Keeping up with the demon was a struggle.

Even flying up above with his magic, Irwyn needed to maintain speed similar to when they had fled from the City of Terraces just to not lose sight of it. Because whatever else they might be, the Bearer of Wrath certainly wasn't stopping. When there was a hill in a way, the hound of Exe-wor tore through it. A forest? It would be gone beyond the horizon by the time all the trees had stopped falling. Terrain did not bother it, neither did elevation – the demon either ran as easily as on even ground or created a path without even slowing down. The one saving grace was that it was traveling in a mostly straight line.

"So, what are we going to do if there are more than one Draugr?" Desir asked. He had joined their group in the chaos after the demon had set out and had since transformed back to the shape Irwyn had met him as. Not likely his 'natural' state though given Irwyn was almost certain some of the details felt slightly off - as if Desir himself had forgotten them.

"If there were more, they would have come along for this attack," Elizabeth said. "Even the one I destroyed had been incomplete to say the least. No, we have to be decisive and end the local Rot today - the odds of an overwhelming ambush are basically zero."

"And you have never guessed wrong," Waylan jabbed, yet keeping his tone fully serious.

"I think there are some people ahead," Irwyn warned. He had been slowly gaining on the demon, if only slightly. That meant that unlike at the start of the chase he was just a small distance behind it and able to see the upcoming obstructions. What he had noticed was a group of maybe two dozen people walking down a forest trail.

"Alice, get them out!" Elizabeth said and their Time mage vanished a moment later.

She appeared ahead of the demon though still to the side just to be safe. While Irwyn was fast with his platforms, he could not match up with literal teleportation in sheer distance covered. Mostly because there was a limit to the sheer velocity a human body could weather. Of course, Alice wouldn't get too far on her own before running out of mana but it was more than enough to save the unwitting obstacles before the demon could surge through them. She held herself in the air for a few more seconds afterwards before dropping to Irwyn's platform as their group already flew by.

"At this pace, we will probably be seeing the battlelines in a few minutes," Desir commented. "I have to wonder whether we will be crossing them too. Probably."

"There are battles being fought?" Waylan frowned.

"You wouldn't know it by the capital," Desir nodded. "But the Republic and the Kingdom of Venen have been in an on-and-off war for as long as anyone can remember. Right now things are on the 'colder' side so usually only small skirmishes happen along the border."

"The Kingdom of Venen," Elizabeth repeated, pausing in surprise as if she could not belief what Desir had just revealed.

"You recognize it," Irwyn noted.

"You don't?" she shot him a new strange look.

"Is that surprising at this point?" he looked at Alice and Waylan but they seemed just as lost as him, if not even more. He really did try to think back of anyone in the Republic mentioning that name but came up short. Not that it meant it hadn't been spoken somewhere.

"Maybe not, but this one I thought you might," she shook her head in mild disbelief. "It's the very kingdom my dear mother is from."

"Ah," Irwyn could only exclaim in realization. They had not brought it up by name with Waylan and Alice then, judging by their lack of recollection, even if the rough idea of visiting had been communicated when they were first departing. "There was a House name too, wasn't there?"

"Azaelas," Elizabeth confirmed, pausing to think.

"So, the rumors of our Duchess being foreign were true," Desir nodded. "And if she is from this Kingdom… well, that certainly makes me question a lot of other things I had heard."

"You are familiar with it?" Irwyn asked.

"Nothing firsthand but Alice - no, the other one - had mentioned some things. And I have gotten my hands on some of the intelligence reports which were written mostly without propaganda. I reckon I know enough to ask for directions without standing out."

"Trying to endear yourself?" Elizabeth asked with a slight smile, though there was a hint of accusation beneath it.

"Well, it did not escape me that my proposition of joint travel was neither rejected nor accepted," Desir nodded. "Being useful in the short term is always good start, is it not?"

