Vizjerei, the old fashioned hero Diablo/MHA

[InZodwetrust]

Yeah I took some creative liberty. Mostly from the idea that they reached her earlier that canon would have. She was still reforming her body. I do that a lot, this isn't the first time or last time. It's fanfiction, I'm allowed to make the world more expansive, made the characters more interesting and fill the world with more people.

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I won't even count what you did as taking liberties. Technically, it's still follows the lore.

 

[zebrin]

Ehn, if I wanted a 1:1 recreation of the story, I would play the game. Part of the whole point of fan fiction is changing shit. And if having Izuku around changed nothing, that would be... rather sad.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

Ehn, if I wanted a 1:1 recreation of the story, I would play the game. Part of the whole point of fan fiction is changing shit. And if having Izuku around changed nothing, that would be... rather sad.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, imagine if Alexis and Mary and all of htem had died only to serve as decorations on that tree.

 

[Magikuser]

if having Izuku around changed nothing, that would be... rather sad.

Click to shrink...

Things will differ from the main storyline and Izuku will start to understand just how different this world is from home.

 

[Magikuser]

So how far is this story going to on the time-line? Just diablo 2 and the expansion, or into diablo 3 as well?

Click to shrink...

Mostly Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction with some small lore aspects of Diablo 3... Yes, I know including that Heretical game (better call the Paladins of Zakarum on me). Then you will see where we go from there.

 

[InZodwetrust]

Mostly Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction with some small lore aspects of Diablo 3... Yes, I know including that Heretical game (better call the Paladins of Zakarum on me). Then you will see where we go from there.

Click to shrink...

Will Immortal be included?

 

[Magikuser]

Will Immortal be included?

Click to shrink...

Sorry, but I don't play Mobile games. So if you see Immortal References they will most likely be unintentional. Or NonsensicalRants may end up playing it and add them in... We'll see.

 

[NonsensicalRants]

Sorry, but I don't play Mobile games. So if you see Immortal References they will most likely be unintentional. Or NonsensicalRants may end up playing it and add them in... We'll see.

Click to shrink...

That's not gonna happen.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 14:

Storming the Monastery​

---

The next morning found them waking up in the uppermost level of the blood countess' former castle. In the small, perfectly square room just under the surface level they had entered through.

The storm outside had died down to a slightly windy overcast as they slept. It was still perfect weather for the assault, as with careful movement they could remain unseen, unheard, and unsmelt in their approach. Then it would merely be a matter of scouting and waiting for Kashya's forces to catch up. They once again prepared breakfast and ate it while walking.

The hours of hiking in such cool, but not cold, weather was oddly relaxing and pleasant, despite the battle yet to come. Izuku felt sad to be rid of the simple pleasure of the trip when they neared the Monastery enough to see its highest tower peeking over the leaves. That sadness was overpowered by his surprise at seeing the literal army of gypsies, caravanners and rogues crouched like a creeping mass of foliage in the forests surrounding the monastery.

"How in the world did everybody get here before us?" Izuku asked Isendra in a whisper.

"They know the land better and are more accustomed to the terrain. That, and they must have hiked all the way through the storm." She told him.

"How is that possible? It forced us to take shelter." He countered.

"And they were behind us by at least half a day's hike. The storm could have been much more manageable for them for the whole of the trip. It did die sometime during our time in that shack." Isendra offered.

It did make sense, but it still riled him that they failed to arrive in time to do any kind of scouting as ordered. They eventually came upon a small meadow where the leaders of the army stood in a circle. Akara, Kashya, Charsi, Warriv and Cain he recognized. The absolute wall of muscle forming a woman and her three rogue guards he did not. He guessed was from one of the other two camps in the Blood Moors. The third leader he didn't spot at first because he was so small and was standing near the edge of the meadow. He dressed similarly to Warriv, but looked older and meaner than Cain.

Izuku opted to stay far away from these strangers for now.

"Ah! Our scouts have returned." Kashya said jokingly. "What do you have to report?"

"That the blood countess was resurrected and has been using the catacombs beneath her ruined castle as a torture den and bath house for some months now." Isendra said. "And that she is gone for good now. Hence why we were held up."

The tank of a woman laughed uproariously at her explanation.

"You weren't joking when you said they were over-achievers, were you?" The diminutive and ancient caravanner chucked as he approached the circle.

They hadn't even been introduced yet, yet Izuku and Isendra had already managed to impress them. Good start.

"We have been resting and waiting for you two to arrive before beginning the assault." Akara told them. "Now that you are here, we have no more excuses to waste time. Introductions can wait for later, when you need not fear having to remember the names of people who may yet die in the coming hour. Kashya, if you would take the floor."

That was a rather depressing way of putting things, but Izuku couldn't disagree with the sentiment.

"The demon queen Andariel perverts our hallowed halls, defiling our monastery. We have tolerated this incursion long enough!" Kashya began. "But none know the stakes greater than Deckard Cain, and none have seen her evil personally moreso than him. I leave him to explain to you all the stakes."

Deckard Cain stepped forward.

"Andariel and the lesser evils once overthrew the primevils, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal." Cain explained. "They were banished into our world, and we have suffered their presence ever since. That Andariel is here could only mean that all of hell is united once more. Today's fight will be the first step in purging these nightmares from our lands, and also a taste of sweet, partial revenge against the demoness that not only has personally caused us all of this anguish these last months, but all of the horrors brought about by the primevils in our world for these eons due to her banishing them here."

Izuku's ears perked up at the mention of Baal. That name sounded familiar. Wasn't he a Mesopotamian god of child sacrifice? Or was he thinking of the Canaanites?

"If we are not victorious here, then your holy grounds shall become a permanent outpost of hell's forces, and the way east shall be lost forever. As may the war with Diablo." Cain finished.

Cain's speech did not elicit much cheer or courage in those gathered, so Kashya once again spoke.

"But we have the advantage." She told them. "This is our home. We know it better than they do, and we have the element of surprise, not to mention superior skill. This battle is winnable, and it must be won, so we shall take our home back!"

Those gathered didn't cheer out loud, but they did hold up fists and showed expressions that told of their hunger for victory.

"Our battle strategy is simple. Our archers, of which we have many, shall pretend to be the whole of the invading force and take out theirs. While this goes on, we will have an insertion team sneak around and inside. This team shall then split in two. One to unbar the gates, the other to hunt down and deliver retribution on Andariel in person." Kashya explained. "Then all of our main forces shall charge in. With most of Andariel's forces distracted by ours, it will leave the second strike team free to focus on killing the demon queen."

"Our pitchforks are sharpened, and our wills are ready." The diminutive caravanner said. "I have every trader, farmer, stable hand and more from all of the blood moors ready and frothing at the mouth for vengeance. Open those doors and we shall flood in like the great flood of the gods."

Oh. They had great flood myths too? Of course they did.

"Go now and tell everybody to prepare. That the battle begins not in hours, but in minutes." The mountain of muscle ordered.

All save Kashya, Cain and Akara scattered to do exactly that, but those two ushered Isendra and Izuku for a more private meeting.

"Destroy her! Andariel must not be allowed to serve Diablo." The old sorceress commanded. "While we thirst to personally exact revenge against the one who has desecrated all we hold dear, you two are the ones who must take her down. And once she is killed the magic she has wrought will be undone, and the magics which binds many horrors to this realm will be severed."

"Indeed," Said Cain. "From what I understand you two have been the vanguard in the fight against evil for some time now. Success after success has come in no small part from your hands."

Kashya nodded along with every word.

"What's more, ancient lore tells that while she was spawned by the burning hells, Andariel is not particularly fond of fire." Deckard said with a knowing look at Izuku. "And this little pyromaniac shall be her undoing, wield your apprentice well Isendra."

Oh, was he her personal molotov cocktail at this point? Meh, sounded about right. Fire good. Fire friend. Got it.

Charsi approached them leading a small crew of men and women literally armed with pitchforks, woodcutting axes and sledge hammers. For her part, the rogue blacksmith carried a solid metal war axe nearly as tall as she was and, Izuku suspected, heavier than he was.

"I shall be leading my archers." Kashya said. "Akara and Charsi will be leading this insertion team, which you will join until you breach the walls. Then you are to split up."

"Understood, ma'am." Isendra said.

---

Their platoon of some twenty five inexperienced soldiers crouch-walked with surprisingly silent steps as they snuck along the underbrush. Charsi and Akara took the lead, with Isendra and Izuku directly behind them.

At the slow rate they traveled it was an hour before they circled around the forest to reach the southeast side of the citadel.

There they crouched low and waited, watching the dozens of fallen, corrupted rogues and shamans patrol the rafters and parapets above the citadel. But they did not have to wait long. The evening sun to the west was blotted out by a rain of flaming arrows.

The first onslaught did not kill very many of the patrols, but it did get all of their attention, and it did light many of the roofs afire. Better to burn the entire place down and rebuild it later than risk failure.

The alarm was instantly raised. Bells from every corner of the fortress rang feverishly to alert all those inside, and thus alerted more abominable warriors flooded out to provide aid. Skeletal archers and mages outnumbered the fallen and corrupted rogues ten to one, but shambled stupidly along with little intimidation value.

Kashya hadn't been boasting when she said they outmatched the enemy in terms of skill, for the hundreds of rogues to the east went from raining arrows, to showing off their marksmanship. Every arrow hit true, whether enchanted with ice, fire or let loose without enchantment to speak of. Sure, the enemy's archers and sorcerers outnumbered theirs, but theirs outclassed them by leagues and bounds.

The bodies of skeletons, corrupted rogues, fallen and more all fell from their lofty sniping points like discarded mannequins. But more and more came to take their place.

"Let us go now." Akara ordered, charging forward but keeping low.

She huffed running, let alone running with such a large and overfilled backpack, and yet she persisted along in a low crouch as the rest of them followed.

They reached the wall without being noticed, between two outer towers. There, she dropped the bag and retreated behind one of the other towers, motioning for the rest of them to do the same. Izuku had a hunch about what the bag contained based on the clinking of glass he had heard coming from it all morning.

"Hey, what's good for the goose is good for the goatfucks!" Said Charsi next to him. "We should thank them later for giving me the idea. Izuku, if you would be so kind."

Izuku sent his best firebolt through Ash Bane towards the pack of volatile potions and took cover with the others in place of watching the fruits of their labor.

The boom it made put the explosion from the assault on their encampment to shame, as did the crashing of stone and metal to the ground. As soon as the noise of heavy stone on earth subsided they charged forth towards the new opening.

Several bloodied, dust-covered and thoroughly dazed creatures crawl out. They were composed of nearly a half-dozen fallen sisters, somehow wielding savers and wooden shields instead of bow and arrow, and what looked like man sized dogs crossed with lizards. One of the latter took a pitchfork through the neck which Izuku followed up with an ice bolt between the eyes. The remainder of the explosion-concussed foes fell with similar ease, and with them out of the way their thirty-strong insertion force finally entered the monastery walls.

"We have our orders, you have yours." Charsi told them. "Go through the barracks and past my forge into the chapel, from there you can descend into the deeper levels and waste that unholy bitch! We will unbar the doors."

Izuku and Isendra nodded and went on their way.

They charged through a room made entirely out of wood that had taken nicely to the fire arrows in the mere minutes of fighting it had to spread. The roof caved in behind them as they exited through the opposite door. From there they crossed a surprisingly well-maintained and gorgeous courtyard with an even more beautiful water fountain in the middle. Within it, the forms of four rogue women, armed and ready for battle, sprayed jets of fresh water from their arrow tips.

Crossing the courtyard, they entered a dining area bereft of enemies, but full of the blood and bones of the cannibalized victims of the enemies that had once been here but were now sufficiently distracted by the army at their front door.

The only resistance they encountered along the way were more goatmen, but these ones were pitch black and wielded scythes. Useful tip, scythes don't make for good weapons. They're grass cutting implements, and they don't protect you from ice bolts to the heart.

When they finally entered an armory with a great forge in the middle. There a blue demon who barely fit in the room labored over the forge, hammering at his latest creations. Even crouched low, his horns scraped the ceiling, and yet he labored with a hammer over the forge to craft weapons all the same.

They just let loose on the thing, and as their ice, lightning and fire spells peppered him he tried to turn on and fight them, but his unenviable position of being squeezed into the room like an overstuffed knapsack made it impossible for him to defend himself. He actually cried and pleaded as they struck him down, likely more in shame than pain.

They look about the room and the many freshly forged weapons thereupon.

"This is what she was stalling us for." Izuku concluded. "She was working overtime to mass produce these superior weapons and armor in order to have her armies sweep across the blood moors as a plague of locusts."

"I think you are correct." Said Isendra. "And we have already stopped this plan of theirs. These weapons are far superior to anything our allies have, and anything Charsi has been able to forge without her Malus. Speaking of."

There, in the demon's scorched hand, was a rune-covered hammer of a blacksmith. Charsi's lost companion.

"I know our mission is to make a beeline for Andariel, but should we fail, we cannot afford to leave this behind in enemy hands. If we get this back to Charsi they will have a far greater chance of having a successful second siege." Izuku reasoned.

Isendra nodded with his line of reasoning.

"Quickly. Run back and get it to her or another of our leaders, then hurry back. I will go ahead, but not far. Clear the way a bit. Scout things out." Isendra ordered.

Izuku obeyed, lifting the hefty hammer with some difficulty he charged back the way he came. He reached the courtyard to find Cain sitting on the edge of the water fountain and recuperating.

"What has happened?! Where is your mistress?" He demanded in alarm.

