Starchild Crusaders

by J. J. Pavlov

  We walk into an alleyway with Jalil following closely behind us. When we're away from the flow of people, I calm down and think about things for a moment. I've noticed changes in my psyche due to my body before, but it's been a while since I discovered a new aspect such as this one. Reveling in terror and suffering of the vile and evil is one thing, but hoping for innocent people to tear each other up is a whole different matter.

  Suddenly, a shadow falls over me, and I turn around. The entrance to the alleyway has been blocked by a large man one head taller than me. There are two smaller men on the opposite side, barring our only other way out of here.

  Jalil begins to talk to them frantically while pointing at me. He looks almost desperate, and he's either asking them to help him get away from me - even though I treated him so well this far - or he's telling them not to meddle with me.

  When the thugs look at me, raise their eyebrows, and then start laughing, I know it's the latter. They gesture at our guide to go away and turn to Hestia and me with evil grins. They must have noticed my overly generous donation to the poor as well as the quality of the slave I have collared and thought that a girl like me is an easy target.

  "What did you tell them, Jalil?" I turn to him and ask with an eyebrow raised. It's just to intimidate him a little, as I enjoy snacking on his fear every so often.

  "I tell them leave you alone. You kill them when angry." He explains himself while shaking in fear. My question may have led him to believe that I think he's the one who hired these men.

  "Oh no, not angry." I peek past the big thug to see if anybody is paying attention to this. But the Not-My-Problem Effect prevalent in places with large crowds is active here as well, and people don't even glance our way. "Tell them that I kill when I feel like it."

  Doing as he's told, Jalil quickly interprets what I just told him. The men are stunned for a moment but proceed to laugh even louder than before. I join them, and even Hestia begins to chuckle in her clear voice.

  It takes a while for the first of the three men to notice that we're laughing instead of being intimidated. He grows nervous and points at me while asking something in an unfriendly tone. That's when the other two stop laughing as well and stare at me, as I continue to enjoy myself alongside the fallen angel.

  "I don't understand." Finally, I shrug and respond to the thug in the alley before turning around to the big one blocking the exit to the main street. "Stay there. That's perfect."

  With these words, my left arm whips around in the direction of the two thugs and splits down the middle mid-flight. Two heads are sent flying at the same time by the bone blades that have formed out of my fingers.

  "Medha?!" The large man takes a step back and exclaims when he sees the bodies of his companions hit the floor. But before he can even comprehend what happened, I throw my right arm around and stab him in the center of the chest.

  But I don't stop there and form a hand inside him, which digs all the way through to his spine. Grabbing it with my hand to prop him up so that he stays standing. His body convulses from the pain and having his spinal cord pulled on, as I move him deeper into the alleyway. He'll keep providing visual cover for us while I clean up the other two.

  Jalil has fallen onto his bottom and is shaking like a leaf, most likely getting flashbacks to the scene from hell I turned the underground slave bar into. On the ship, he told me that he witnessed it from a crack in the door and ran away then, just as I had suspected.

  Hestia brings a finger to her lips and shushes him with a lovely smile before he can start screaming. At the sight of her acceptance for my methods, something inside me churns. If I cared less about things than I already did, I'd push her against the wall, undress her, and do the deed right there.

  But I remember that I didn't want to stand out in this city until I can learn more about the magic that the shaman caste is capable of. The rain of money was already pretty flashy and dumb, but having sex out in the open in a nation that seems to be even more prude than the kingdom would be far more counterproductive. Least of all if it's at the scene of a triple homicide.

  Yep, the big thug has stopped moving by now, and a sizeable pool of blood has formed at his feet. People will soon notice, so I need to finish this quickly.

  My left hand turns into a giant maw that swallows the two headless thugs whole. Then that same arm grows longer and snatches up the two heads that fell a small distance away. Quite a bit of blood has splattered across the ground and walls, but it's dark enough that people won't notice those stains in passing for the time being.

  Now only the big one is left. I burrow my tentacles inside the dead man's body and move his legs for him manually. This way, we can retreat deeper into the alleyway while making it look like he's walking on his own. Along the way, I pull Jalil up by the collar and carry him for the few steps to the bend to another, even narrower alley.

  Leaving behind only blood, we disappear into the night.

  "Stay here. I'll go out and take a look around the city." I tell Hestia and Jalil to remain in the inn he found for us. It's quite luxurious and expensive, but I had him get us two separate rooms. The leather pouches filled with money inside my body have barely decreased in number even though I haven't paid much attention whenever I used them.

  "Please do not leave me alone." Hestia clings to me, but I pet her hair, still wet from the bath we just took together.

  "This place is safe. And I know you can take care of yourself. Sleep now, and I'll be back by your side when you wake up." Kissing her forehead and caressing her cheek lovingly, I whisper assurances that I'm not abandoning her. "If anything happens to her, I'll have your head, Jalil."

  "I protect with my life." Standing straight like an arrow flies, our guide turned temporary bodyguard promises with an almost zealous undertone in his voice. He may have forgotten how cruel I can be over the past week we've been traveling together, but my little show of force in the alleyway earlier reminded him of what I'm capable of.