"My namesake also did mention you had poisoned her," Alice1 reminded with a frown. "Which does beg the question why you would do that."

"Now, now, that is only technically true," Desir raised his hands in appeasement. "You make it sound so malicious."

"When is poisoning not bad?" Waylan questioned.

"She did not tell you much about her past, I take it?" Desir looked around.

"Only that she used to live in the Kingdom before emigrating," Alice nodded.

"Well, she was not trained in honing for nothing," he explained. "They are quite intent with what little scraps the peasantry receives in Venen. Dear Alice was raised like a tool by a poisoneer - a locally respected profession that invents and mixes their traditional poisons."

"Something along those lines had been mentioned to me before," Elizabeth slwoly nodded, motioning for Desir to continue.

"The nobility has a whole game of it as I understand. Poisons that give their vine supposedly extraordinary textures which can be used as messages. But someone needs to learn how to mix those and at what doses without actually endangering any nobility - or perhaps how to prepare actually lethal concoctions when those are in need. Well, employing someone with honing explicitly focused on resisting poisons and venom is an investment. Well, not 'employing' exactly. Venen tends to be just two or three steps away from outright slavery from what I have heard."

"So just prank her," Waylan frowned. "Reminding her of those times."

"You would think that but the girl is actually proud of it, as weird as it sounds," Desir shrugged. "Not the horrible parts but mild poisons she can easily notice and eliminate… Well, that she quite enjoys. Especially when she thinks the poisoner doesn't know about the immunity. She made an excellent friend. With…"

"I think I am seeing these 'battlelines'," Irwyn interrupted. He had been following the rampaging demon the whole while, seeing in front of them a large, scorched field stretching into the distance in all directions.

It was in a strange juxtaposition that became increasingly apparent as they neared. The area had massive swathes of upturned earth and burned-down foliage, craters visible every few meters… Yet there were spots where grass had begun to grow again. Some holes had been half refilled and piles of loose dirt had been blown down to barely be higher than the even ground. Like a battlefield decades after most of the fighting had died down. Which may very well be exactly the case. There was also the military camp which was, thankfully, well out of the demon's way. Concrete fortifications with trenches and such. Irwyn had expected some heavier ordinance but found none. No artillery or heavy gun stations as far as he could recognize. What were there instead were cages. Piles upon piles of large cages. Few were empty from what little Irwyn could see as they passed by.

"Their war-monsters," Desir explained, perhaps noticing the curious looks. "They sedate the creatures, then right before battle pump them with enough stimulants and other drugs to kill, before releasing the lot facing a Venen army."

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"What if they escape?" Alice stared.

"Those cages are better guarded than most of the officers," Desire shook his head. "And the whole system is very efficient. The Republic has mastered their use in battle while the Kingdom has never managed to figure out a good way to counteract. Disposable, fearless, and very replaceable soldiers. Horrible for sieges but the Republic has been fighting purely defensively."

"Until now," Elizabeth pointed out. "The slaughter at their capital will demand a response. I don't think their leaders have the awareness or incentive to blame just the undead actually responsible. It will be almost trivially easy to blame the Kingdom and rally the masses."

"Well, it will take them a few months to actually organize anything punitive," Desir nodded, not disagreeing. "It's best we are not in the border regions by then. We do plan to stay in Venen itself though, don't we?"

"Rooting out any contingencies the Rot might leave behind should be our priority, if it's possible to trace them," Elizabeth nodded, looking around for disagreement. She continued when there was none. "I am also interested in visiting my mother's former home."

"Let's make plans after we kill the Draugr," Irwyn reminded. "Just because we have a rabid demon going after it doesn't mean there won't be any surprises."

By then it was ripping through the old battlefield. There were several explosions as it repeatedly stepped on mines which did not pack enough of a punch to even slow it down or set the Void inhabitant off course. What they did do was clearly alert the close by base as it began to stir in panic behind them. Elizabeth was veiling them from sight but the demon had not bothered with subtlety. The ravaged front spanned perhaps ten kilometers or thereabout before giving ground to a small forest. They were likely over the border but the Kingdom did not seem to have an active garrison anywhere within line of sight.