Izuku understood his concern, but put him at ease.

"Relax, she just sent me back to give one of you this. No time to explain, but this has to leave the monastery, preferably with Charsi, in case we fail." Izuku told the ancient man.

Warriv took the hammer with an expression of surprise.

"Good thinking young one, the Horadric Malus is too important to leave in their hands. I will get it to her. Now Go!" He ordered.

Izuku obeyed his elder and sprinted back through the barracks.

Beyond the forge many dead brown fallen and scattered ectoplasmic bones of wraiths formed an easy trail to follow. With it guiding him, he reached the chapel and entered to see Isendra doing battle with a glowing green skeleton garbed in priest's apparel. With memories of the seemingly radioactive skeleton from the den and burial grounds Izuku jumped in to aid his mistress.

He ran past the ornate sarcophagi in the chapel and dead goat men littered between them to take a position behind the glowing skeleton priest, who had yet to notice him. Isendra nodded to him and together they performed the tried and true ice and fire combo. Her icy gale froze him top to bottom and Izuku's firebolt reduced him to toothpicks. The battle was likely only that short because Isendra had already softened the thing up, but he still felt proud of the efficacy of their tactics.

They then scoured the walls of the room for any doors that might lead downward, only to find such a spiral staircase in a wide-open doorway near the entrance. Keeping their fast pace, they descend four shockingly empty levels of catacombs. They only encountered a smattering of pitch black fallen, as the bulk of combat ready abominations were on the surface. They all died pitifully at their hands. But it was not empty of other horrors.

Living flames wafted up through cracks in the floor. Pools of bubbling blood, too much to belong to Andariel's victims, did the same. Most strangely of all were bony spines, or possibly tail bones, vining through the passageways like roots of a tree. He did his best not to look at the crucified and defiled corpses of rogue sisters that served as the only source of light in places.

"This place is touched by hell itself." Isendra told him. "Here, the two realms meet and if we are not careful, we could become stranded in damnation, in both flesh and soul."

Izuku steeled himself in understanding her explanation.

On the fourth level they found an enormous square room that took up half of the floor. A crater took up most of the room, emanating from the center. It was filled with naked corpses and blood. On the far side of the room stood an ornate pair of doors, and Izuku knew the real fight lay beyond it.

They walked around either side of the crater to grasp the handle of a door apiece, and then they lurched it open. Beyond it they finally saw her.

The queen of demons sat upon a throne at the end of a hallway filled with pillars, each sporting demonic protrusions of bone like thorns on a rose.

She was disgusting, and comical.

Her digitigrade legs didn't bother him. Neither did the many spines jutting out from her at strange places, nor her vicious, dripping fangs or hooved feet. Even the quartet of giant scorpion tails jutting out of her spine like extra limbs didn't bother him much. But the bull nose rings hanging from her dinner-plate sized and inflamed nipples? That made him snort him in mockery of her appearance. The vibrant orange clown hair didn't help either.

This Andariel seemed to be in the "I hate my dad" stage of her punk rock career. He'd seen j-pop covers with scarier covers than this supposed demon queen.

Needless to say, Izuku was less than intimidated.

"Fire." Isendra ordered.

Izuku managed to cast a firebolt between his snickers at Andariel's bizarre appearance and Isendra cast one at the same time. The two orbs of arcane fire smacked her on her face. She was so big that even across the fifty-meter gap she was easy to hit.

Andariel laughed as she walked through the flame.

"You will die, maggots! She snarled.

Izuku doubted that very much. If you wanted to intimidate somebody, maybe comb your hair and wear actual armor instead of a loincloth.

Isendra kept up the firebolts as Andariel charged forth and Izuku went for his bastardized fire wall. Andariel stumbled along the flames, her attempted illusion of being immune to flame faltering as the onslaught began to seer her hairy, goatlike legs.

She resorted to crawling at them, using her two hooved feet, both arms and all for scorpion tails like spider legs. This increased her pitiful speed only marginally. As they backed away into the room they came from Izuku took the time to pop open the mana potion he was carrying in his spare hand and opted to just place it into his mouth and hold it here in his teeth. He got the impression he would be using a lot of mana before this was over.

Now they were both pelting the demoness with firebolts, aiming for the limbs in the hope that they could be severed, or else simply splintered by the blasts.

She was nearly upon the doorway when she finally attacked. Or at least Izuku thought she did, it was difficult to tell what happened then.

Plumes of green smoke erupted from her and enveloped them. The reaction was immediate. A furious rash erupted on his hands, and he felt an intense burning sensation from it all along his body, and especially his face. Then came the lightheadedness and the foul stench of it. Despite the noxious cloud of poison gas ripping his body he didn't let up his onslaught, in fact, he changed tactics.

Tilting his head back so he could continuously drink the watered-down mana potion, Izuku took hold of his bastardized fire wall spell and stoked it into a full blown inferno. The flames rose all the way to the ceiling of the great hall and far exceeded the feats of the countess the night before. Still, Andariel charged through, though she was screaming in pain now.

When she was nearly upon them Izuku and Isendra backed away to either side of the great double doors and Isendra cast her blizzard spell on the ground, making it nice and slick. When Andariel finally reached them, it was to slip comically, like a clown on a banana peel, into the crater of blood and corpses.

Izuku and Isendra, both reminded of their battle with the countess, reached out with their mana and drained the pool of every last bit of warmth, freezing it solid with Andariel in it. Andariel broke mostly free with her powerful limbs in an instant and swiped at them with the scorpion tail arms. They both ducked and rolled out of the way and responded with yet another pair of firebolts, which Izuku also followed up by flinging the empty mana potion bottle at her forehead where it shattered.

And he'd thought her earlier scream at being immolated was loud. The noise she made at two eyefuls of shattered glass could rupture eardrums. That had not been his intention, but he was pleased by the result.

From there the battle was more of a mercy killing, but they had none of it to spare. They pelted the blinded and charred demoness with firebolt after firebolt. Dodging the blind swipes of her stingers, claws and belched bile was child's play at this point. The thick plumes of noxious smoke she filled the room with, on the other hand, were unavoidable and they opted to simply accept them as a workplace hazard. And thus, they battered and beat her down with magical flames from every angle as she wailed and gnashed her death in rage at her own pitifulness.

Then, all at once, she exploded into a pillar fire straight out of exodus.

The pillar rose and drilled into the ceiling. Higher and higher it went and with it came the wails of every fallen, undead or worse in the monastery. As with Blood Raven's death, the magic of Andariel's unholy works was undone with her destruction. Just as Akara had predicted.

He looked to Isendra with a smile on his face and blanched at the sight of her.

Thick, black boils had erupted on her face and the smooth skin beneath her form-fitting chain mail. They were bursting and out from the wounds poured congealed, blackened blood. He looked down at his own hands and sure enough, he looked like a victim of the black death himself. Then he remembered he had been breathing in the stuff for almost a minute now.

No sooner did that thought strike him did his body react, vomiting his breakfast from the morning and the potions he had quaffed since then.

During the adrenalin of battle, he had been able to ignore the effects of the poison on his vision and head, but now the light-headedness and darkness were closing in and they conspired to bring him down to the ground. To the ground he went. The last thing before unconsciousness overtook him was the prone body of his mistress across the crater, and Akara bringing an entourage of their friends and allies through the doors behind her.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:​

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.

$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.

Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.him.

 

[InZodwetrust]

Good chapter, but you skipped an important detail. Diablo demons battle both physically and mentally. Andariel tortured the heroes that defeated her with memories of loss, sadness and regret. She stoked the angst buried deep within their hearts.(from the Book of Cain)

 

[NonsensicalRants]

Good chapter, but you skipped an important detail. Diablo demons battle both physically and mentally. Andariel tortured the heroes that defeated her with memories of loss, sadness and regret. She stoked the angst buried deep within their hearts.(from the Book of Cain)

Click to shrink...

That ALSO comes later. But the interpretation of this will be more psychological than supernatural.

 

[zebrin]

Interesting that the poison damages are so much worse here. I would wager that the desert and jungles are going to involve carrying a lot of antidotes.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 15:
Party like it's 999
​

---

Akara had all of the helpers she could ever want, running to and from like headless chickens as they tried their best to bring her the ingredients and objects she requested. They were almost doing more harm than good, as they were not trained to know and recognize these things, but at least she had Cain there to provide proper aid and instruction.

"We have no records of the nature of Andariel's poisons." Cain confided in her at last as he returned from his research. "Only records of people dying from it and the techniques that failed to save them or relieve their symptoms."

That was good. That meant they at least had information on what not to do. It was better than going in completely blind as they tried to save the two dying sorcerers laying before them.

"Cooling them down has slowed their fading." Akara told him. "But my antidotes have done little."

Indeed, the two were nearly frozen solid from her underpowered frost spells, a technique used to slow bleeding and heart rates and keep people sedated during surgeries. The oddly comfortable and inviting unconsciousness of a near death by hypothermia.

"Have you tried garbing them with enchanted objects to protect against and slow the effects of poison?" Cain asked.

"I would like to, but I cannot leave their side and the others I sent to scour the treasury for such objects have yet to return." Akara admitted.

Just then, said searchers returned. Her heart fell when she saw the mountain of necklaces, circlets, rings and anklets they labored under. It seemed that, lacking the ability to determine what objects had anti-poison enchantments, the group opted to merely collect all things magical and carry them back to let them sort.

And sort they did. Akara could identify the exact magical properties of any object, but she could at least tell the difference between one that felt of fire and one that felt of poison magic. The difference between one that protected from such or applied such? Not so much. And so, the pair quickly developed a routine where she would separate the pile of jewelry into two, one for poison related objects and for non-poison related objects. Then, Cain would closely examine the ones she found and toss away whichever ones would surely do more harm than good.

They wasted no further time in decorating the pair of heroes in so much jewelry that if they were awake they could not feasibly stand up from their weight. By the end of it each had two or three rings on each finger, one for each phalanx where possible, and so many necklaces that she worried they might choke.

"Awww. Izuku looks like a little pimp." Mary commented at the overly jeweled young man. To much jeering.

"And Isendra looks like what I imagine Gheed's wife would look like." Kashya added to even more jeer.

Gheed snorted.

"Almost! She is nowhere near big-boned enough and lacks the ever-present scowl or overly fluffy cat she adores so. But she does have my woman's taste in extravagance." Gheed added.

The jeering stopped as the good humor was replaced by confusion at Gheed's tacit revelation that he did, in fact, have a wife.

Akara had been so busy tending to her duties that she hadn't properly registered the crowd of well-wishers that filled the barracks behind her, likely all the way out to the front door of the citadel. Now that she had, she blew her lid.

"Out! All of you, out!" She hollered. "I'm doing important healing work here, and it's stressful enough without all of you breathing down my neck and making light of the situation!"

Most scampered off, grumbling something about tasks they had been putting off around the ruined citadel, but the important individuals stayed.

"Is there absolutely anything more you can do?" Warriv asked.

"Or anything you want from us?" Kashya asked.

"Maybe, but it's a last resort option." Akara said.

"How last resort?" Warriv asked.

"Best case scenario? upwards of twelve more people will be bedridden in agony for days in a similar state to them. Worst case scenario? if it doesn't work all twelve would die, along with these two." Akara clarified.

Kashya did not hesitate.

"Gather for me every single person who owes these two their lives, above and beyond everybody else. Those most willing to give their own to save Isendra and Izuku from their Pyrrhic victory." She ordered.

Both of her usual guards bowed and left them to do exactly that. When they returned, they brought along many more volunteers than were needed.

---

When Izuku awoke, it was to the feeling of his entire body was made of lead. Every muscle fiber, tendon sinew, bone and bit of cartilage felt heavy. Most especially his head. The closest thing he could compare it to would be the feeling of an extreme case of the flu, where you can't even lift your head, but minus the sinus pressure.

He sat up upright and realized he was on a cot in the barracks of the citadel for the Sisterhood of the Sightless eye. It was a great deal cleaner and more well-lit than when he and Isendra had stormed through it. The lack of blood and viscera on the floor and wall was a marked improvement, as was the company.

To his right, on a cot identical to his own, lay Isendra, sound asleep and covered in garish jewelry. On his left was Alexis, in a similar state of health and dress. looking down on himself he noted that he too was covered in enchanted trinkets. Reaching out with his mana he felt the nature of poison imbued into its magic, but the precise details of what they had to do with poison was a mystery to his senses, if obvious to his mind.

Returning his attention to the room at large, he counted fourteen beds filled with resting figures, also all covered in jewelry. Had they all somehow been poisoned by Andariel?

"Of course you're the first to awake, you death defiant little man you." Akara's voice greeted him.

He turned to see the wizened woman come out from behind a screen where he could see the edges of an alchemical workstation and desk covered in tomes.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Bad. I don't think any elaboration beyond that would be necessary." Izuku said, intentionally cheeky from the grogginess of what he now realized were the after effects of his poisoning.

"Andariel? The citadel? Everyone else?" Izuku asked.

"Dead, conquered and still being cleaned before the rebuilding can begin, and the losses were less than we dared to hope. It was an overwhelming victory. You did well, young Midoriya." Akara said with the most genuine smile he had ever seen her wear.

Izuku nodded, too sick to blush or be bashful as he normally would upon being complimented. He turned his attention back to the other people in the cots.

"What about all of them?" He asked.

"They were subjected to a wound sharing ritual." Akara said.

Izuku looked at her questioningly.

