Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Don't take it to heart, Miss Rosemary, we are but chasing our best interests!" his mask twisting into a grin, Arleqkin retrieved two daggers from behind his back, throwing them with grace, simply swinging his arms and allowing the hilts to slip out of his fingers.

One, two, three, four, five… No matter how many times he threw them, they just reappeared in his hands as he stepped forward and spun around like some sort of manic dancer, the blade only struck against a scorching barrier, behind her, Odicious slapped his hands together, the callouses making for a most distinct resonance, his skinless face, eyes permanently opened staring right at the volcano witch.

Garbed on a long dark cloak, giving him a most absurd shape, only his hands sticking out from it, sleeves rolled up, his muscular forearms and battered hands, one could tell by just a look that each and every one of his fingers had been broken multiples times and mended by naught but the natural regeneration of the body, forearms covered in cuts, burns, and other marks, each of different times and sources.

He spoke something in a language different from the one granted by the gift of comprehension, calling forth spinning rings of pale blue light.

Both assassins had once been invited and hired by Agilulf Wanneck, but clearly, their allegiance had shifted since then.

Rosemary had thus only met them once before, but she was capable of getting a good idea of what they were all about, unlike their third compatriot, whomst the caster was expecting to show up at any moment.

Arleqkin is simultaneously a rather simple assassin and also not, he did not seem to possess any special ability or talent in energy manipulation and the arts, he was equipped with special artefacts and had a way to kill people that could only be described as graceful and artistic.

Meanwhile, Odicious was a ritualist of some sort, a caste of magic closely tied to the battle arts, involving circulating mana in specific ways and executing precise movements, at least at its most basic.

The pale rings and daggers were harmless against her, she always had a spell active that shielded her from such things, simply needing to look out if they decided to pull something else, the real problem was The Death Dealer, the crown jewel of the Fin-Limier.

Rosemary was fairly certain that it was a woman, but piercing through her layers of stealth and grabbing a hold of her mana was a difficult task even for the mage, The Death Dealer was a renowned character, it was doubtful that the leader and ringleader would challenge the volcano witch in this manner if not counting on the support of their best weapon.
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"Mmh, this doesn't make any sense" frowning, the two assassins suddenly caught fire, ending up turning into a flash of pale blue light.

They had been projecting themselves from further away.

Maintaining barriers around her, Rosemary extended her mana sense all over the academy, lately, things were much too lacking in logic for her tastes, there was no point in revealing their treachery only to accomplish nothing, without even the beginning of a plan.

It was just like with the sabotaging, the awful absence of a good explanation was pulling on Rosemary's nerves, all that she could imagine was that it was all willfully nonsensical to confuse and divert attention from something else.

But good luck discovering what this something else could be.

Expanding her senses, she discovered nothing out of the ordinary, no one seemed to be harmed or dead, the environment was to the assassins advantage, if they were working for the undead as she thought, then the darkness mana might be aiding their concealment as well.

'How did they even traverse the miasma? The hideout of the Fin-Limier is not in Tamaris, that much has been made clear from the contract…' it was a shame that Arleqkin never signed any contract that did not allow for him to break if a better offer was given, but he had been made to admit under forced oath that his base of operations was situated in a mountain under no particular jurisdiction.

She slowly moved back inside, scanning every corner, peering through the ground…

"Ah…" tilting her head, deeper than the underground reached, there was a pocket of space where her mana sense was not reaching quite as easily.

Rosemary remained careful, that little performance from earlier had actually led her to pay closer attention and notice this discrepancy, which was a little suspicious at the very least, but there were no tunnels or path leading to it, sized like a large rectangular room, even as she pierced through the veil, she found it empty of people.

Looking over her shoulder again, she dissolved into flames, reappearing within this hidden room, standing still for a second, no traps of any kind.

'It's just a storage room' a room with a long table in the center, chairs and crates stacked atop one another, a single unlit lantern swinging from a chain, the most interesting item within was some sort of iron golem shaped to look just like a heavy suit of armour, a bright white and adorned with gold.

It was sitting motionlessly against a wall, it looked like a golem, but Rosemary found no mana pathways or anything that could be used to activate it, instead, its chestplate could be opened, giving way to a hollow sphere within.

Looking around, there were more of these, only that they were in pieces and yet to be assembled, some of them did have signs that they were actual golems, only the one fully put together had this odd aspect about it.

No traces of remnant mana anywhere, clean and tidy, a door that opened onto nothing, yet a breeze coming forth from it, and a dagger stabbing into the shoulder.

Stepping back with a burst of flames, Rosemary had been taken by surprise, her barriers swiftly and neatly pierced right through, by a thin dagger, signature blade of a certain assassin, a misericorde dagger, its sharpness coming with a disturbance of mana and the very muscles, as though all that it touched was doomed to falter.

"Fucking yes! Finally! Blood! Blood on my blade! Blood on the floor! Dagger to hand, dagger to flesh, dagger to heart, dagger to life!

Ahahah!" bursting with glee, Maliah spun two daggers in each hand, like a malformed shadow exposed to light, she weaved and bent.

"How long has it been since I last killed? I am getting all giddy, weak in the legs you might say!" chuckling, grinding the two misericordes together, blood seeping into the depth of the mysterious alloy.

She sighed with pleasure.

"Rosy~"

"Oh Mary… If only you knew how much I am loving you right now!"