Zagreus deposited Peter at my feet and sat back on his haunches with his tail wagging.

I patted the nearest head and gestured to the man. "Did you want some of his blood?"

Two of Zagreus' heads hissed and the other two shook their heads.

"No. Awful smell. Rotten body. Don't want it."

"I see. He does look pretty foul. Do you want some of Sereza's blood?"

"Yes!"

I summoned a pre-filled bucket containing some of the delicious green blood. Instead of handing it to him, I grabbed it with my tail and flung it far afield. The excited hydra leaped after it and crushed the treated wood underfoot. His actions made the blood spill into the sand but that wasn't a problem for the spirit. His heads lowered and snapped their jaws, pulling a bloody clump into the air before he started to extract his prize.

With him taken care of and Galarion continuing his feast inside Helmet-head's mind, I summoned the girls over. They landed on my shoulder. Áine leaned forward, curious about the man below me while Zharia puffed up her chest in disgust.

Peter lay twitching on the ground. His skin had lost its luster; pale with black veins running throughout his body. Through the veins, I could see large splotches of discolored skin and even blacker clusters of veins tied in knots underneath the surface.

Frankly, he looked bruised, beaten, and cursed. If it wasn't for the mask I bet I wouldn't be able to stand nearly as close as I did. Evolutions brought the impurities of the body to the surface to be expunged, and Peter looked beyond filthy.

I crouched and dug my claws into the straps of his armor. My nails quickly cut the man loose and I tossed the chest piece aside while flicking my tail down the center of his abdomen. The once red undershirt came free in two pools of slimy cloth, exposing a blackened hairy chest.

I whistled at the sight.

Where the mana had gone afoul throughout his limbs, his entire chest was an expanse of bruises so purple the skin looked necrotic. Visible gunk oozed from his pores while more continued to surface at a turtle's pace.

Only one way to check…

I slid my hand forward and recoiled at the sticky surface against my palm. He was both hot and cold. I hesitated but only for a second. My hand was already dirty, no use worrying about dirtying it further.

Feeling his body, I discovered that while his chest, as well as his mind felt like a furnace, most of his body was ice-cold. It was a miracle that he wasn't shivering in place.

Closing my eyes, I muted my senses and focused on what I felt beneath my hand. Past the fire below his skin, the center of his body hummed with flickers of mana. Examining deeper, I felt the mana explode in miniature snaps that dispersed underneath the heat of a different kind of energy.

The heat felt the more oppressive of the two but unable to push outward against the constant tide of cold that appeared. Pulling away, I simply observed and timed Peter's breathing, counting his heartbeat.

"Faint. If I had to guess, the curse is still alive and his body is fighting back. Áine, what do you think?" I said.

She had access to my memories, so she lowered her head in thought. Áine leaped off my shoulder and landed beside his ear, finding one of the few unblemished spots along the man's body. Her skill activated and she sent her mana downward but quickly pulled back.

"Unstable. Might die," she said.

"I agree. Sadly I don't want that. At least your mana helped, we'll have to stabilize him enough before Galarion gets a hold of him."

Her mana had entered his body and ran through opposition when it touched his veins. Thankfully, my spirit had an instinctive understanding of how to not hurt someone and simply directed her skill to heal the flesh around the channels.

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She continued to fix him slowly over the course of a few minutes and his breath steadied.

"Wha-aagh! Ha… Cha-ughhh," Peter groaned.

His eyes tried to open but enough ooze had leaked from his eyes to seal them shut. I ran my thumb underneath his eyelids and scraped the gunk away for him to slowly blink. One orb looked milky, having gained a pale membrane over its iris.

The second took a moment to understand its surroundings, but when he found my face Peter scrambled away. Or at least, he would have, if it wasn't for the complete inability to coordinate his limbs. Instead, he flailed uselessly on the ground and remained firmly in place.

"What was what you said to me? Just business right? You'd understand then what happens next," I leaned closer and replicated the fear in his eyes through my mask, mirroring his expression. "You understand. No hard feelings. After all, it's simply… Business."

"Wait! Wa-ugggh." Peter coughed up a wad of black phlegm that dribbled down his chin. A groan escaped but he managed to clear his throat and speak. "Don't please. I-I'll do anything. Anything yo-you want. It's yours."