A few minutes later they were already flying through fields of wheat, thankfully unoccupied at the moment. In the distance, there was a hamlet that would likely suffer from a diminished harvest but that was beside the point as the demon was, at last, slowing down. It ran past the field into a meadow and there it stopped for about two seconds, snout rising to sniff the air. Then it began to dig almost straight down, the earth vanishing in swaths of Void magic. Irwyn stared from above as the demon excavated the ground so fast it was almost freefalling.

"I am following," Elizabeth declared, ready to jump down. "The rest of you stay alert and at a distance in case of more surprises."

Just as she left the platform and began to plummet, a surge of magic erupted from the hole. That putrid mix of Soul and Flame rather than Void, perhaps a trap being sprung. Irwyn worriedly looked down into the pit but found that it had hit some kind of cavern several dozen meters deep underground and he no longer had a line of sight towards the demon. The responding tide of its own magic told him that it had certainly not been killed though.

Elizabeth joined the fray a few moments later, her magic vaguely similar yet distinct from the demon's use of the Void. More Soul magic was used but Irwyn noted the smell of Rot was barely tangible in the air when he focused on it and was not growing stronger. That likely meant no undead reinforcements, just the Lich forced to fight directly. And scheming necromancers usually did not specialize in that. The battle was relatively brief. For some thirty seconds after disappearing tremors and vast quantities of magic were erupting beneath them. Then a streak of pale-blue flames shot out of the hole, pursued by the rampaging demon. Elizabeth instead reappeared right at Irwnyn's platform again just as he was about to take them further away from the Lich, allowing her to cut the fleeing undead off.

Seeing its last-ditch effort at escape foiled, the Lich let out a shrieking wail, then literally exploded into a tide of magic – one far surpassing even the initial ambush. Elizabeth had clearly been ready for it as she instantly reversed her direction while simultaneously sending a wave-like spell of her own to counteract the attack's area. The demon on the other hand had barely even flinched, charging directly into the putrid Flames then vanishing from sight. Meanwhile their group was far enough away that Finity diminished the attack until Irwyn's barriers barely even rippled beneath it.

When the visual remnants dispersed a few moments later, there was no sign of the Lich left. Its suicide attack had failed to achieve anything. The two fighters were landing and seemingly relaxing, which was certainly a good sign. Elizabeth beckoned them down.

"That seemed too easy," Irwyn commented when he was closer.

"It had already been injured and not ready for pursuit," Elizabeth shook her head. "In the first place, it had overcommitted, not aware of our presence in the Republic. Was the phylactery within the skull?"

IT TRIES TO SLIP AWAY, the demon answered in its disturbing semi-voice though Irwyn could almost hear the smile within despite the creature having no lips. Despite the intense fighting, there was not a trace of injury along its form. IT FAILS

"Good," Elizabeth grinned with great satisfaction of her own. "Do you smell any more of the Rot near us?"

TOO INTANGIBLE TO FEEL. LESSER SEEDS. FAR LESSER.

"Then you are dismissed," Elizabeth nodded. "I will try to pursue whatever remnants can be hunted down but a hound is no longer required."

FAREWELL, DREAD the demon said, its body slumping down again. From the fierce tall beast, it once again reverted to the hunchback mass of black leather reminiscent of a spider. With the hunt complete it did not linger, slipping back into the Void so fluidly Irwyn did not even notice it happen. Then it was gone.

"What is that even supposed to mean?" Elizabeth sighed, somewhat baffled.

"That it was afraid of you," Desir chuckled as if that had been obvious.

"I don't think I could have matched it in battle."

"Maybe something to do with being famously descended from Wrath," he shrugged. "And likely also other Names along the way. Are you actually surprised Void creatures would find you disproportionately frightening?"