  When Hestia is finally willing to let me go, I leave the room through the window instead of the front door. While I pull myself up onto the roof and survey my surroundings, I'm reminded of a certain game about a hooded assassin I played sometime in my previous life.

  It's a waning moon so the night isn't well-illuminated. One after another, lights go out in the houses as the city goes to sleep. The majority of citizens has already put out their lamps the moment the sun went down to save oil or candle wax, but those who could afford it or had things to finish finally rest now as well. The city grows quieter by the minute, and that's the perfect opportunity for me to take a look around.

  My first target is the nearest guard tower. There are many such narrow towers in this city, and in each one of them burns a flame to signal that the watchers are active. I could easily transform into Hestia's template and fly, but too many people might see me then.

  And when a guard spots me, this city will be put on alert. Qusantinah is essentially the same as Kongenssoevn, only that a religious institution stands in place of the Royal Academy. I don't know how powerful the mages in this nation are, so I don't want to risk stirring the hornets' nest.

  Before I have more intel, I'll have to keep a low profile. Making thugs whose companions can't report to the authorities disappear in dark alleyways is one thing, but killing ordinary citizens or even guards are both counterproductive to achieving that purpose.

  Thus, I fulfill one of my longtime desires of running and jumping across rooftops like a ninja, even if it's set to the backdrop of a medieval Middle Eastern city rather than a Sengoku period Japanese one. I've started shutting off my sense of temperature whenever convenient, but for this moment, I activate it to feel the cool night breeze in my hair as I speed across the flat rooftops of the clay and limestone houses.

  Suddenly, I hear someone shout. I look around to find that a patrolling duo of guards has spotted me from the streets. Changing directions immediately, I hop across the chasm of an alleyway and lie fla
t on my belly. Listening to the ongoing yelling coming from below, I wait to see if they lost my trail.

  Eventually, the voices grow more distant, but I spot several people peering down at the city from atop the watchtower in search of me. Unlike in games, they won't just forget an encounter with somebody suspicious when enough time has passed. That means I'll have to go for a tower a little farther away from the one I've been aiming at.

  It doesn't matter; I have all night since I don't sleep. And the guards will eventually get tired of searching what may have been just a trick of the light. Just like in games, they will just forget an encounter with somebody suspicious when enough time has passed.

  Once again, I speed across the rooftops, but make sure to stay far enough away from the edges to not be seen from the streets. I'm not wearing my red cloak and instead have my body painted the color of the limestone I'm walking across. That should mask me against looks from above too.

  Finally, I reach the base of one of the towers. There's a door, but it's locked from the inside. Of course, I wouldn't use it even if it were open as I could run into somebody descending the stairs inside. Instead, I grow hooked claws on my fingers, make myself as light as I can, and start climbing the exterior wall. There are plenty of grooves and unevenly placed bricks for me to use, so it's an easy affair.

  As I approach the top, I look down to see that I'm pretty high up. Luckily, I got over my fear of heights, or this would have been a moment for me to panic. Then I hear a sound from above and quickly flatten myself against the wall.

  A guard appears a few meters above me and scans the city below. But he doesn't sound the alarm, so he didn't see me. Doesn't the saying go that it's darkest under the lighthouse? Somebody in his high tower would never think about looking right under the crenellations, and nope, he just peeked straight down.

  "Almutatafilu!" He screams while aiming his bow at me. It's an awkward angle, so his shot misses. But his yelling is picked up by others below us, and I see guards converging on my location.

  What's going on in this city? Why are the guards actually competent?!

  Swinging around on my clawed hands, I quickly get on the other side of the tower in hopes to climb up from there and make it to the top of it anyway. Even if I can get in at least a quick scan of the surroundings, I won't have wasted my time with this. But a spear suddenly pierces my shoulder, and I let go from the surprise.

  I transform into Hestia's template and catch myself just before I impact the rooftop right below the tower. Pulling the wings back inside my body, I roll across the ground and jump down a crevice into a dark alleyway.

  The shouting continues as footsteps approach my location. They aren't just competent, they're way too good for faceless goons! Then again, I should stop thinking about this as a game. I've been in several situations where what would usually be considered unimportant characters in a work of literary fiction turned out differently than what I expected. I'm not in one of those light novels from my past life, and this is reality with real people.

  Torches appear on both sides of the alleyway, and I find myself boxed in. To make matters worse, I hear people on the rooftops above as well. They got me completely surrounded and are approaching carefully, knowing that I'm most likely still alive.

  Huddling behind abandoned crates and piles of discarded plywood, I think hard about how to get out of here without killing anybody or revealing my transformation abilities. If I don't manage to do that, the city will remain on high alert for a long time, and I won't be able to move as easily as I'd want to.

  Then I guess it's time for me to test my limits once again. The only times I've been smaller than my current shape were when I got ripped apart in my very first teleportation and when Aldebrand burst out from inside me. Both times, my mass was reduced so much that I couldn't turn into my usual size. But I can become as thin as cardboard - or a bodysuit for Hestia - so I should be able to do this too.

