Chapter 17

  Hostages

  “Sorry, it's not your fault.. You go ahead and gather all that … waste. I'm going to step just outside the door to cool my head a bit.”-Allura

  “I understand. Take your time. In the future, I'll try other ways to get what we need.”

  No sooner does Allura get out of the latrine then sounds of a scuffle can be heard, Duke Deokk kicks the door in, and charges right up to Jade on the machine sucking up human waste and all the detritus from the holding tank in the latrine.

  “Fitting work for such a despicable piece of gutter trash, but I will have you come with me.” Deokk proclaims, with exceptional contempt “At least if you care about the well being of your little pet, Traveler.”

  “Ah. Your Lordship. On our meeting I had thought you to be smarter than your pawn, Baron Royce. Perhaps I was mistaken. This action of yours is a very poor tactical decision. You are correct that Allura is very important to me for sentimental reasons, but strategically? All she really offers me right this moment is transport, and her loss, tactically, would be a minor inconvenience, if that. I have a counter-proposal. You will return Allura to me this instant, alive and unharmed as much as possible. At that point, we'll mercifully pretend this never happened.”

  “Hahaha! What sheer bravado you have for being little more than a glowing crystal ball! I can smash you to pieces right this second, take the beasts you and your pet have stolen back and then do whatever I want with her! In any event, we are leaving this city to its fate and you both will come with us in one way or another! NOW. Choose. Alive. Or Dead.”-Deokk.

  “Now see. That's where you're wrong, Your Excellency.” Jade stops siphoning matter and manipulates the stand he's on to roll to the floor and then slowly builds a pedestal to raise himself to Deokk's eye-level, right in his face. “There is no weapon or spell in your arsenal that can harm me, at least none that I've seen. But on the other hand...”

  Duke Deokk suddenly finds himself stripped naked, tied up in a spider silk cocoon, and lying flat on the floor, helpless.

  “I have hundreds of ways to make you and your men wish for death just so I can deny them. I don't need to eat, sleep, or even breathe! I can, and did, tunnel through mountains to get where I want to go. Sure, you can outrun me now, but I. Am. Relentless! Every time you stop to rest, I will be catching up with you. The longer the chase goes on, the stronger and more cunning I get. The longer you keep Allura from me and the more you hurt her, the worse your bargaining position becomes. Now, what's your answer?”

  “She's not the only one, you glowing glass ball! Our troops already took back our stolen slaves! We shook hands with Priest Frandoh purely to buy time and to get your guard down, you stupid...” And Deokk never gets to finish his sentence as he starts turning purple, desperate to breathe.

  “And that's an even worse tactical decision, foolish meat-bag! If you did indeed come to the negotiations in bad faith, you should have kept silent! You are a DUKE! All you've managed to accomplish with that little boast is demonstrate that your kingdom is completely untrustworthy! Those slaves were so, so traumatized by your self-proclaimed 'civilized' behavior that they were little more than a burden! Basically of no tactical merit to me and Allura whatsoever, and we were escorting them back to Furcadia for no other reason than simple empathy, which your self-proclaimed 'people' seem to be completely lacking. Never again will we come to the peace table with Sydonia, unless your negotiators are bound in chains! Oh. And if you're wondering why you can hear me even though there's no air around your head, it's because I'm speaking directly into your mind. Shocking I can communicate with empty space, I know...”

  And that is when Duke Deokk stops struggling and goes still.

  “And there he goes. Now to go find Allura myself. Fortunately, since she's my dungeon boss, I've always got a good direction and distance pointer telling me more or less where she is.”

  Jade begins rolling along in Allura's direction using the same mechanic he did when he was navigating the mines, disintegrating the doors in his way, at least enough to roll through. Stairs prove no obstacle either as he just builds a pile of dirt under himself and rolls onto the next stair to repeat the process until he reaches the top. And that's where he meets Priest Frandoh, waiting for him.

  “And here we have a heretical piece of glass that thinks it's a sentient being! All I really need to do is kick it back down the stairs...”-Frandoh.

  He tries to kick Jade, the dungeon core, back down the stairs only to suddenly find his offending foot bare and impaled on spikes surrounding Jade's core and held in place like a bear trap. He lifts his now entrapped foot to try and remove it by hand only to be forced to lose his balance by Jade building a pedestal off the ground with wood, causing him to fall onto his back, at which point, he's stripped of all his equipment and bound tight with a spider cocoon.