"It is a magical ritual used for splitting a wound evenly between a small group of people with a bond, so that a life-threatening stab wound would become little more than a nick for each of them, thus easily recoverable. Likewise, the insurmountable poisons of Andariel could be slept off when shared between them. Everyone lying unconscious around you volunteered for this, with each knowing that success was not guaranteed and could have killed them all." She elaborated.

Izuku had the frame of mind to feel touched by the gesture and took a closer look at the figures on each bed. He counted Alexis, Mary and all the other rogues he had helped to rescue from Blood Raven and that tree of torture. Others he recognized only by the shapes they made under their blankets and color of their hair. Warriv, Charsi, Kashya, Cain and even Gheed had taken up cots around them. Gheed may have been the most surprising at first glance, but all of them baffled Izuku.

Why take such a risk, putting the lives of the leaders on the line when any foot soldier would do. Why run the risk of leaving all of the factions in the Blood moors leaderless? He knew the answer, sentiment, but that didn't make it less stupid.

"I know what you are thinking, and I partially agreed. But powerful bonds of friendship and loyalty give the ritual, and most magic, far more potency and chance of success." Akara consoled him. "To get the reward, you must take risks. And they opted to risk it all, because you deserve it. Now get some more rest. I am sure the others will awaken shortly."

---

By the next day everybody was awake and fully recovered from the ordeal. The sickness of Andariel's poisons were cured and the entire citadel was spotless.

Then the partying began. A week-long feast full of dancing, drinking and singing. Even Izuku muscled up the courage to join Gheed and Warriv in their attack on the meadery, which the forces of Andariel had completely left alone. Not fans of fun, those demons and undead.

Charsi was the last to recover, and she made a beeline to Izuku where she crushed him in a hug that made him smile to his cheeks at her softness and his tipsiness.

"Thank you for saving my hammer Izuku!" She squealed. "You were just supposed to kill Andariel, but you went and did that too. Come see me when the party ends."

The party did not end. It lasted an entire week. A week of waking up feeling worse than he had while sick with Andariel's poison. Only for the drinking and eating to begin again.

Those few of the Sisterhood who didn't take in the celebrations cleansed the forests surrounding the citadel of all beasts during this time. The celebrators then picked said beasts clean down to the bone to fulfill the needs of the feast. Gargantuan beasts? Gone. Those weird porcupine lizards? Gone. The fish? Those they made a concerted effort not to hunt to extinction, but a few still wound up on their plates all the same.

Izuku actually still made himself useful during the mornings. He learned how to butcher these beasts, along with the rare deer and fish, as well as how to tan the hides with eggs and brains. He was even shown how to make minor repairs to clothes as the now moth-eaten and nearly ruined things of the sisterhood were being carted out of the bowels of the cleaned citadel.

But in the evenings? He drank and sang and danced with the much taller and much prettier rogues until he felt sufficiently tired and artificially happy to go to bed.

It was around the fifth morning of the binge that Izuku decided to stop with the drinking. That morning he woke up, fully clothed, but being cuddled by an equally fully clothed Alexis who seemed to think he was a teddy bear. He pried himself free from her embrace and blanched at her drowsy whining at the loss of his warmth.

"No. Stay my little hero. Stay forever..." she moaned before falling back asleep.

Izuku crept away to the courtyard with the water fountain and rested there for the day. He made a point of only drinking water and eating some leafy greens that were brought back. Wild spinach, berries and nuts foraged from the overgrown undergrowth that the fallen had ignored in the last year. By now the ruined stone, plaster and shingles had been removed and many of the caravan workers had begun making new ones. The latter by cutting down the overgrown woods nearby and the former by breaking down the stone of the ruined parts of the citadel and mixing it into new concrete or mortar.

Clearly he had not been the first to become tired of the partying, but he knew he wasn't up for doing any real work that day. He took to wandering the area surrounding the citadel, where large mass graves for bodies of their enemies had been dug and covered, forming small hills of dirt that were then planted with herbs and small fruiting plants, tomato especially.

He walked and thought about nothing. Enjoying the slightly more peaceful world and downtime that he knew would be short lived.

That day seemed to have a magic all its own, as everybody else packed up the party and all collectively decided to put the drink and food down. It was time to get back to work. It wasn't until that night that Izuku realized he hadn't seen Isendra during the entirety of the partying, and suspected she was off doing her own private celebrations where he couldn't see. She probably had a lover somewhere she didn't want him knowing about, keeping appearances and all that.

He would have respected her no less for knowing for certain who she was off with, but he understood her want to keep her apprentice in the dark about such personal things. She had always been a private person.

---

Isendra still hadn't reappeared by the next day, so Izuku took to the recently refurbished library where he picked up quill and ink to get started on a project he'd had in mind for some months. He copied a map of the moors, marking the location of the citadel and a compass on the corner. He also added crude sketches of fallen and a few other threats in the Blood moors.

His work was interrupted when Warriv approached him.

"My crew leaves next week for Lut Gholein." Warriv told him the next day. "You are welcome to join my caravan for free."

Izuku nodded.

"I will tell my mistress." He informed the caravan leader.

When Warriv left, Izuku went down the aisles in search of a book about Lut Gholein. He found a reference to it in a glossary of the world and a short description. a shining Jewel of the desert. Trading port in Aranoch and the midpoint between the Western Kingdoms and Kehjistan beyond the Twin Seas in the East. Good to know.

He went down to the stables where the caravanners had set up their little wood working shop for making repairs around the citadel.

"Excuse me. Any chance I could make a small sign post?" He asked.

And so, for the rest of that day, one of the fine young men under Warriv taught him some basic woodworking skills. By the end, he had a simple rod of wood with a spiked bottom, and a flat sign on top. He then used a paint brush to glue his makeshift map to it and another layer of glue as a protective coating. He was pleased with the end result.

When he finally returned to the mess hall it was to find Isendra in her white dress, the one she wore to relax on cleaning days, eating alone. Her mood seemed much improved since the huff she was in when they woke up after their battle. In fact, he'd never seen her so at peace.

"Good evening mistress." Izuku greeted her dutifully.

"Good evening apprentice. I hear you have been busy." Isendra said.

"Yes ma'am. Warriv said to tell you that his caravan is going to the desert's Gem in a week's time, and that we are both welcome to join him free of charge." Izuku told her.

"Free of charge you say? As opposed to the more accurate description that he will be paying us in food and comfortable travel in exchange for our protecting him through the journey. Either way, I accept. Tell him so if you see him before I do." She ordered. "Now, what have you been working on when you weren't refusing the matrimonial designs of young Alexis?"

Matrimonial designs?

"She never asked me to marry her." Izuku told her.

"No. But she did ask me, and I refused. That you still have a mother and father out there who are the ones she needs to ask, and that the answer was certainly no until you finished your apprenticeship under me." Isendra told him.

Izuku looked around to make sure there were no minders, and finding that there was nobody nearby this late at night he leaned in to whisper to his mistress.

"Our age difference would constitute a crime in my country." He told her. "I am still considered a child, and her behavior would be considered criminal."

Isendra dropped her spoon into her bowl of porridge as she gaped at Izuku.

"Twenty two and twelve are not a significant age gap." She reasoned.

"No, but our people are considered children unable to consent and take part in certain adult activities until sixteen." Izuku explained. "If you're seventeen and persue a twelve year old it is criminal, one of the worst crimes, rape."

Isendra breathed deeply and stared off into the void as she absorbed this information.

'My goodness. That must be torture to young girls. The highest requirement I have heard of is thirteen, and even that seems cruel to young girls in my opinion." She said.

"Why young girls and not young boys?" Izuku asked.

Isendra gave him a pitying look.

"Oh Izuku. If you could peer into the pit of filth that is the mind of a thirteen-year-old girl, you might be put off from us forever. We are ready for that kind of thing earlier than you childish boys. And the men we like are older." She told him. "For men are like a fine wine, they really only get better with age. Up to a point. Us women? We are best and most passionate when we are young. So not allowing us to express that and pursue the men we want but restricting us to little boys until sixteen? That is just oppressive. Pure repression of women's sexuality."

the complete juxtaposition of this way of thinking to what people in his society feel about "backwards" societies where marriage and a preposterously young age threw Izuku through a loop. Maybe the humans of this world really were a separate species altogether? There was no way this was so with human females of his world.

"I think their reasoning is that even at sixteen young men and women are too idiotic to make wise choices about life partners and the consequences of taking part in such activities." Izuku explained. "But that's the oldest we can still keep a lid on them before they explode."

Isendra considered this.

"You know, your people might be onto something there! With the prodigious use of enchanted chastity belts we might be able to achieve something similar here. But just to be clear, premarital sex between 'children' under the age of sixteen is rampant as is out of wedlock pregnancy thereby, is it not?" She asked.

"Oh yeah! Definitely. More So in countries where the age is eighteen." Izuku said.

"Okay, now you're having one on me. Was there something else you wanted to tell me besides the fact that your country would string up sweet Alexis for daring to fall hopelessly in love with you?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. I know that the next leg of our journey will take us far from the moors, and I want to leave a sign for any of my people in case they send somebody here the same way I was sent here." He explained.

"What kind of sign?" Isendra asked.

"A literal sign. With a map leading them here to the citadel and information on the threats they will face here. What I need to know is where exactly on the map the place of my arrival is and if we can make the trip there and back before Warriv leaves." Izuku told her.

"We? What do you mean we? We will not be returning to that bog. You will." Isendra ordered.

"By myself?" He asked.

"Indeed. You are more than strong enough, and based on what you just told me, your society infantilizes the young to the point of indefinite childhood. It goes a great deal towards explaining the immaturity I have seen in you since day one. I suspect eight-year-olds in our society are more prepared for the trials of adulthood than your sixteen-year-olds. Since you have arrived here you have been treated as a near adult, as a boy your age should be. From now on you shall be treated as a full adult. It is my duty to prepare you for manhood, and you have catching up to do." Isendra explained. "Your first task towards this goal is to borrow a horse from Warriv, he will not refuse you, and make the trip there and back by yourself. To be alone with your thoughts for extended periods of time is a thing you must master. You leave in the morning. Bring me this sign you built before then so I can mark it."

---

The next morning Izuku did exactly as she instructed. He loaded five days worth of supplies onto one of Warriv's horses and set off with his makeshift signpost.

"You come back alive and well in five days, or else I will ensnare every Necromancer of Rathma I can to bring your soul back here just so I can remind you of your promised word." Isendra ordered.

Izuku bowed and went on his way southwest.

It was a slow and quiet ride, especially at first. The forests near or around the citadel and countess' former tower had been cleared of all servants of darkness. but beyond that, sparse beasts and fallen scurried about. He avoided conflict with them, if only because he didn't want to lose important time fighting such lowly creatures.

For an entire day and night, he traveled the woodland until reaching the eastern end of the moors. He almost didn't need the map after that, as the boggier parts of the southeast end of the countryside was as distinct as the day he had arrived. He slept fitfully each night, with every noise bringing him to wakefulness and once he was there, he made a point of checking the perimeter and long country beyond, but nothing tried to sneak up upon him in his sleep.

And so on the morning of the third day he arrived at the trash heap, much smaller and more rotted through than he recalled, as if no new trash had been added since he arrived. In fact, it was so. There was no new trash on the heaps. All of the plastic bags and filth within them were now mulch, with only glass, metal and plastic surviving but even they had grime, moss and lichen growing on them.

He didn't know what to make of this, so he retrieved his sign and a post stamper loaned to him for the mission and got to work pummeling the spike of the wooden pole into the ground. It took a good minute of labor, but soon it stood upright and proudly facing the spot of swamp he had crawled out of many months ago.

He turned around and reached out with his mana to see if he could feel any sign of the power that had brought him there, expecting to feel magic akin to the warp scrolls, but he found no such magical residue. laughing to himself as if a warp quirk would feel at all like warp magic.

He took a deep breath, as the air still smelled similar to the foul stench of a dumpster as it had before, and made ready to leave, but stopped when something in the water caught his eye. It was only for a moment, but he could have sworn he saw something blink at him. Like the glint of a single eye, he looked more closely and then it happened again, but it wasn't a living creature. It was the unmistakable glint of an LED light. Had some electronics made the trip and kept a charge?

He removed his clothes and stomped into the water to retrieve it, and what he lifted out of it was a large sealed bag. In it was a stack of envelopes and a small chip with a blinking LED light. He turned it around to see the front of the topmost letter.

It was addressed to him.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.

$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.

Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[InZodwetrust]

Would Izuku stay till the events of LoD?

 

[Stivanderen]

Oh you have me so excited for next chapter

 

[grime]

Very interesting, ths MHA world probably has no idea if Izuku even survived, if any of the warped items even exist, let alone lead to another world... Honestly most of the envelopes are probably just to alleviate guilt or find some closure by the people involved.

Anyways, while this story is great, the biggest issue is that Izuku really doesn't feel like Izuku, not merely in the sense of being very ooc as soon as he arrives in Diablo, because tbh I don't care for canon Izuku's character, but rather in the sense that he feels like a self insert or isekai with no foreknowledge of the settings. He's extremely mature and articulate for his age, takes a lot of horrific circumstances and sights mostly in stride, and doesn't once lament or worry for his mother and how she might feel, basically being alone in the world having lost her only son.

I understand glossing over some of this in the interest of getting on with the plot, and I also don't mind Izuku being very composed and intelligent for his age, since reading from the perspective of a 10 or 12 yr old would get old fast. I also don't mind the other out of characterness since I don't like canon Izuku, but I do feel like there's room to have him be more... emotionally connected with his old world instead of feeling like a self insert dropped in once he is warped into Diablo.

