DEGARUTA! Episode 06

DEGARUTA! Episode 06: A Daring Rescue and Absurd Escape! The Thief's Cheat Revealed!

  Now that the party has realized that Xavier is gone has has likely been kidnapped, otherwise they would have seen his mangled body shambling around amongst the other dead, they try to figure out what their next plan of action is. Using a map of the city, they coordinate the areas that are locked off, and Mike attempts to use his cheat skill to figure out the best locations in the city for the Gate Ritual, however the limitations of his cheat are now abundantly clear, he doesn't know everything about everything, he simply knows a little about everything. As a result he can only give them a rough idea of places that would be ideal for the Ritual, 3 within the sealed off quarter, and 4 outside of it. The last part is very concerning to the guards, it also means that it's impossible to search them all in time.

	Raptro suggests alerting the city guard and the Kingdoms army as its still unclear what is being summoned, and have them search the areas outside the quarter while they search the 3 within. Everyone accepts this as an acceptable idea after Mike translates it and takes credit for the idea, something that angers Raptro but cannot be helped until he masters the local language. A message is sent to the local guild and an alert goes out. Time is running out and they need to stop this now.

	Meanwhile Xavier awakens to find himself bound but no longer gagged in a strange location. While there he notices he is not alone in the room, the Vampire from the night before merges from the Darkness, pleased that Xavier is alive, well, and awake. She begins intimidating him in the hope of stirring his fears for fun. Xavier gets a full look at the Vampire now that she is not in her feral form and gives a whistle. The vampire inquires what that was fore irritated. He explains that other than being a queen of the undead, she's actually quite attractive, and now he understands why Mike was so interested in pursuing her romantically. The smile then leaves the vampires face, she asks Xavier what he means.

	Xavier smiles tries to take control of the conversation, “Well don't get me wrong, my friend and I did undertake the quest to slay you and protect the townspeople as it were, however-” The Vampire frowns and raises an eyebrow, “However what?” Xavier shakes his head and shrugs, “The goofball is apparently far sighted or something as he couldn't read the quest notice, he thought the darn thing said to lay you.” The vampire stands silent and slack jawed, replaying the events of the night before. She suddenly realized that it wasn't the adventurers that had cornered her or revealed her presence and plan, but she had revealed herself as a vampire and attacked when the strange Mike knocked at her door.

	She slumped her head against the wall dejectedly as she realizes that had she politely told Mike to go away, invited him in to kill him in private, or hell, simply bedded him and sent him on his way, she wouldn't be in this situation, she wouldn't be pressed against a ticking clock, and she wouldn't have to dummy up a fresh heroic sacrifice in order to force the ritual to completion early. She begins berating herself for losing her cool and letting all of her plans fall apart. Putting herself down, saying that if her plan can be so easily disrupted by an unexpected suitor at the door, then she is terrible at planning and has already failed as a General of the Demon Lord's army.

	Xavier strangely begins to console her, telling her that the insults she's saying to herself can't be true. Encouraging her, telling her that if she's a General of the Demon Lord's army, clearly she worked hard to get there and earn her position. Also that it wasn't her fault things went south like they did but she certainly reacted fast enough and put together a fairly decent last minute plan to put things back on track, even if it was hasty. She sniffles, “Really? You think so?” Xavier nods, tells her that the summoned Zombie hoard was definitely a nice touch and definitely a smart move to distract everybody while she got away and puts the rest of the plan together. He then asks her what her original plan was anyway.

	Feeling better about her situation the Vampire reveals she is a Vampire Lord Carmina, in service to the Demon Lord Kushatel stormed into the domain of the Vampire nobles and forced their servitude after a brief but bloody conflict. However they have been unable to advance much further over the last year since the final battle of the last country to fall under his control. Something they did is preventing a proper advance. So she was planning to gather enough Mana through ritual blood sacrifices to convert the life energy of humans in mana and open a Gate to allow the Demon Lord's army to advance directly into Doskel. Xavier nods and tells her it was a dam good plan, and might still work if she just tries her best.

	Meanwhile the Party are fighting through the hoard to check the various possible ritual sites within the quarter. The ritual requires the moon to be in the sky, but not a particular phase, which means that as soon as the sun goes down, what ever the Vampire is planning will happen. Having been educated that even if bit, as long as they are healed by the Paladin or other holy person they will not become zombies, Mike and Raptro fight with both renewed vigor, and some kind of confidence. Raptro is surprised that a simple haymaker punch explodes the head of a zombie. But is told that his base stats adjusted when he fully synergized his job-class. The building they were in was a tower that went up 6 stories and down 3. They had split into 2 groups, Erica on her own, and Zentaro with the other 2 summoned heroes. Together the 3 searched the lower levels but instead found themselves face to face with intelligent undead, the Ghouls.

	With the ghouls they discover a magic circle that is spitting out a magic zombie every few minutes as a summon. Having cleared the upper floors, Erica rushes to the basement to help her friends as the sound of magic battle carries upward. Mike finally attempts to use the magic part of his class and throws some basic attack spells, but misses the mark because he botches the chant and the fire bolt veers off into another direction wildly, crashing into a stack of empty crates and causing them to catch fire.