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  “Aaiee!! How! How dare you?! You heretical giant marble!” Frandoh cried out in alarm and self-important outrage.

  “I dare because you violated the sacred rules of hospitality on a repeated basis, you apostate! You tried to drug our food, which your faith, country, and international law, strictly forbids. You violated your sworn duty as an arbiter and mediator by helping war criminals who are engaged in illegal slave raids, including in your home nation, by helping them kidnap an agent trying to repatriate said slaves, and handing said slaves over to their armies! Then there's the fact that you just tried to kick me down the stairs! For a humanoid body, that would entail the risk of serious bodily harm, or maybe death! I don't know what that would have done to my core if I let you get away with your unwarranted assault, and I have no intention of finding out. You are now on strike two, one more false move, and I will consider you my enemy. Where are my companions? Will you bring them to me and let us go our way willingly, or will I have to force you?!”

  “I would rather deal with the heathens of Sydonia than who they call a Wanted Criminal who tries to, as they say, 'pull a fast one' by providing a ridiculous forgery as evidence of my people's wrongdoing! I simply will not have it! I won't be caught dead helping you or your despicable heretical associates!!”-Frandoh

  “And that's strike three. Just remember. You. Asked. For. This! Oh. Before I forget, what did you do with that ledger I gave you? I'd like it back, if that's not too much trouble.”

  “BURNED! Like you should be, purged in holy flame like the witch will soon be... AAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!”

  The spiderwebs were laced in pure sodium, which when exposed to air, tends to burn rather spectacularly, very quickly.

  “I figured that's what you'd do and say, you sanctimonious hypocrite, so let yourself be purged by 'holy flame', asshole! As for the ledger? I can make as many copies as I like, fool!”

  The last thing Frandoh would ever see in life is an exact copy of the ledger he burned appear right in front of him and disappear once again. The instant his HP reached 0, his burning body, ashes, smoke, and all, was disintegrated into it's atomic parts and blueprint. Leaving nothing behind.

  Blueprint: Sanctimonious Hypocrite acquired.

  “Now to move on and get back to finding Allura. Then after that, trying to reconnect with my companions and leaving this city behind, forcing our way out through the walls if we have to! Wait... Blueprint: Sanctimonious Hypocrite?! Is that a joke?”

  System Notice: Affirmative.

  “Unusual sense of humor, that is.”

  System Notice: Refined over eons of having to narrate, navigate, and document the lives and actions of countless beings and phenomena.

  “Oof. Ouch. Is there any way to delete blueprints?”

  System Notice: Negative.

  “Oh. Well. I'll just organize them later then, when I have time.”

  Jade continues rolling down the hall in the direction Allura supposedly is and comes across a door with some unidentified magical field.

  System Notice: To [Analyze] this door will require 5000 MP. Proceed? Y/N.

  “Nope. Not enough MP and I'd rather not waste resources. Let's try going in through one of the neighboring rooms.”

  Jade tries going in other rooms on the second floor only to find all but one have walls that fail to connect by over a meter's distance between them. By himself, Jade would have no problems making a path to connect them, but if Allura is incapacitated? Inside the remaining room, he finds a badly battered woman in rags, that look like they might have been priestly garb at some point, which are so badly tattered that they just barely cover her modesty, and that much only when she's sitting perfectly still. If she so much as breathes too hard, her more delicate regions threaten to expose themselves, and she's chained down.

  “What the hell is this?! I'm beginning to have serious reservations about escaping through the Holy Kingdom if this is how they treat their prisoners. Oh well, let's check her out...”

  Appraisal:

  Iluna Silverst.

  Race: Human. Level: ???

  Occupation: Sex Slave (Tattoo, Unknown)

  HP: 10/5000

  MP: 10/10

  STR: 01/20 (Wounded, fatigued, drugged)

  DEX: 01/15 (Wounded, drugged, disabled)

  CON: 02/25 (Wounded, drugged, incapacitated)

  INT: ??/?? (Comatose)

  WIS: ??/?? (Comatose)

  Equipment: Chains, priestly garb of the Holy Kingdom's paladin order (almost destroyed).

  Status Effects: Sleeping poison, paralysis poison with nerve toxin effects, concussion, natural healing disabled, magical healing blocked by chains.

  Injuries: Blunt force trauma to the head, various bruises and lacerations, intense genital trauma due to foreign object insertion, numerous life-threatening STD that will permanently cripple or kill without proper treatment, severe internal organ damage, multiple organ failure.

  WARNING: Death imminent.