Especially in this next coming chapter, maybe you could reveal that he was deliberately keeping busy to avoid even thinking about his mom and how she must feel or what state she must be in, and to avoid thinking about what he might perceive as the total (borderline murderous) betrayal of his classmates... etc.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Magikuser]

I understand glossing over some of this in the interest of getting on with the plot, and I also don't mind Izuku being very composed and intelligent for his age, since reading from the perspective of a 10 or 12 yr old would get old fast. I also don't mind the other out of characterness since I don't like canon Izuku, but I do feel like there's room to have him be more... emotionally connected with his old world instead of feeling like a self insert dropped in once he is warped into Diablo.

Especially in this next coming chapter, maybe you could reveal that he was deliberately keeping busy to avoid even thinking about his mom and how she must feel or what state she must be in, and to avoid thinking about what he might perceive as the total (borderline murderous) betrayal of his classmates... etc.

Just a suggestion.

Click to shrink...

Izuku now has to deal with growing up in what amounts to a active worldwide warzone now where its you eat what you earn while dealing with both culture shock and the constant hard work. Izuku hasn't had a real moment to process it all, when it hits him it will hit him hard. We already have chapters ready with some of the topics you have brought up.

Regarding his lack of connection's of his home world, he's wanted and rewarded in Sanctuary and not treated like a leper at best for lack of a quirk. but even then he will come to realize how good he had it back home.

Would Izuku stay till the events of LoD?

Click to shrink...

let's just say I have his route home planned for... but yes, Ba'al will take back his Soulstone.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 16:

Reminders of Home​

---

Izuku ripped open the sealed bags and sorted through the envelopes.

Each was addressed to him and signed by a different person, with his mother's signature on the top one. Kachan and both of his parents had written, as had Tsukune Hyoudou, the boy who warped him to this world in the first place. Along with, of course, his parents. He didn't recognize the names of the other letters, though the one signed by a chief Tsuragamae seemed obvious of the reason for his letter.

He opened his mother's first.

Izuku.

I know you are alive, but I know not where. Some of us think Tsukune's warp ability is an annihilation ability, but I hold out hope. Even though the last time we sent a gps tracker through it lost all signal we sent one with this package hoping it finds you well. Hopefully this one leads us to you.

Your father is working extra hours to save up the money to hire a proper hero agency to help find you, and I took on two part time jobs to do the same. We are going to get you home

Love, your mother.

Izuku sincerely doubted the GPS tracker would work across galaxies or even universes, but he was happier than words could describe to learn they were actually looking for him. The first tracker they must have sent was destroyed by the elements, but he looked at the one in the bag and decided it was paramount that it be destroyed. He knew he needed to avoid information of such advanced technology getting into the hands of these primitive peoples at all costs, especially the forces of Burning Hells. They almost assuredly wouldn't even be able to recognize it as technology, let alone reverse engineer it and learn the principles behind it, but the incredible unlikeliness of the latter happening wasn't quite zero, and such a thing would be apocalyptic.

He held the chip between his thumb and index finger and fried it with as much lightning as he could force through it. Every circuit was ruined by the assault and the plastic began to melt. He put it on the ground and melted it further with controlled fire.

He opened the letter from Chief Tsuragamae next.

Dear Izuku Midoriya.

Hoping against hope that you have survived your trip and are able to receive this, I am writing to you to tell you how our investigation into the incident leading to your disappearance is going. Know that it has been ruled an accident, despite this punishment for those involved has been harsh.

Young Bakugo and Hyoudou in particular have been placed into the juvenile villain prevention program and all of the children involved in the incident are in mandatory therapy. Hyoudou in particular is being trained and tested rigorously to determine the nature of his power. We are fairly certain it is a warp ability, or else I would not have bothered writing to you. We are hopeful that this accident may be reversed by simply helping Alex develop his powers so he might pull you back to our side.

Remain steadfast! We are doing all that we can

Yours sincerely, Chief Tsuragame.

Accident?

Accident?! Between the teacher's willful negligence of the bullying to the sociopathic behavior of his peers, they labeled it an accident? This was all incredibly fishy, and he suspected that the other children ganged up to pin the blame on Kachan and Tsukune for the entire thing to absolve themselves of the blame.

His hands shook so hard by the time he finished reading the chief's letter that he actually ripped it, and then, as his rage overcame him his hands erupted in fire. The other letters burned all the way through where he held them in his hands.

He dropped the stack as quickly as he could and smothered them out, but the damage was already done. The remaining envelopes and letters inside were now fragments and impossible to read. He went through them, trying to piece together what the partial sentences said, and he was able to get the gist of it. They were all false apologies from the other students or their parents.

One actually said "I'm sorry I couldn't stop Bakugo and Tsukune in time." Confirming his suspicion that the other students had banded together to lie and pin the blame on the innocent parties. Who would you believe, the aggressive Bakugo and child whose quirk was responsible or the rest of the class?

He took the cleanest surviving fragment of an envelope and retrieved his quill and ink before scrawling a message for anybody who might eventually get the bright idea to have Tsukune's ability used on them. They surely could have used Endeavor these last few months. It would have made short work of Andarial and her forces. It would have taken him an entire day to clear out the moors and the citadel and they'd all have caught up with the dark wanderer months ago.

He pinned the note to his wooden sign using a dagger and then applied a fine coating of glue for added protection.

He cleaned up behind him, burning all evidence of the letters until not but ash remained. He had been careless about clues to his origins for the last time. He finished his work there by hiding his sign from the back by a bush, that way only somebody coming from inside the bog would be able to see it. It was vague enough that even if it was found, nobody would draw any conclusions about his origins. It just seemed like a sign pointing to the citadel and warning about the dangers of the moors.

With his work done he turned around and began the long trek back to the citadel.

---

He made good time on the return trip, despite stopping early the first day to get some extra rest at the campsite that was mere hours from where he had left the signpost. He mostly did this because the saddle sores from riding on a horse for the first time and for so long was getting to him. He resorted to riding sidesaddle for the return trip, which was awkward in the extreme, but it didn't make his pelvis feel like it'd been carved with a serrated knife.

He switched back to riding the horse properly when the citadel finally came into view and rode the last distance to the new stable that the carpenters had finished while he was away. He returned the horse to the stable hand and made for the entrance.

"Kashya and Isendra have requested you at the chapel." A guarding rogue told him.

Izuku nodded and meandered through the citadel by the path he remembered to the ornate courtyard and from there through the barracks and smithy. He noted with concern that Charsi was not manning the still lit furnace and wondered for her whereabouts. It was upon entering the chapel that he got his answer.

"Happy birthday!"

Surprise birthday parties came as even bigger surprises when it wasn't even your birthday. He was sure if he could sit down and count the days since his arrival he could figure out when it passed, but he was sure it passed. He regained his sensibility in time to feign pleasant surprise instead of consternated confusion, though he did share a look with Isendra. He hoped it portrayed his desire to discuss cover stories like this in the future.

It was a small gathering. It included pretty much everybody who had nearly sacrificed themselves to save him and Isendra from that poison and the rogues rescued from Blood Raven.

"Wait, that can't be today, is it?" he asked. "What is today anyways?"

"I kept track." Isendra told him. "You have been too busy training, studying and fighting. Now, open mine first."

She handed him a wrapped book of some kind, and he opened it to find a leatherbound journal. Prying the covers apart he discovered the pages were not blank, but instead had empty and filled diagrams, likely for spell formulae in a format he hadn't learned yet. There were also what looked like star charts and a lunar calendar, among other references he was probably expected to fill in himself and memorize.

"You will be learning about runes and alchemy soon, and this is a proper journal for such things. I spent all week making it. With help." Isendra told him.

"I love it!" Izuku said. "It will be the perfect companion to my chicken scratch book of questions."

And so the gifts came from everybody.

Cain gave him a companion to his journal in the form of a book strap with locks on it.

"A sorcerer must keep his secrets safe. For magic is not meant to become common knowledge." He said wisely.

Izuku wasn't so sure of that. He came from a world where "magic" was pretty much available to everyone. If everybody on sanctuary learned magic could they develop a society like his? Or would it more resemble the dark age of villains? Neither could be worse than the state it was in now.

His budding book collection grew from there. Kashya provided him a book on hunting techniques, Charsi gave him a book on butchery and Gheed gave him a book on clothing repair. Each passed on a piece of wisdom

"Lest you forget the skills you learned under my sisterhood, or the applications thereof." Kashya told him.

"Properly prepared meat is not only the most important sustenance for a man, but the only food he needs. And when prepared properly it is a greater booster of morale than any drink or other vice." Charsi said, patting her stomach.

"Poorly fitted or maintained clothes and especially shoes will defeat a great hero more ruthlessly than any demon, let alone mortals like us. Take proper care of your equipment, all of it." Gheed told him.

He accepted each gratefully, and showed a great deal of restraint in not digging into their worn pages then and there.

Speaking of boots. Warriv provided him with a new pair of those.

"I second what Gheed said, but with extra emphasis on poorly fitted or maintained shoes. Take care of your feet, they're the only thing that can carry you on most journeys and they complain loudly when not cared for." Warriv said.

Akara came next and handed him a box full of vials too small to be potions.

"Perfumes." Akara said. "Both in oil and alcohol spray varieties. When one cannot wash themselves properly, it is the next best thing to cover their offensive odors."

Izuku thanked her confusedly. Nobody had ever complained about his body odor before, as he had made sure to bathe with everyone else and had even done so in the river yesterday while out in the wild. Maybe it was intended to serve him as he hit puberty and started to smell like a teenage boy?

Then came the entire group of rogue sisters. Mary, Alexis and the others. Together, they carried a set of green clothing. A cloak, a jumper, a pair of gloves and trousers. Each looked positively toasty with thick, green fur.

"We found a dead gargantuan beast frozen solid in a stream and assumed it was your work, so we made some clothing out of it. You probably won't need it in the jewel of the desert most days, but some nights can drop below freezing, especially with winter coming. Be careful out there." Mary explained.

The rest of that day was spent drinking and eating. It was an oddly quiet celebration, but Izuku suspected that was because they understood his appreciation of quiet, not to mention the three new books they left him to enjoy while meandering and chatting among themselves. When evening finally approached they all went their separate ways, with Isendra escorting Izuku to her personal quarters.

She had a bunk bed from the barracks brought in, likely for his benefit so he could rest with her that night.

"We have an early start tomorrow. Sleep well and be ready to have one of the last baths you may have for some time. The desert is not known for providing enough extra water to bathe with."

"Oh! So that's what Akara meant by her gift. I thought she was rudely suggesting I needed a bath." Izuku said.

Isendra laughed.

"No. But we will sorely miss them soon. I am just as fond of bathing as you are." She said. "Now, I do apologize for the unexpected party. The real reason I sent you on your task alone was to wear you out and make you miss everyone, that way the party would feel that much nicer. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, and a week without cooked food and drink makes them taste all the better. I see it worked, based on the genuine smiling you did today."

Izuku felt his face darken.

"Have my smiles not seemed genuine lately?" He asked rhetorically.

"They have not. And that saddens all of us. You are growing older and seeing too much for one so young. Your heart is hardening and it is not a wholly good change." Isendra explained. "You are learning anger. You are learning hatred for evil. These are good things to have, but don't let them drag you or us down, okay?"

Izuku swallowed hard, but nodded.

"Good. Now go to sleep." She commanded.

She crawled into the bottom bunk and closed the blinds to hide the last light of the evening sunset. He climbed up to the top bunk and rolled himself up in as many layers as he dared. The combination of his weariness from his six-day trip, satiation from the delicious meal Charsi had prepared and the lightness in his head from Gheed's mead all conspired to put him to sleep, and he rested soundly that night.

---

"Well, that ought to be enough food to last us all three months." Gheed said in satisfaction as he tossed the last barrel of dried fruit into the back of the last wagon. "You won't be eating fancy, but you'll be fed."

"Thank you, Gheed. I am sure it will taste delicious. All the more for being the product of your hitherto mythical philanthropy." Isendra said with a mocking smirk.

"Oho! Still with a vicious tongue. I know I am not the most likable or polite of company, but I want you both to know I am glad to have met and done business with you." Gheed said with a hand on his chest. "And I hope you know the way I operated, meanness and all, was my own way of working hard to keep everything in motion and everyone alive. You two were good with magic, I am good with... well, goods. And I did my best."

"And I expect you will continue doing your best, now that you have an official capacity as the sole trader of the Sisters of the Sightless eye." Kashya butted in, carrying a blanket.

"Of course, ma'am. How else will I fund my sudden interest in philanthropy towards refugees?" Gheed said with his own mocking smirk before slinking away.

They all watched him leave with bemused sighs, before turning back to one-another.

"We can never thank you enough for all you've done here. You are both heroes in the making and I hope you call on us in future battles if you need us. In the meantime, I think the last thing I can do to help is to gift you these." Kashya said, handing Isendra the blanket.

She unfurled the blanket, and inside found another piece of green cloth. Scratch that, they were hide of some sort.

"These are enchanted demonhide items from our treasury. The sash I give to Izuku. It helps to regenerate wounds, and I think we can expect his tendency to get injured will continue. The gloves have the same effect, but would not fit the boy, so I gift them to you, Isendra." Kashya explained.

Her insinuation that she would have rather just given Izuku two gifts and left Isendra with nothing was clearly a joke. Or, at least, he hoped it was. He recalled how antagonistic she and his mistress had been in the beginning. How untrustful she was.