	As the zombies continue to pour out, and the gouls begin magical counter attacks, Erica is forced to use one of her precious miracles, Turn Undead to clear the room. As the beam of holy light emits from her holy symbol, Mike suddenly yells, “Leave the talking one alive, we can interrogate him!” Erica knew that the undead would likely give no information or betray its master, but she did what her companion asked. As the ghoul looked from behind his covered eyes, he saw all the zombies had been turned to ash by the holy light of a god. It would be another few minutes before the magic circle spit out another magic zombie, but with all 4 adventurers down here like this it would do him no good. Mike shouted for Zentaro to immobilize him. The sword-master in the blink of an eye pulled out his sword and with 4 great flashes the ghoul was rendered a mere torso.

	As the ghoul lay there, Mike suddenly turned to Erica and asked her if her religious vows as a paladin would force her to intervene if she witnessed an evil person being tortured for information? Erica was confused and didn't understand why he was asking her that, evil people were to be met with swift justice, and if pain was inflicted as apart of that justice then so be it. Cruelty for the sake of cruelty was a no go, but her God was one that favored positive results even if it meant getting hands dirty. Mike was thankful her 'alignment' wouldn't get in the way and he and Raptro pulled out Holy water and their blessed blades to begin 'asking questions.'

	Meanwhile Xavier was still tied up in what appeared to be a guest bedroom somewhere, the Vampire Carmina sitting at the foot of the bed, just unloading all of the things on her mind, talking about the Demon Lord and how she hates working for him, information about how he accumulated a skilled army so fast, and how he managed to overwhelm even the powerful vampire race. The Vampire smiled now, she seemed less, monstrous and more like a person. She had even explained that the reason she kidnapped Xavier was to use him as a living blood sacrifice in order to open the gate early, it would be unstable and they wouldn't be able to move the whole army through, but it would be enough to conquer Doskel and the surrounding area, a better gate could be opened after that.

	Sighing like a weight had just been lifted off of her shoulders, she smiled at the bound thief and asked him, “Do you really think I'm attractive?” Xavier nods, “Very attractive. Not gonna lie the fact that you're a vampire is very offputting at first, but having sat here and gotten to know you better, I think I could look past that at the lovely woman underneath. Despite being dead, you're so... full of life. It's a shame its wasted working for the Demon Lord.” She got close to him suddenly, “You really think so?” he smiled 'sincerely' and nodded, “You know it girl.” Finally she put a finger to her lips in a surprisingly cute manner 'Is this really the same girl that killed Neil and drank him like a Capri Sun?'

	Finally she looked at Xavier and asked him, “Since you're so nice, and I am sacrificing you, how about I grant you a last request as thanks for putting up with me?” Xavier pretended to think about it for a moment, “Can I ask for anything?” She replied with a... giggle, “Within Reason.” Xavier put on his most charming expression and asked, “Please let me go?” She laughed, he laughed, she continued laughing, Xavier laughed albeit uncomfortably. Finally she rested a hand on the Rogue's cheek and smiled at him, “Truthfully, if I wasn't in a hurry and pressed for time, I might have actually considered it.”

	Xavier pretended to pout disappointingly, “Ah nuts. Well I tried.” Carmina moved closer to him, more seductively, more like a female vampire. She smiled at him and asked, “In lieu of that, what do you say before I sacrifice you body and soul... I show you how a little hell can still take you to heaven?” Before Xavier could respond the Vampire was kissing him deeply. A look of surprise and shock as the vampires tongue entered his mouth. She pulled back seductively, a blank stare on Xavier's face as he befuddle into a smile. “Did you like that?” Xavier nodded, “Yessum.” She made several gestures that implied she wanted to know if he wanted more, Xavier thought about it and figured it must be like how a vampire can't enter your home without being invited in, maybe they can't enter your pants without being given the go ahead. He considered his situation for all of 2 seconds and shrugged in a manner that acknowledged he was down to boogie.

	As she began to undo parts of her sexy outfit, the building above them began to rumble. A Ghoul in armor opened the door to the room and announced there were intruders in the upper areas of the tower. Carmina sighed and stood up, she stroked Xavier's cheek and smiled, “We'll have to continue this when I get back. Be a good boy and stay put, kay?” she winked at him and licked her lips, then was gone, having left to repel the intruders and coordinate her forces.

	Xavier sat on the bed for a moment contemplating whether or not it was worth it to hang out for a chance to sleep with the sexy Vampire knowing he would be sacrificed afterward, or if he should try and make a break for it now since he was now full of absurdly valuable information to their quest. He struggled against the ropes binding his arms and legs, unable to maneuver he eventually rolled himself off the bed and onto his side, he struggled before finally crying out that he wished he could get out of those ropes, suddenly without warning the ropes slackened and fell off his arms. Standing up he quickly examined the ropes and discovered they were not knotted. Xavier felt like punching himself because it seemed to him like the ropes were loose the entire time, he just wasn't doing it right to get out of them.

	As he looked around the room and recovered his gear, he took no notice of the strange bruise on his arm as he snuck out the door and into the depths of Carmina's hideout.

	Up above the wall exploded into a cloud of dust and rocks as Mike charged through, sword in hand with Raptro in tow, Erica was still baffled that a summoned undead servant could be tortured enough to turn on his master let alone that her companions were mad enough to even try, but eventually the undead did break.

	From a room deep in the bottom of what had become her stronghold within Doskel she watched through a magic mirror as the party began making its way down stairs, she would now coordinated the stronghold defenses here and take personal charge of fighting them. All she needed to do was hold them off for a few more hours, as soon as the sun went down and the moon rose, the preparations would be complete. She even considered for a moment if she could capture one of the invaders alive, then she could sacrifice them in place of the tied of Rogue, after all she had promised him a trip to Heaven.

The Battle for Doskel is now coming to a head, will our heroes make it in time?