  Pulling my mass inside me, I concentrate on reducing my size. Shrinking unevenly, my extremities retract into my body first. It's a pretty sickening feeling, but I switch off my sensations and continue as quickly as I can without collapsing on myself. I've considered the possibility that the inside of my body is another dimension, so I have to make sure not to disappear into it completely.

  Finally, I'm done and view the world from below. I've turned into a mouse, the one thing that should be overabundant anywhere in the world without causing any suspicions in the guards. But before I use this disguise, I first look for a place I can disappear under in case they would want to stomp on me.

  "Ayna dhahabu?" A few guards pass me by, and they meet in the center of the alleyway, where they raise their voices in wonder. It's obvious that they're asking each other where I went, but none will even consider the possibility that I became a mouse.

  After a short debate, they disperse again and continue their search elsewhere. For the time being, it's best if I don't transform back into a human and return to the inn as I am. Staying in the shadows and near the walls, I should be able to get past anybody.

  With these thoughts, I exit the alleyway and look both ways. The soldiers are still walking around the streets searching for where I fell, but they're slowly moving away from my location. This should be pretty easy then.

  "Meow."

  I hear that dreadful sound from above and lift my head. A cat is staring at me from atop a barrel, body prone, and ready to pounce.

  "Good kitty." I squeak.

  Then I turn around and run. But a giant paw comes down on me and squishes my body into the dust before I can even go half a meter. Struggling with all I have, I try to squeeze myself out of the cat's grasp, but at this size, I can't muster any strength at all. I never knew small animals felt this helpless against predators.

  But luckily, I'm not stuck being a small animal. There are no soldiers around to witness me, so I burst out into tentacles and slap the cat across the head with one. It mews in surprise and hops back, but when it sees what its easy prey turned into, it scrambles away in terror.

  Pulling myself back together, I turn into a copy of the cat this time. At least this way I won't be meeting any obstacles such as the one just now again.

  Chapter 56 - The 6th Day

  By the time I reach the inn, back in my human appearance, I'm completely exhausted, and the sun is rising. I was chased by a dog, so I turned into one to avoid the same fate - only to meet an angry goat that attacked me with its horns. When I became a goat, a man came and tried to catch me, so I ran and transformed into a camel once out of sight. At that time, I thought nobody would mess with a large animal like that, only to be proven wrong when a guard's horse kicked me in the side for getting too close to it.

  At one point, I got out of this series of unfortunate events by disguising myself as a human, only to discover that I was lost. Luckily, I could use the vularen nose to retrace my steps, and after a long and fruitless odyssey through the night, I found my way to the inn.

  "Welcome back." Hestia greets me with a smile as I enter our room. Judging by her bed hair, it seems she did indeed sleep and woke up when I opened the door.

  Walking over to the fallen angel, I fall into her breasts face-first and push her back down into the sheets. Her heartbeat races when she thinks that I want to do something sensual right now, but when I don't move, she calms down.

  "What happened?" Asking in a caring tone, Hestia puts a hand on my back.

  "I was bullied all night long." I speak with my face still buried in her bosom. "Not the fun kind."

  "Who dared to bully you, Chloe?!" She asks with anger in her voice. "I will erase their existence from this world."

  "Calm down. It was my own fault for underestimating the wit of humans." Separating from her chest, I push myself up and look into Hestia's crimson eyes. "And the food-chain is scary."

  "Huh?" The angel girl blinks in confusion, but I don't feel like explaining my shame.

  "To get over my frustration, we'll be
going on a date today." Peering down at the beauty lying sprawled out on the sheets under me, I announce with a smile. She lifts her hands to my cheeks, but I lower myself between them and touch my lips with hers. Her neglected arms embrace me and keep me in place as we share a long and passionate kiss.

  "Why are you here?" I ask Jalil, who follows a few steps behind us.

  "You tell me to." He replies, fearful of my sudden grumpiness.

  "I know. It was a rhetorical question." I was the one who asked him to come because I wouldn't even be able to order any food without him interpreting for me. But his presence ruins our date just as much as the onlookers do. Normally, I wouldn't be bothered by such small things, but I'm feeling self-conscious after my failures last night.

  "I do not mind." Hestia clings to my arm and thoroughly enjoys being with me on a day that for once doesn't serve any other purpose than to enjoy ourselves.

  It's been over a week since we were swept to this nation, and without a day off, we'll suffer from burnout. At least I know I will, as someone who's used to the seven-day week, Saturday track and field training, and Sundays off. It didn't help me get out of that inner rhythm when I got back into it in the academy.

  Maybe not sleeping for a single night since coming here is taking its toll on me after all, but I promised not to rest before I got back to Kamii. Taking one day off technically constitutes as resting, but Hestia really does need this. I may be deluding myself, though.

  After our sumptuous breakfast at the inn, we walked around the bazaar and found ourselves new clothes. While I don't care much about fashion and only need an outfit that's easy to move in - my birthday suit doesn't count when I'm in a city of humans - the angel girl does like beautiful dresses.

  Everybody stared at us when I let her, a chained slave in their eyes, pick her own clothes. They must have been wondering why a master would give her any freedom of choice instead of deciding for her. And why that master still wore a dusty old cloak over the new outfit.