"We shall seldom take them off." Isendra promised.

"Ew, no. Please, take better care of them than that. The stench of you two wearing them at all times while traveling east might never be removed. Now, be on your way." Kashya ordered them around one last time.

She bowed to them and left back inside after Gheed. Cain exited the citadel after her, carrying a large pack with him.

"Are you coming with us mister Cain?" Izuku asked in surprise.

"But of course! The sisterhood has things well under had here, and my use as a repository of knowledge in combating the prime evils is needed out east." Cain explained. "That, and I still owe you two my life and have a strong feeling that you are both tied intimately to the fate of this world. I will follow you into the burning hells, and were you to ask, so would many of those we are leaving behind."

Izuku held out his arms to offer to take Cain's pack and the elder obliged, handing Izuku his burden to be added to their wagon where Izuku soon put it. After that, Deckard climbed into the front seat to wait for the caravan's departure.

"Three entire months of free shelter and food in exchange for our protection of them." Isendra said wistfully. "It is quite an enviable job we have been offered. I will be taking the day shifts, and you the night. Seeing as you were gifted the warm clothing necessary to be about on such freezing nights in the desert."

Izuku nodded at her command.

"During the daytime, when you are not sleeping, you will be studying runes in particular. At night you shall focus on quarterstaff fighting, in so much as you can while remaining vigilant of your surroundings. I am sure you will not be alone on your watch. With the hundred other vagabonds joining us you will have plenty of time. During times we are both awake we shall focus on your spellcasting. You are a hair away from being able to cast nova, and from there, I expect you to flourish." Isendra explained the immediate future to him. "Today, I suggest you sit with Cain and be lectured into unconsciousness that way you may be awake by evening when we make camp. I will patrol the perimeter on horse."

She then left him there, likely in search of Warriv for her patrol horse, and Izuku followed her instruction by joining Cain on the front seats.

"I have been trying to imitate the magic of your shirt." Cain began. "Imprinting images as they appear to one's mind isn't unheard of, but I've never met somebody able to do it as perfectly as whoever made your shirt. I deduced it required great knowledge of the mind and how it interacts with the light of the world. Few sorcerers have such magics and knowledge, fewer still are willing to admit to it. I am one of them."

Izuku looked at Cain, trying to parse his meaning. Something about it sounded familiar. Cain noticed that he wasn't catching onto his doublespeak so he leaned in to whisper a more direct message.

"I was told about the concern you showed regarding the health of my mind and the inevitable lecture you received on one of the most dangerous and forbidden forms of magic." Cain whispered.

Izuku made an "Oh!" face at the explanation and nodded in understanding.

"Well, even though I did not have anybody else on hand to provide such aid to me, I am a believer in... ah, self-healing we shall say and I have been working diligently on aiding myself. It is a secret I thought important to share with you, and expect you will keep." He explained.

He gave Izuku a pointed look and held a finger to his lips. Izuku mimicked the motion and nodded in agreement.

"Now, like I said, I have been trying to imitate the magic done to create that shirt you wear when you sleep. I had some success, and I even had a volunteer when I told others I was trying to create something for you. Here you are." He said before handing him a square of leathery parchment tied with a bow.

Izuku didn't know what he was expecting to find when he opened it, but he certainly didn't expect to see a playboy centerfold of a woman.

It was a nearly photo-perfect depiction of Alexis in a flirtatious pose. She covered herself with what looked like a white, ornate tablecloth that barley covered her chest and groin, not that he hadn't seen it before with all the communal bathing. The partially covered pose was somehow more sexual than her naked body. She had all of her scars from her torture by Blood Raven prominently displayed.

There was a love letter written beside it.

I bear these scars you give me, and every time I see them I am filled with joy.

Joy at the young man who risked his life to save mine.

The pain inflicted on me was worth every scream that seared my throat, for through them I came to know your touch.

Come back to me, my little hero, when you are older and taller but hopefully no more hardened or less sweet of a boy.

Come back to me, and bring with you your own wounds inflicted by evil, so that I may caress them with hot fingers as you did mine.

Izuku tied the centerfold and love letter back up and hid it in his pack beside his All Might shirt. He remained positively silent for the remainder of the preparation for their departure. The last hour of waiting for everyone to be settled dragged on, and he breathed a sigh of relief when the caravan began to move.

He dared to look back at the cathedral entrance to see and hear a throng of farewells and well wishers, among them Alexis.

Lut Gholein could not come soon enough.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.

$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.

Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[grime]

I wonder if the letters have made Izuku more forgiving to Bakugo and the warping kid since it's clear they're being punished and are shouldering all the responsibility. Izuku is already forgiving to a fault, and while Diablo has shaved away a lot of his naivete and softheartedness, I can imagine the bulk of his ire falling on the other students instead of Bakugo and the warping kid for avoiding all responsibility. It'll be interesting to see in the long term how much Bakugo will have changed from this early childhood tragedy, if they ever meet again.

I also imagine puberty is gonna hit Izuku like a truck with that gift from Alexis to keep him company lmfao

 

[zebrin]

Well, that certainly was a lot of... ups and downs. Those letters... Yeah, Izuku was right to feel rage about them. What a load of worthless paper. Only his mother's and to a certain extent, the investigator's words were worth their weight in ink.

Whole lotta ass covering going on right there. If/when Izuku gets back, I really hope that he makes certain the story gets told. Properly.
Granted, by the time he gets back, he is going to literally be a veteran of the war with Hell. He's gonna need so much retraining for hero work when he gets back. If he doesn't just say "Sod all that" and go vigilante.

I wonder. Those quirk usage laws, the really draconian knee jerk reaction ones that somehow stayed on the books for years. The ones that say that you have to have a liscence to use your quirk in any capacity in public... What's the wording on them? Because Izuku's skills... Are teachable, and most certainly not quirks...

The Party was nice. A fitting end to the first act. Especially that nice centerfold Izuku got given. Hah.

 

[grime]

You should also throw on some more tags for this story to improve engagement, maybe even think about posting it simultaneously on other forums if you haven't already, since there isn't really anything explicit or smutty so far.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 17:

I Spy… Sand

---

Izuku sat at the head of their wagon with Isendra sitting next to him.

Both were sitting back and relaxing with their eyes closed as the vicious sun beamed down on them with all of its hate. They didn't mind though, for they were completely covered in ice. He recently mastered an ice armor spell and hated that he hadn't learned it before beginning this arduous journey through the desert.

The three months he suffered being subjected to the angry sunlight had left him, and most everyone else, deeply tanned. He didn't have a mirror handy, but he suspected that he looked like a male Ganguro at this point. Was there male equivalent to Ganguros? There had to be. Either way, if there was, he certainly looked like one. Isendra, on the other hand, looked almost unchanged by her months of tanning. Partially because she tended to sleep in the wagon during the day and keep guard at night, but mostly because she was fully capable of casting an ice armor on herself every time she was exposed to so much as the morning or evening sun, let alone the scorching sunlight of the afternoon.

He also wished he had learned it earlier for another reason.

See, the water used for the ice armor had to come from somewhere in the first place. And that somewhere was the air around them. In the desert, that wasn't much, which compounded the difficulty Izuku had in learning the spell but made it damn useful for collecting water. For the last couple weeks, since he'd finally gotten the spell down, half of his job as day watch was collecting the meltwater from his ice armor to help restock the water supply.

He had tried to insist that such water only be used for washing purposes, but the people of Sanctuary were far less grossed out by the prospect of drinking water that had literally melted off of his sweaty body than he was.

"Hey! Izuku!" A man called out to him from somewhere on the right.

Izuku opened his eyes, breaking his meditation, to see who was approaching. It was Tony, a wheel maker in Warriv's employ. He carried with him a full wineskin.

"Can you freeze this for me?" He asked as he got close enough to speak regularly,

Izuku nodded and took the leathery sack. With barely more than a thought he froze the water in the wineskin, but only the small amount of it touching the container itself, leaving most of the water liquid but nicely cooled for his drinking pleasure.

"Here you go Tony!" Izuku said cheerfully.

"Thanks kid, you guys about ready for lunch? I can bring over a couple portions." Tony offered.

"Nah! We usually skip lunch. Dinner and breakfast only, so we can eat together. What, with our different sleep schedules." Izuku explained.

Tony accepted his logic and took off, leaving Izuku to his meditation. And so, he returned to his usual afternoon routine. Practicing ice magic while trying to meditate, with the intermediate interruption by caravanners, who also served to sharpen his magical skills. Isendra had convinced Warriv to instruct all people to go to Izuku to cool or freeze anything. This was for the obvious purpose of improving his ice magic skills, which is what he was assigned to work on during the day, with the lightning skill tree to be his area of focus during the evenings before going to sleep and mornings before starting his duties as a guard.

Still, it was gross that people here thought it was acceptable to drink the water which melted off of him and Isendra. He wondered if there was something perverted about it? Some seemed strangely eager to drink the water that melted off of his mistress, and that bothered him.

"You have progressed greatly." Isendra complimented suddenly.

Izuku broke out of his meditation to look at her. She kept her eyes closed.

"You have tempered all of your spells to the point that you no longer overcharge them. Before this trip, you had the bad habit of forcing your spells to work by putting everything you had into them. In doing so you wasted at least four times as much mana as was required. These last few months have served to help you overcome that deficiency. Now, you use as much mana as the spell requires. In time you will learn how to make such spells even more powerful, with the correspondingly appropriate amount of mana." Isendra explained.

Right. She had explained the purpose of his training thus far before, and yet he felt all the more surprised for having achieved the end goal. It had been such slow progress. Practicing and practicing spells he already knew so as to perfect them. Train that muscle memory, or mana memory, to the point that each spell was cast perfectly. She had introduced a few new spells along the way, like the ice armor and nova, to practice as well. But she hadn't waited on him to master his control of simpler spells beforehand. But it was her role to come up with the training regimen. How she chose to balance having him practice earlier spells versus learning new ones was a role he trusted her with.

"You now can cast a true firebolt, and in fact most of your fire spells are vastly improved. The only thing you can do with them from here is make them more powerful in time, a process that has no end. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the creatures we will encounter here in the desert are adapted to resist extreme heat, and fire magic in particular." Isendra continued her lecture. "So your focus in training and battle will continue to be developing your ice and lightning magic."

Izuku nodded to every word. This was as close to a graduation ceremony as she would ever give him, after all, but that was the spirit of the lecture. To tell him he had advanced further.

The caravan peaked over another hill of sand and craggy rocks and they saw it. At long last, after three months subsisting on preserved and pickled foods, the occasional aquifer oasis, and Isendra's sweat water, the white towers of Lut Gohlein were now in sight. Her white towers just barely peaked over the distant sand dunes in the horizon. It looked close enough to reach by night, but long enough to leave them exhausted by their arrival.

"Halt!" Warriv's voice carried back to them from the front of the caravan. "Take a meal and wash break."

There was a smattering of discontented mutterings around the caravan, a few came from Izuku himself, but they stopped all the same. It was a decidedly odd time to take an hour break. With the destination in sight he felt a second wind and excitement to finish the journey, why waste time breaking?

Tony returned to Isendra and Izuku's wagon with a hint of the answer.

"Warriv has requested you." He said.

Izuku and Isendra shared a look. Yup. Trouble was definitely abound.

They canceled their ice armor, dismounted their wagon, and made their way to the front of the caravan. There, they saw Warriv talking in hushed tones with a pair of scouts. There were always a good four to six of them walking several kilometers ahead and to the sides. This kept a good warning system in place for oncoming dangers, which were usually environmental and easily course-corrected for. If they brought news that required the two Sorcerer's to actually do work for a change, then there was surely a fight ahead.

"Isendra, Izuku. We have need of your services." Warriv said with an inviting wave. "Our scouts have returned with news of an ambush in the making."

Of course. Close enough to the city to make travelers drop their guard, far enough that any help at the city couldn't see said ambush, let alone do anything to prevent or retaliate against it. Gotta hate the smarter thugs of the world. They're smart and hard working enough to be as annoying as possible, but not enough to get a real job and improve the world by contributing.

The scout, who wore tan colored clothes so as to blend in with the desert environment as much as they could without modern camouflage, stepped forward. Izuku made a note to introduce proper camo and ghillie suits as he talked.

"A small tribe of Lacuni are lying in wait on either side of the road ten kilometers ahead. We spotted their encampment in the shade of some rocky outcroppings they dug out of." The scout explained. "And I didn't get a good look at it, but I also spotted some kind of chitinous creature. I fear it may be a scarab demon."

Isendra nodded along with every word. At least she understood all of this.

"Point us in the right direction and we'll take care of it." Isendra said.

The scout pointed down the path they were going along anyways, and so Izuku and Isendra began their walk.

---

"Lacuni?" Izuku asked as soon as they were out of earshot to the caravan. "Scarab demon?"

"Cat people and big, bug demons that like to hurl lightning. It is one of the few creatures out here that you can unleash fire upon with some success." She explained. "Keep to the shadows of the dunes as we approach."

He crouched down at her command and did as she ordered. And so, the two of them sneaked their way along the curves of the shifting sand for the next hour. The sun was only now beginning to descend, giving them little shade, so they opted to renew their ice armor for comfort and protection in case they were ambushed despite expecting it.

They both spotted the black outcropping of rock at the same time and crouched low, crawling the last of the way to the final dune where they peeked over to survey the enemy forces.