"I will need to test that further at some point then," she nodded thoughtfully.

"So, what do we actually do now?" Irwyn asked.

"Look for clues about where the undead had come for," she decided. "Whether it was a spacial rift or an ancient trap from when the Rot had last usurped these lands, we should see what can be dug up. Some nasty surprises had likely been left behind."

"We had already agreed on that," Irwyn nodded. "Do we actually have any clues whatsoever though?"

He looked around the group and all he received were blank stares. Elizabeth breathed in to speak and then stopped herself from having to admit the apparent truth.

"That is a nope," Alice snorted.

"I should be able to sense anything close enough nearby," Irwyn offered. "Our best bet might be just wandering towns and villages around the border."

"Ask around about the man who got transformed?" Alice suggested. "Tracking who he was and from where would be a good start."

"I don't think I could make a good enough portrait and just a description is too vague," Elizabeth shook her head. "Could you?"

"Not exactly an artist here," she shrugged.

"And I haven't seen them," Desir sighed. "And the lot of you will be wanted as spies within ten minutes of walking into any town."

"Surely it cannot be that bad," Irwyn disagreed with that assessment.

"You will stand out like a quartet of sore thumbs," Desir scoffed. "Well, maybe a trio. Elizabeth can definitely pull off an aloof aristocrat, that will fit in well enough. But the rest of you? Your clothes look like neither nobility or peasants. And your demeanors don't fit either. Even something like vocabulary will be off once you open your mouths. Maybe further inland you would have been more easily written off as just weird, but we are quite literally right on the border with a hostile nation."

"Won't matter if I am not seen," Waylan pointed out.

"Sniffing around for records is not useful when we are looking for the traces of someone who might have just passed through town briefly," Desir countered. "I also understand that bureaucracy is not exactly the way of things in Venen. Paper trails will be scarce, even if we had a name."

"I am sure I could pull off nobility," Alice said, seeming slightly embarrassed.

"Don't take it the wrong way dear, but you don't have that natural poise," Desir shook his head, earning a somewhat hurt look from her. "Not every person in power has that of course. Some are, like you, carefree and capable of enjoying life without a rod up their… I digress, lest someone else takes that as an insult. What my point is, that appearances are not about truth. They are about perception. You have to look what people expect you look, same with how you act. That is what they care about in total strangers: Preconceptions and first impressions."

"And I don't appear like someone high class," Alice said, somewhat dejected by the evaluation.

"You appear as someone who doesn't need neophytes to know their worth," Desir reassured again. "Sometimes being as you are is an advantage. Other times the opposite. But if you want to fit in as a noble lady… I could teach you to act as such a bit. But that will delay us."

"I could pull off a peasant," Waylan interjected.

"No way. You are too confident," Desir immediately rejected the notion. "You don't keep your head down like someone properly hopeless. And the tattoos are completely out of place. At best they make you look like a bandit or some kind of religious soldier type."

"Or bodyguard," Waylan decided, chuckling at the idea. The least dangerous person in direct combat pretending to be the muscle did sound rather hilarious.

"Since we are not in an immediate hurry you can have a few hours to prepare them for such roles," Irwyn spoke up.

"You have something to do?" Desir immediately guessed.

"Well…," Irwyn started speaking but was interrupted. The ground beneath their feet was suddenly sinking. For a moment he thought they might be under attack again as he summoned the platforms to hold them in the air but then realized it was just a cave-in. A consequence of the prior battle taking place underground right beneath where they still stood. The landscape was about to have a new crater.

"Some poor local is going to lose their mind after finding this," Desir chuckled, looking on.

"The attack had made apparent the difference between having a Concept and not," Irwyn continued his earlier train of thought. "Had it happened a few days later, Elizabeth would likely not have been the only one capable of facing the Draugr. It is high time I carve my own before we jump head first into more trouble."

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