk is actually a style warrior perk, but it's perfect for this moment, as the instant that I emit the noise I charge forward and leap off the side of the carriage. The horse, behaving exactly as I predicted it would, charges at me and ignores the carriage, right as my pet tiger leaps out the door of the carriage and grows to his true size.

The beast is a friend I made and a creature I tamed sometime ago during my adventures in Oceanos. The monster-like animal is also a powerful sort of creature known as a "Lemurian Tiger", and it is loyal to me. It is covered in powerfully enchanted gear and there is fury in its eyes as it glowers at the horse standing between the two of us.

The horse continues to charge at me, and I stop running. The horse is easily the size of a rather large adult elephant and it is running straight at me. I mentally message my companions and tell Beth and Raquel to use some of their new equipment, quickchange rings, to dress in the clothes of nuns to take advantage of their "Dress Up Mimic" ability and wield holy magic against anyone who comes at the carriage. I also order everyone but the tiger to proceed to the settlement.

The massive horse is only a few dozen feet from me when I lash out with the bottle of water in a way that the beast is not ready for. I don't try to curse it again, instead I open the bottle and toss the water on the grassy floor ahead of me, only to focus and take a deep breath as I solidify the water, morphing it into a long, thin sheet of ice.

The horse, blinded by its hatred of me, does not notice this and when it steps onto the ice it is moving fast enough that it manages to move its entire body onto the ice before its hooves begin to slip on the unnatural surface. The creature collapses and I manage to deftly leap over it when it is about to hit me with its prone form.

I grin at it as the tiger I befriended long ago reaches me. I reach into my inventory and replace my bottle with my blade even as I leap onto the back of the gigantic tiger. My tiger leaps into the air once I'm on its back and I orient the beast to glare at the massive horse.

"Lady Neptunia, lend me your strength!" I proclaim as I lift my blade and point it towards the sky. I smile as I feel the approval of the water spirit surge up my arm and into my blade, giving it a strangely fluid-seeming shimmer. My tiger lets out a loud roar as he suddenly darts towards the horse's still fallen form. We land on the horse's massive neck and I glare at the angry beast even as I plunge my blade into its head.

I feel my blade penetrate the shroud, which hisses and begins to melt as it touches my blade, and then I feel my sword sink into and past soft flesh, and then bone, and when I half expect to stab into its brain I feel my blade stab… nothing, like cutting air. The light behind the part of the shroud covering either eyes or eye sockets dims and then disappears completely, as I glare at the monstrous undead creature. I retrieve my sword with a forceful tug and when it exits the hole my stab created in the shrouds that cover the creature's whole body I am surprised to see blood-red skin just past the folds of clothing that someone protected the creature with. My blade is also dripping the monster's foul ichorous blood.

I glance in the direction of the monsters that were approaching the carriage earlier, and am dismayed to see them no longer charging towards me but instead darting in the direction of the carriage. The carriage itself is streaking towards the settlement, and so I pat the tiger and point in the direction of the village.

I feel my companion nod and we begin to sprint towards the village, eager to meet up with the rest of the party. My foes are also eager to meet the rest of the party, and it's a race against time. As soon as my tiger takes off towards the village I see a horde of corporeal undead in the distance, in the community itself, assemble and begin to charge at the carriage, even as I spot some incorporeal, ghost-like creatures beginning to fly in the direction of my tiger and I.

It looks like it's gonna be a fight just to reach the village… I can't help but grin at this development. It's gonna be a great shot for me to grow my powers and gain experience fighting more types of foes