Yup. Those were cat people alright. Nowhere near as cute as he was expecting, they looked more like the misbegotten half breeds of doctor Moreua. Their torsos and arms were longer than human and cat portions alike, but they were almost naked of fur save for their blood-red manes, tufts at the tip of their tails and, strangely, on their forearms. He took it back, they looked like Blanka if he'd an accident at a chocolate factory. Why was their skin blue?!

He honestly shouldn't have been that bothered by their appearance, plenty of mutant type quirks were stranger, but he was expecting something evolutionarily sensible here. Oh, and the females had four tits. Of course they did.

"What are you thinking of Izuku?" Isendra asked.

He realized she probably thought he had such a consternated expression because he was thinking up a strategy, and not overthinking their odd appearance. So he improvised.

"Are they more akin to lions than cats? With the tufts on their tail and manes? And I'm seeing a lot more females than males."

"Possibly. Would that give us an advantage?" She asked.

"Not necessarily, so much as tell us how they may fight. The males would obviously be stronger, but fight as an individual, but the females would be more aggressive and work more cooperatively." He explained. "If they are akin to lions."

"You are overthinking things." She admonished.

Izuku made a show of bowing his head, as if it wasn't his intention to make her think he was just overanalyzing instead of being an idiot.

"I think it's time you showed off your ice nova." She said. "Stun them all in one swoop. I know you've practiced the spell as well as you could in the caravan, but I want to see what you can do with it full powered."

Izuku nodded, then went back to raking the small tribe with his eyes.

"But where is the scarab demon?" He asked.

"It is right there." She said, pointing to the rock outcropping. "How could you miss it?"

She was right. The creature's chiton was a much darker shade of black than the rocks it huddled against for camouflage, but its cleanliness and reflective sheen gave it away. Not to mention all of the spiky bits.

"So what? Just jump down there to the middle of the fray and ice nova them in place?" He clarified.

"That's the idea. Need me to toss you?" She offered.

He accepted her offer and was bodily thrown by a gust of wind down into the encampment. He built up all of the mana he could in a dome around him as he fell and saw that every single Lacuna spotted him as soon as he crested the hill, but could not gather their weapons, let alone notch an arrow to fire at him, before he hit the ground. When he did he unleashed a violent gale of frigid air that then exploded into spikes of cutting ice erupting from the ground about him in all directions. Most of the Lacuni were outright impaled by the spikes, all were coated in a thick coating of ice that froze them in place.

He watched as Isendra sprinted down the hill and unleashed a similar storm to his, this one of electricity. The familiar lightning nova cooked the Lacuni from the inside and shattered their ice prison, and parts of their body, as most fell dead to the might of the two sorcerers.

Only two remained. A rather large male, and the now awakened and enraged scarab demon. The former was badly frostbitten and electrical burns, the latter was only now slowly rising, having been rudely awakened by the frost nova and likely energized by the lightning nova by the look of the sparks of electricity arcing between his many spikes.

Izuku threw his best firebolt directly at the scarab demon's still partially frozen face while Isendra opted to show off her own frost nova, which washed harmlessly over him. His firebolt shattered the hard carapace around the creature's head and sent it stumbling backwards, only to be fully frozen in place by Isendra's ice nova. He threw a second firebolt to finish the job of vaporizing the demon's head while Isendra did the same to their feline friend.

God, but did that one two combo of ice followed by fire never get old.

Izuku sighed. He was barely winded from that.

"Amazing what a difference three months of focused, uninterrupted practice will do, isn't it?" Isendra asked.

He shrugged.

"I was still expecting a fight to be... well, a fight."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you about to complain that things are getting too easy? Because I promise you, they will not remain so. Careful planning and skillful execution of said plans makes all encounters far easier and less injury prone, but rarely do plans survive first encounter so flawlessly." She warned.

"I mean. You all keep saying that, and yet our plans keep working out." He said, sounding more confident than he meant to.

"And yet we still have brushed against death all the same, even when we got lucky at every turn in our battle with Andariel. Don't worry, there will be more threats to keep you humble." She promised.

He believed her.

---

When they finally reached the gates of Lut Gohlein the exhaustion of three months journeying in the sun showed on all of their faces. Each of them sagged into themselves, mouths agape and eyes lidded. They looked like undead abominations themselves.

The guards waved most everyone in without much to do about it, but stopped Izuku and Isendra.

They looked his mistress up and down appreciatively, but not in a way that made Izuku worry they wished to defile her. It was more the appreciation a man would give a vehicle, or a well-maintained gun.

"You two are warriors and sorcerers, yes?" Asked the guard.

"We are. I am Isendra, and this is my student Izuku." Isendra explained.

They nodded sternly.

"Then you should go see Lord Jerhyn in... three days' time at the second bell." The left guard said after consulting a calendar. "The morning meal will be provided by him."

Izuku looked to Isendra.

"There is always work that needs doing. It's nice to have a new job as soon as you arrive at a place. Three days ought to be long enough to settle in." She said.

They thanked the guards and walked into the city. And boy was it bustling. They had to swim through human beings that were so distracted by their hubbub of swapping coins and products that nobody so much as looked at him. Their distracted and animated state made Izuku think of how vulnerable they were, to attack or theft. This reminded him of the existence of pickpockets, a foreign concept to Japan in the twenty second century, and he clutched his coin purse closer and deeper in his clothes.

He quickly learned the real terror of the city as he got a good look at the stalls, or more specifically, their prices. Things in Lut Gohlein were expensive, with a capital E. meals were advertised for one hundred gold on the cheap end, and the inns, of which there were many, held a similar price for single rooms.

"This city is a major port for trade." Isendra told him. "Money and goods change hands so quickly here. It is the end road of the supply line for many necessities, from seafood to precious gems. And the price of everything here reflects these realities. Many come here to make their fortune and leave after working hard for some time, but it is just as easy to lose said fortune trying to survive."

Izuku nodded.

"It's like with mining towns. It's not the gold miner who makes the money, but the pickaxe salesman." Izuku recited.

"Oooh! That's good. Did you just come up with that?" Isendra asked.

"Nope. Age old wisdom of my people." Izuku admitted.

They rounded a corner and caught their first sight of the sea glimmering in the horizon. He could smell the salty sea before, but now the fresh air of it was overwhelming. The desire to rush out and take a dunk in the water almost overcame him. Not least of all for his want of the first proper bath in three months and hatred of the heat, a hatred he was certain would grow in the coming months out here.

"Here." Isendra ordered as they approached an Inn.

The sign above said inn read Desert Rain. The sign read two hundred and fifty gold per day, with an extra ten for bath. It was mid-range in price compared to the other inns they saw, but it was the first to mention available baths at all. It won by default.

They walked inside and straight to the counter where a man, presumably the owner or employee thereof, stood organizing cards and chips and other gambling paraphernalia. He was missing an eye and half of his left hand. He looked like he lived an interesting life, to say the least.

"What's your pleasure?" The man said in a deceptively polite tone.

"We would like a room for the night please." Isendra asked.

The man looked between them but did not betray any thoughts or presumptions on their relationship. Instead, he merely nodded and produced a key.

"That will be two hundred and fifty gold per night. An additional ten each if you want access to the baths." He told them.

Isendra handed him two hundred and seventy coins, which he took.

"If you want any food, head on over to Atma's public house. It used to be a pleasure house, but all of the fine ladies of the evening have fled to the castle for extra safety for now. But it's still serving food and drink. Which we don't here. I specialize in shelter and baths." The man explained. "Also, the name is Elzix. Ask for me if you need me, but I'm rarely hard to find. Just make sure to sign your names in and out on the ledger."

Or recognize, Izuku added mentally. Or spot from kilometers away, really.

"Quick meal, then bath, then bed?" Isendra asked.

"Sounds great." Said Izuku.

They both signed the ledger then went upstairs to put their things away, after first checking the room and its amenities. It only had one bed, but it was large enough for both of them with even more space than they were used to, accustomed to sleeping side by side in sleeping bags in the back of a wagon. It was downright luxurious. They locked the place up and went on their way. Atma's former whorehouse really was just a tavern. They got two plates of fresh fish and bread, both still steaming and smelling a thousand times better than anything they'd eaten recently.

Fresh food beat dried and preserved food any day.

They found a small table with two stools near the back and dug in. The ability to speak momentarily left them as they stuffed their faces. They barely managed to meek out a "thank you" when the barman came around with two ales.

While the food was delicious, it wasn't enough to make Izuku lose his sense of his surroundings or the people therein. And on the other side of the room were two individuals who felt like blazing infernos to his magical senses. It was subdued, as if they were trying to hide it, but for somebody whom magic was almost a painful entity, he could practically see it coming from them. They looked like a couple, but an odd looking one. If they were trying to remain inconspicuous then wearing a wolf pelt on their head or having hair almost as long as she was tall might be some things worth changing.

They weren't bothering anybody, let alone taking an interest in them, so he mentally noted them as potential people of interest and filed the information away for later.

The food and drink were soon gone, and since they'd eaten and drunk it down so quickly, they were prematurely full even though his spirit craved for more. He leaned back and sighed at the pleasure of being full for once.

"Alright! Bath time." Isendra declared.

---

They reentered their room to find it in the same state they had left it, though now the two of them were clean and damp. They were so relaxed they might pass out before the sun finally set.

"We need to get you new clothes. You've had a bit of a growth spurt during our trip." Isendra commented.

Indeed. Half of his forearms and shins were now sticking out past his sleeves. He tried to imagine how nice it would have felt to have brand new, clean clothes to change into fresh out of the bathtub and suspected he might have died from a pleasure overdose.

"First thing in the morning we will do all of our overdue shopping. For now, we must discuss the future of your tutelage." She said as she sat down on her side of the bed.

She patted the spot of linen next to her and he took his seat.

"Due to our taking separate shifts during our travels, I focused on training you in such a way that you could practice without my direct supervision. This was only possible because you pick up new spells so fast and are diligent in practicing them without supervision. But because of our conflicting schedules I was not able to train you in the more academic topics you need to know." Isendra lectured. "History, politics, geography, runes and the like. It is time to get started on fixing that."

Izuku withdrew his notebook, pen and inkwell and got to writing.

"I have especially been interested in teaching you about my clan's history and about runes, but we never had the privacy needed to discuss it. Now. You should know that my clan follows the will of Lady Esu, and I hope to one day be called her daughter. You must never call yourself such, either publicly or especially to other members of my clan. We only permit female members into the order. Many if not all would kill you for claiming membership, thinking you a thief of valor."

Wow. There seemed to be a lot of female only warrior castes around these parts. Badass ones, too. He wrote that down, leaving the question as to what to call himself for later. Was she even allowed to take him on as a student at all? Him being male, and all that. Maybe with the world on the brink of annihilation she bent the rules in favor of having a useful apprentice? He needed not ask that; he knew the answer.

"Now, to begin your study of runes, I must also emphasize the importance of secrecy. Our possession of even the runes we have will draw unwanted attention from other mages who might be overwhelmed by avarice." She warned. "Runes are individually very powerful, but some synergize to create more powerful effects like the ones we found earlier. Individual mages will work for decades to create such runes and will generally create between one and three within their lifetime. So, you understand their scarcity and why they're so sought after."

Izuku wrote this all down.

He pondered the prospect of learning how they're made and introducing a bit of industrial style production line methods. Odds were, as with most things in this world, everyone was a master of their own art and did every part of their craft from beginning to end. Every chair and table was of excellent quality, but similarly expensive and time consuming to create. It was almost certain that this process, which took decades and mastery of magic, could be dropped down to a year or two with enough novices trained in the smaller aspects of the job.

He then frowned as he realized every mage on the planet would bay for his blood if he deflated the value of their most precious heirlooms to nothing. In fact, odds were other mages had invented faster methods for making runes but kept it a secret to their deathbeds. Much like skills with mind magics.

Izuku looked up and nodded that he was ready for her to continue.

"We found some very sought after runes when we battled the countess. Together, they can form the word "Stealth" which can be used to increase speed, both physical movements and amplify your casting speed, as well as heighten reflexes and stamina." She explained. "My new staff is the legendary Leaf Staff, a fire mage's dream weapon, uses such a rune. In fact, your staff was probably made in an attempt to recreate it without runes."

He wasn't so hot on the idea of being considered a fire mage. His natural affinity for it had been dampened with his experience actually using other magics, and he suspected his original excellence with it was more a matter of circumstance than talent. It was all he had, and when you have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

"I will teach you all about runes and similar foci during our time here. You should know that orbs are the primary foci for the elemental magics of my own Sann Esu clan." She said, indicating the orb at the tip of her staff. "Many are imbued with amplifiers for specific spells, others help for broader ranges of spells and these ones tend to be even more powerful. Wands are the primary Foci of a different type of magic user. You will learn all about these and more in the coming months. But for now, I think it may be time for us to sleep."

He looked out the one window to see the sun was beginning to fall beneath the horizon, and he was truly exhausted. And the bed was so unbelievably soft.

He crawled into his half of the bed and passed out. He had no idea he was so tired.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire
NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and
contact him on his patreon.

Prices:
$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.
$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish

material.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[zebrin]

Ahh good, finally bringing up the fact that his apprenticeship is actually very strange, and possibly something that would get him, and his master killed if certain... more... hide bound members of her order were to find out about it.

His knowledge would be better learned at the foot of Deckard right now. Even if Isendra remains his master in truth, having the Last Horadric mage acting as his teacher would be a very possibly necessary smoke screen.