I leaned closer, pressing my face close to his. "Reaaaally? If that's the case… I'll have your life!"

"No!"

Again, he attempted to wiggle away but Áine hadn't healed more than needed–mostly focusing on curing the fever above the neck. Upon realizing there was no escape, his eyes froze upon my face. A single tear streamed down his cheek.

Pathetic.

I grabbed his chin and lifted him. Áine returned to my chest and Zharia flared her wings, letting the tips alight. Peter recoiled, but I ignored him and dragged him toward Galarion.

"First, you'll empty your dimensional storage and give me everything you have. Hide a single coin or trinket and I'll kill you. Do you understand?" He nodded but I tightened my grip and forced him to look toward Helmet-head. "Second, you'll tell me everything you know about the nobles who wanted this, and that little device creating the barrier."

Galarion released his meal and lifted the noble with an invisible tendril wrapped around his neck. When he turned, his body shifted into a series of silent, screaming maws and crying faces. His tentacles rotated around a central eye that glowed with eerie red light.

"Wha-at is that?! N-No! No!"

"SILENCE!"

Peter's jaw clamped shut and another tear fell. I resisted the urge to shake him silly.

"Items, dump them." A beat passed, and nothing appeared. He started to whimper but I tightened my grip. "Well?"

"I can't. My mana…" he swallowed. "I can't use it."

I groaned. "Of course you can't. I guess that means-"

"Wait! Wa-wait! In my pants. The-there's the key to the rift and my storage coin. It's yours! All yours!"

I glanced downward with narrowed eyes. His pants had no pockets.

His eyes followed mine and he shook his eyes frantically. "Inside the waistband. Hi-hidden p-pocket. I swear!"

My tail neared his crotch and he tensed. With a flick, his belt split, and two items dropped free. Galarion reached a tentacle down and grabbed them, slipping them into my hand.

I set the crystal key back into its pouch and pocketed it while holding up the shiny, black coin. It was made of metal that contained specks of bright silver amongst its grooves. Intricate rune-work adorned its surface and I felt more underneath, carved carefully through its center.

It was different from the usual dimensional storage devices. All of Broken Tower used dimensional storage in the shape of jewelry of some form, but the coin was simply a coin.

"It's bound to me, but there's a key. Take it to any vault-cracker or enchanter. The pattern key is node," he coughed in his attempt to explain and spat more black mucus. "Tw-two. One, three. Th-then two again, and then four. In that order."

I pocketed the coin and dragged the noble closer to Galarion. "Good to know. Now to get out of here."

"I gave you what I had! The information. Wait! I'll tell you everything!"

"You know, I thought you were better than this." I lowered him enough to drag his feet across the sand. Step by step, I neared the astral spirit, whose eye glowed brighter by the second. "I really thought with how you acted, that you would behave better. A sellsword, right? Someone used to life and death. Someone who could handle their fear with more dignity than this."

"Anything! I'll tell you everything you need to know! If you don't. Know it. I'll find out! I'll swear my life to you! Please!"

I stopped before Galarion and raised Peter higher, turning him to look at me. "At least you didn't piss on me. As for the information I want, don't worry. You'll provide it."

"Wh-what? So you'll let me go?"

I snorted. "Yeah, sure thing."

His eyes widened as I released my grip and he stayed standing. His attempt to scream failed due to Galarion's tentacles encasing his head. Unlike the others, Galarion didn't mind touching the gunk around his body, his form half blurred as his mouth sank through the meat and bone toward its meal.

"Zharia. Mind burning this crap off me?"

She opened wide and released a gentle flame. The golden fire touched the ooze and erased it as if it were paper in a campfire. In seconds, my arm was spotless and I shook off the remnant heat from my limb.

"Vile man!" she harrumphed.

I chuckled and stroked her head. "Indeed. Now let's wait for Galarion to extract his memories before we proceed. After that, what do you say about helping me create a dramatic finale to this shitshow?"

She squealed in delight and sent a deluge of ideas as to how we could accomplish such a thing. I let her ramble on and watched Galarion's tentacles slip in and out of Peter's head before turning to the pillar.

Ruined my day and they didn't have balls to back up their bravado. Ugh, whatever. I think Myol owes me an explanation.

I headed for the pillar and commanded my familiars to prepare. It was time to get the hell out of here and take a nice, long bath.

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