If it becomes as such, in truth as well... well, the Horadrim are rather needed. And having a frail old man be the last is... Well, all eggs, one basket. Isendra becomes a Horadric mage after these events anyways.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 18:
A Rest Well Earnt​

---

They slept in the next morning, for the first time in what felt like an eternity for Izuku. It was nearly noon when they finally got up, and only then because it was getting too hot to stay in bed any longer.

"If I get much more relaxed I might actually transmogrify into one of those cat people." Izuku told her. "Or just a regular old house cat. Or just turn to jelly where I stand."

"Lacuni." Isendra corrected. "And we shall find out soon if your boast comes true, as today and tomorrow shall also consist of relaxation and comforts that we have earned."

Izuku liked the sound of that. And also disliked it. It was a strange feeling, a reward for his hard work sounding like a punishment due to it now taking him out of his comfort zone, which consisted entirely of hard work and dedication. Something about a day dedicated to rest and relaxation terrified him. His body and spirit were primed for a day of hyper-vigilance and training, and maybe even a fight. But with tall walls surrounding him and well-trained soldiers guarding said walls, such energy felt wasted.

Antsy. Antsy was the word to describe this feeling.

"Breakfast." Isendra said simply, as she changed from her sleepwear to her normal clothes and exited the room.

It must be nice to have a permanent set of clothes, instead of having to grow out of them constantly. He never knew how good things were in japan, where clothes were cheap and readily available and practically disposable. Out here, they were manually and meticulously created. From the shearing of the animals, to the creation of textiles, to the measurements and tailoring. All done to the exact specifications of the recipient. The clothes were superior, sure, but they were expensive too. Like everything else.

He finished getting redressed himself and followed her out only to find her waiting there. Her constant consideration to his cultural reticence to reveal his body to the opposite was a level of consideration on her part that he always forgot she showed, only to be reminded of the extra effort on her part on moments like this. He bowed slightly in appreciation.

Together they exited the hotel and reentered the busy streets of Lut Golemn and the cool ocean breeze which drove away the heat. It was oddly colder outside than inside. It made sense in a world without air conditioning.

How was there no magic air conditioning? There had to be a market for sorcerers who did nothing but that. After all, partially freezing water supplies was plenty desired during their travels.

They continued down the street along the same path from the night before, down to Atma's public house. He still had no clue who Atma was, and assumed she was with the other ladies of the evening that once stayed here but now remained in the palace.

They collected their food from the serving table, which amounted to a whole lot of rice and fish. Though both seemed to have a healthy dose of either lemon or orange juice. It seemed the people around these parts were familiar with scurvy and its remedy. He was impressed.

They wound their way to the same table from the day before and took a seat.

"So, what would you say is on the itinerary for the day?" Isendra asked.

Izuku swallowed his first mouthful before answering.

"Get new clothes, scout the area and its inhabitants, study runes." He summarized.

"New clothes and haircuts for both of us." Isendra corrected. "And you need a shave. The beginnings of scruff you have won't impress anybody, and we want to look our best for the palace."

Izuku blinked at her in confusion, then reached up to touch his face. He didn't feel any scuff, certainly nothing like the rough hairs he'd felt on his father's face or mother's legs on days when they weren't required to shave. Maybe you had to shave first to get the sandpaper feel? But his father was only ever able to grow a mustache, and Japanese men were rarely able to grow a full beard.

Maybe he had some Ainu on his mother's side? That, or he was finally developing a quirk and he was a mutant type. Wolf man, incoming!

But yeah, there was some soft peach fuzz all along his cheeks. It wasn't exactly thick, but it did have coverage. He wanted a mirror to see its color, but such things were rare and expensive treasures in ancient Japan, so they were surely the same here. Good thing he was going to a palace in two days.

"That means we will have to go to a luxury bathhouse, one with barbers and hairdressers. So eat up, we are having a girly day out." She said. "Shopping, trying on clothes and getting haircuts."

She downed her breakfast quickly and rushed him to do the same. He imagined that having girly days with an apprentice was something women of her order looked forward to, and that having a male apprentice wasn't going to stop her from enjoying such a rite of passage. And so, he followed her dejectedly like any red blooded man forced to go Shopping with an enthusiastic woman.

They walked in an entirely new direction, towards the palace which towered over all the buildings. They passed a bathhouse, one much nicer than the small one at the Desert Rain, towards an even more luxurious one. One that had men and women working inside. Or more accurately, sitting inside and waiting to work.

They walked inside and several jumped up, the boredom on their faces replaced by eagerness to work. The smiles they wore were clearly well-practiced, but genuine all the same. It was the difference between a service worker at a small, family owned place versus a large, chain corporation. They still had their souls.

""Welcome." Said a reception attendant. "Would you like a self-service area or traditional full service?"

"We would like two full-services please." Isendra said. "Hairdressing, shaves and massages." She replied. "We have a meeting with lord Jerhyn in two days."

The receptionist made an "oh!" face and motioned them back towards two screened off areas. Izuku was given a male worker while Isendra a female one. He had to wonder what kind of shaving she needed doing, as her legs seemed perpetually smooth. Hell, all of her seemed perpetually smooth, but he wouldn't pry. She likely just misspoke.

The small closed off area he was led to had a reclining chair, a bathing pool, and a lot of cutting implements. Scissors and straight edge razors chief among them. There were also pumice stones and smooth rocks he recognized as being for massages.

"Is this your first shave?" The man tending him asked.

"Yes sir." Izuku said.

"Well then, we should get you a mirror so you can watch me do it, in case you decide to be the one man who doesn't work in the industry to shave themselves." He said.

Izuku had to admit, there was an overabundance of men with full beards on Sanctuary. The only clean shaven men he'd seen was Gheed, and with him he suspected because he couldn't grow one in the first place.

The worker provided him with a large, square hand mirror and Izuku flinched at the reflection in it.

He wasn't far off when he thought he might look like a ganguro. The sun had started to bleach his hair, and the green sheen on it was now bright enough to readily seen in his dark hair even in the shade. And his skin was tanned and cracked. Widow's feet were beginning to form around his eyes from the constant squinting in the sunlight. That part he actually kind of liked.

"Do you feel lucky punk?" He said to himself in the mirror, before snorting.

"What?" Asked the man tending him.

"Something a guy with eyes like this once said. I didn't used to have the crows feet." Izuku said.

The beard, on the other hand, really was just peach fuzz, but it was a dark enough color to be noticeable. It definitely had to go.

"Well, I'm going to give you a haircut first, and then shave, then wash and massage you. You can hold the mirror for all of it if you like. I'm guessing you want it cropped short so it doesn't get sweat on your forehead and neck all the time?" The barber asked.

"Yes please." Izuku said. "Whatever you think is appropriate. I am not picky."

And so, for the next five minutes, Izuku watched in his reflection as the male attendant took scissors to his shoulder length hair. At first he just took off huge chunks willy nilly, then became more precise. Izuku recognized the haircut he was going for as a crop top, like what those jarhead guys from America had, but a little longer and messier, but that's just because even short his hair was too thick and soft to make into a perfectly flat top.

"I love it." Said Izuku. "It matches my scruff."

The attendant chuckled and retrieved a basket from the side.

"I am going to lather your face with a cream. It is made from milk, honey, soap and vodka, so it may sting your eyes or nose at first." He warned.

And indeed, he poured a creamy substance into a bowl and, with a lathering brush, whisked the liquid into what looked like whipped cream. He could already smell all of the ingredients he mentioned. Then he applied it evenly on Izukus face.

The barber opened a straight razor and examined it carefully. He turned it this way and that to examine it in the right light. Izuku hoped he was searching for blood, skin and other contaminants from past customers. He further hoped he cleaned them between customers regardless. He nodded to himself in satisfaction and turned the blade on Izuku.

"So, I need you to hold still and pay attention." He said. "You shave by pulling the blade down THIS way, not THIS way."

He demonstrated dragging the blade down by the flat side in the air, then did the same side to side like cutting a rope. Izuku nodded in the affirmative.

When the blade finally touched his skin Izuku tensed up and remained still for the rest of the demonstration. But then someone in the back began playing music on the flute and he relaxed.

---

"Oooh, I'm having trouble walking." Izuku admitted as they exited the bathhouse.

He had nearly fallen asleep after the nice man undressed him and laid him in the bath, only to then pour the steaming hot water onto him while he was in it. He might have actually passed out once he began to massage him with those smooth rocks, only to jolt awake again when he went to war with his feet using pumice stones.

He hadn't realized his toe nails had become so gnarly until the man went to war with those too.

"If you were a bit older, I would make a joke at your phrasing, but I'll let it slide this time." Isendra said teasingly. "But I do hope you never get into the habit of going to those kinds of bath houses."

Izuku didn't know what she meant by that. He also did not want to know.

"Time for some new clothes." She said.

They turned away from the main street, where food and spice stalls reigned supreme, and down into the most colorful alley Izuku had ever seen. Thick linens zigzagged across tent poles and window sills all along it. Each was a deep red, blue, yellow, green, orange and, most rarely of all, purple. The stalls out here weren't so much stalls, as open spaces with clothing racks.

And so, they shopped.

Isendra took center stage as she danced, literally and figuratively, between the racks. She took a liking to the baggy white pants that reminded Izuku of that animated movie with the genie. They were short enough to leave half her shins revealed and baggy enough to try on over her regular clothes. This was probably why she picked them, so she could use them as a reference for more form fitting clothes in a similar size.

In fact, that's exactly what she did next. Showing the pair of baggy white, and obviously comfortable, clothes, to another, more expensive, vendor to reference for fitting her with higher end formal clothes, which amounted to a shimmering yellow dress. He assumed she chose yellow so she could wear it outside during the day too. She also grabbed a pair of head coverings. One white to match the first set of clothes, one red to compliment the dress.

"That should just about do it. Just need a couple pairs of sandals and then we can get clothes for you." she said.

She then put Izuku in a gown she called a thawb. He had seen many men walking around in them, but they really were just linen gowns. It amounted to an oversized, white shirt. She also got him a baby blue one, both with matching pants that came down to his calves, just like hers. There was also a black set that looked like it belonged to a western priests and came with matching pants that Isendra was eyeing.

"I need this one tailored for my apprentice." Isendra said to the vendor, who nodded and advanced on Izuku.

"What are these?" He asked.

"They are called thobes or sometimes referred to as thawbs." Said the ancient man who was measuring him. "They will keep you nice and cool in the hot weather, and can be layered easily for unexpected cold snaps… And you can wear your armor underneath it too, so don't worry."

Hmm. The man must have noticed the chainmail under his shirt. Which also was a tighter fit.

Isendra paid the man and got his word to come back for the purchase the next day. Then they went around looking at hats.

"That way you don't have to squint so much." Isendra said.

But every hat she chose was too ornate for him, and the price tags made him blanch. Then he finally spotted it. It was a straw hat made into a perfect cone with a semicircle of linen flaps stitched around the rim.

"That one!" Izuku said, pointing to it.

Isendra looked at it and tilted her head questioningly at it. Then she tilted her head the other way. She settled for taking it off the rack and plopping it down on his head. It fit well enough.

"Huh. That does oddly suit you. We'll take it." She decided.

Then they picked up four pairs of sandals. The sandal maker or cordwainer there kept a good stock in most sizes. He was close to Isendra's foot size, maybe one or two less than hers. It was great to let his feet breathe.

All throughout the shopping trip Izuku was feeling… something. Every sight, smell and chit chat during their shopping felt like he was in a mall again. God he missed malls. He missed a lot of things. He could really go for a burger, like a really shitty one from golden arches. A milkshake too. That would hit the spot.

"All that's left is to get our equipment adjusted and repaired." Isendra said. "Let's go put our things away, get changed, and go find ourselves a blade and Armorsmith."

---

They found the premier Smith of Lut Gholein. As with the sisterhood, it was a she, and this one was wow. Wow was the word to describe her.

She looked like a buxom pirate with a mane of fiery red hair. She wore a similar pair of pants to what Isendra had bought, but brown, along with leather boots and a white blouse that she just let hang open. The cleavage was tantalizing enough, but he imagined you could practically see through the shirt if it were dry, but with her working outside in the heat of the sun and the forge it was drenched in sweat, making it completely transparent.

So yeah. Wow.

"Excuse me, we were told we could find a Fara here." Isendra greeted.

"I am she." Said the redheaded Smith. Izuku just couldn't get over the hair. "What can I do for you?"

On closer inspection he realized she was older than he thought at first, her face having taken as much damage by the sun as Izuku's had, times a hundred. She kind of reminded him of those guys who surfed all their lives and got that sun worn face. Old young people.

"We just need our equipment repaired and, in his case, adjusted." Isendra said. "Chainmail and hard leather mostly."

Fara nodded and went over to an empty workbench outside of her workshop. It didn't seem polite to call it a shack, as it was quite nice, but shack was the only word he had for it.

"Lay it all out and let me have a look. I'll write you an estimate. Do you have the boy's measurements?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am. We just had him measured. Here you go." She said, handing Fara the receipt from the tailor for her to copy down.

Izuku placed all of the equipment, which they had changed out of and into their new clothes, onto the workbench.

He then saw it. A strange crucifix. It was stitched into the cloth hanging in her shack, but it was unmistakable, if a little ornate. It almost looked like a hammer, but he had seen crucifixes with a circle around the top before. Christians weren't exactly common in Japan, but they were famously charitable and kind people. More So than buddhists, on account of their hard work ethic and the greater wealth they derived from working as valuable members of society. not to mention They had more to give.

This was the first sign of interpolation from his world that he'd seen since leaving the moors!

"You're a woman of faith?" Izuku asked, pointing to it.

Fara looked back to where he pointed then smiled.

"I was." She said. "I am a former paladin of Zakarum."

Zakarum? Was that the name of a christian sect he hadn't heard of?

"What's a Paladin of Zakarum?" He asked before slamming a hand over his own mouth.

He realized the idiocy and lunacy of the question and potential insult therein just as it exited his lips.

Fara stared blankly at him, then turned back to study their equipment as if pretending not to have heard him. Isendra was also looking off into space as if she hadn't heard his faux pass. He kept his hand over his mouth all the same.

When Fara finally handed Isendra the estimate, she winced but nodded. Izuku suspected the woman had added a bit to the price because of his rude question.

As they walked away they passed Deckard, who waved happily to Izuku. He returned the wave, but with much less aplomb than he usually would. Cain seemed to notice his dour mood and raised an eyebrow, but he shook his head.

"I will leave you here to think on what just happened during the negotiation of services." Isendra said. "You have gotten so good at not slipping up lately, and you were one second late on catching yourself that time. So, your punishment is to sit out here and think. Meet me for lunch when you have finished doing that."

She left him there, likely because Cane was in eyeshot, and he found a piece of wall rubble to sit on. He noticed that Cain watched him patiently as he did so.

He pulled out his regular notebook and wrote down Zakaram. Next to it he drew the special crucifix to the best of his ability, along with the word Christian surrounded by question marks. Below that he started listing off other major religions from his world. If any other people from his world came to this one, religious practices or symbols would be one of the most likely things to linger.

The idea that other people from his world, either recently or far in the past, may have come to sanctuary never occurred to him until now. If he could make the trip, surely others could? Hell, the people here were human. Was there some panspermia going on? How long did the history of this world go back? Would he find references to ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia? Hell, based on the cultural style he was tempted to believe a lost crusade or ancient Jihadic army may have all been transported here at some point. Possibly both at the same time. It would explain a lot that or he was looking too deep with things that are similar but are coincidental.

He wrote these questions and ideas down, then sighed.

Thinking didn't help. It never helped anymore. In fact, the happiness he'd eked out these last few months came from his business, of keeping his mind empty through work and training. All day he'd been in a weird kind of cheeriness he couldn't place, and now that he was alone it was gone.

It wasn't that his stupidity a minute ago had ruined his good mood. It was that it made him realize what the good mood was.

Nostalgia. He was feeling nostalgia for Japan. For a world where just going shopping and getting a haircut and trying on clothes was a normal day. No giant demonesses, no hordes of undead. No hot redheads taking part in solo wet t-shirt contests in public. Plenty of cat people though. That seemed to be common across worlds.

He sighed and got up, making to leave.

He looked to see Cain still looking at him. He tilted his head and made motions with his eyes, as if asking Izuku if he wanted to talk about it.

He refused the offer with a shake of his own head and began his walk back towards Atma's place. He let himself get lost in the crowd, trying to think about nothing. It was working, but only because the loud chatter of the crowd drowned out his thoughts like white noise.

"Hold the sniveling thief still! And get me something to chop the ax onto!" Izuku heard somebody yell.

That snapped him out of his malaise.

He looked to see a guard and a vendor at a bread stand wrestling a small, filthy child towards a barrel by the wrist. He watched in fascination as the boy, dressed in rags and barefoot, struggled to escape while the guard struggled to retrieve his ax.

Then he remembered he wasn't in Japan anymore, where thieves are usually punished with community service. Here, he realized the punishment might involve an ax and be a bit excessive.

"Whoa! Wait!" Izuku hollered as he ran forward with his hands out.

The trio actually stopped at his peace gesture. They looked him up and down, and the kid took special interest in his brand new clothes.

"Are you interfering with my duties?" Asked the guard.

"No sir, I would never. I'm just here to offer to pay for whatever the kid stole." Izuku said as he withdrew his coin purse and flashed some gold. "Right? If I buy it, then there's no harm done."

They all looked at him like he was insane, save for the merchant.

"I would prefer money to a dismembered hand, damaged barrel, and bloody clothes." He reasoned.

The two did not let go of the boy, who hadn't screamed or talked during all of this. His jaw was still firmly clenched as if in anticipation of pain. Tough guy.

"That's all well and good, but what the hell business is it of yours? He Kin or something?" The guard asked.

"No, it's just… Where I come from petty theft is usually punished with making the thief work for the victim for a day, or jail them for a week. We don't cut people's hands off. Seems a bit excessive. I'm willing to pay a few gold coins to NOT see that today." Izuku said. "And I want some bread myself. I get to have lunch, and not want to throw up my lunch. Win both benefit."

The merchant gave him a proper belly laugh at that one, while the guard shrugged at his reasoning and seemed to accept his logic. They released the boy, who stood in place, bread still clutched in his hand.

Izuku walked over to the vendor and offered him twenty gold pieces for two rolls based on the sign next to the bread rolls, which he accepted with a happy nod and then shooed them all away.

The guard turned around and walked towards the guard house. Izuku and the thief walked to the edge of the food stalls.

"Why?" The boy said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

"Weren't you paying attention?" Izuku asked. "I said I wanted some bread. Now give me my bread!"

He put out a hand and the boy actually gaped at him, but gratitude won the day and he obliged. When he handed the roll over, Izuku tore off a small piece of the crust and ate it, before making a face spitting it out.

"Uck! This is awful! Here! You have it. You look like you need it more than me." He said, handing the role back to the kid with a smile.

The boys' expression finally turned from suspicious and angry to mirthful at his antics and grateful at his kindness. Now that he could finally eat his misbegotten goods, he did so happily, and Izuku realized exactly how bad of a shape the kid was in. He could count his ribs, and the dirt and grime seemed to be caked on. Which was odd, considering the ocean was a short walk away.

"Do you, um. Need help?" Izuku asked.

The boy gave him a look.

"I mean. Like a job, maybe?" He offered.

The boy shrugged and motioned down at his small frame. Izuku got the message. He wasn't exactly up to the task of working on any of the ships around here.

"Well, let's see. I guess I could hire you to…" He had to actually pause and think about it. "Wash my clothes? Yeah! My mistress and I get into fights all the time. We would need the services of a Porter. In fact, I think tomorrow is a cleaning day. If you clean our clothes every few days, I'll pay you for saving me the work."
The child didn't respond. He just stared at Izuku. It was a strange stare, and the suspicion had definitely come back.

Then, he turned around and ran away.

Izuku watched as he disappeared around the corner. Then he shrugged and walked away. Best not to keep his mistress waiting.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by Magikuser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:
$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.
$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.
Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 19:

Realizations of Home​

---

Izuku made his way back to Atma's public house in an even heavier funk than before.

Something about seeing a little boy almost get permanently disfigured and disabled over a loaf of bread was just day ruining, over and above being trapped in a demon-infested world. He imagined anybody from Japan would feel as dejected by the experience as him, though he thought he'd handled witnesses the attempted ritual sacrifice and torture of six women and similar horrors fairly well.

He turned around to look back in the direction he came, to the town square where Cain had been standing around, either in deep thought or waiting for the random conversation with a stranger that was sure to come by his mere presence. The man had motioned to come talk to him, and he had hinted very strongly at having skills with magics for healing minds. Maybe he should take him up on that offer?

He'd go about his day and see if he felt any better by bed, or else by morning. Hell, a good lunch might cure his malaise.

And so, he arrived at Atma's to find Isendra sitting patiently, hands folded in front of her, at her own little table at the back.

He grabbed two plates of food and brought them over to her.

"Did you have a chance to clear your thoughts?" She asked as she unfurled herself and began eating.

"Yes." He said.

"And are you feeling better?" She asked further.

"No." He answered, again, honestly.

She looked at him blankly, matching his own expression, before motioning for him to eat.

The first bite didn't make him feel any better. The second bite actively made him feel worse. The food here was so bland. It always had been, but hunger from working so hard every day made even the worst food taste like mana from heaven. He had somehow forgotten how accustomed he was to salt and sugar, to choosing cut meats and juicy fruit bred and grown from the best stock and soil. The vegetables were crisp instead of flaccid, the breads were fluffy instead of hard, the dairy was safe to drink instead of making him not crying out for forgiveness of the old Gods, even the American Porcelain God every time he had some.

And that was just the quality of the food stuffs, not the cultural differences therein. He wanted proper rice balls filled with bean paste. He wanted ramen and sashimi. He wanted some good old Korean barbecue and sushi. And what he wouldn't give for some ice cream and chocolate, or a cup of proper tea.

He felt somebody, Isendra probably, shaking him, but he couldn't quite make her out. His vision was so blurry. She was shaking him a little too hard though, because he felt his entire body vibrating with it. Why was he so sweaty and why was he breathing so hard? Then he felt it, a tight pain in his chest.

His last thoughts before fading into blackness was that somebody must have poisoned his food.

---

He awoke to Isendra's beautiful face and four powerful hands lifting him up.

The absolute mountains of men that were getting him up to his feet looked like demigods of ancient mythology to him, but that was probably his delirium. He recognized one as the man wearing an animal pelt from the day before. The other was a dark, Arabic man wearing ornate crimson robes.

"Hey kid. That looked a lot like a panic attack." Said the mountain man.

"Indeed. Had a few myself during my apprenticeship. Big exam coming up?" Said the Arabic man. "No shame in it. At least you aren't resorting to self harm or excessive drinking like my failed peers in youth."

Izuku blinked at the new arrivals as he pieced together what they just said. Then he remembered his collapse and felt himself curl in on himself, hoping to become invisible to the world."

"Hey now, didn't my friend just say it's nothing to be ashamed of?" Said the mountain before putting a hand out. "I am Wyald Stromm, a druid of Scosglen. You reek of elemental magic, and that's reason enough for me to like you."

Izuku shook the offered hand, trying not to smile at the name nor the antics of the man next to him, who just made air quotes with his hands while mouthing the word "friend". Wild storm? Really? The name suited him, the utter power of his personality was wiping away all of Izuku's emotions like a hurricane.

"And I, I am Drognan of the Vizjerei clan, Mage Lord of Lut Gholein." Said the man in beautiful robes, bowing slightly to him.

Izuku tried to return the bow, then remembered where he was. He looked around to discover that the loud food kitchen was filled with people. And yet none of them were staring at him. They were staring at the two women behind them having a heated debate just off to the side of them. Well, it wasn't so much arguing as one screaming at the other.

"Where do you get off apprenticing a weak, useless boy when even I know it is verboten amongst your Clan!" The woman, some silver-blonde wrapped in far too tight leather, screamed at his mistress. "And you think to actually push him knowing how men can't handle the pressure!"

The entire scene resembled, in Izuku's mind, a mastiff staring down a yapping chihuahua. With his mistress being the mastiff, obviously, and a very patient one at that. She said nothing, just stared dispassionately and let the woman yell. He'd never seen her look so cold, save maybe when they killed the countess.

"Why you Zann Esu deign to pretend that you are a proper sisterhood, when you take on male apprentices, is a sham that you ought to just give up! Why not just put a king on a throne and become his playthings at this point!" The woman said more bitingly, before turning heel and leaving.

She picked up a trident from the floor as she left, one that had been plunged into the polished wood.

The rest of the food house returned to chattering amongst themselves, as if to pretend they hadn't just thoroughly enjoyed the show.

"I do believe our deer Cassia just demonstrated exactly why Zann Esu regularly takes on male apprentices before taking on female ones." Drognan said to Stromm, his mirth clear in his voice.

Izuku wheeled on the dark man.

"Wait, you mean this is common? I thought our relationship was an aberration." Izuku said.

Both men burst out with laughter.

"I doubt there has ever been a Zann Esu who took a female apprentice before an "unofficial" male one." Said Drognan. "They like to get the practice of teaching down with the ease of a male student before the horror of a female one. I'm at the point where if I meet an unaffiliated sorcerer I just assume he was trained by an Esu. It's a safe assumption."

"Yup. As you can imagine, an all female clan, raising females, with magic thrown in and you have a powder kegg that resembles what you just witness, but all the time." Said Strom. "Sorceresses just aren't equipped to raising sorceresses. If they were smart they'd do an exchange program with the Vizjerei to teach each-others young."

"Don't put that evil on us!" Said Drognan. "We quite like the peace of raising only male successors, thank you very much. They want an all female caste? Let them suffer the price for it."

Isendra had stood to the side staring them down during this entire conversation while they all pretended not to notice.

"Are you both quite finished?" She asked coldly.

"No." They said in unison.

"Well, you'll have to save the rest of your needling for another day. My "unofficial" apprentice and I must be on our way. Come, Izuku." She ordered.

"Yes mistress." Izuku said obediently before he staggered after her.

He waved kindly to the two men that had worked so hard to cheer him up after his collapse, which while an obvious attempt and motivation, was still appreciated.

They walked in silence back to Elzix's place in silence, and when they arrived in their shared room Isendra packed what few of her things she had out.

"I need my own room, for your safety." She explained. "That filth has ruined my equilibrium, and if my own magic gets out of control I will need my own space so as not to put you at risk from my errant magic. You are alone for the next day or so. Do as you please, so long as you do not bring shame upon me."

And without any further explanation, she left. He now had the room all to himself.

He did not sleep well that night. He woke up constantly with dreams of his mother and her lovely dinners. Each time he came to in tears, and he realized that his panic attack from earlier was not merely missing the excesses and privileges of having lived in twenty second century Japan, but the loved ones attached to memories of food and comfort.

Izuku wanted his mother.

---

The next morning saw a much groggier and thoroughly depressed Izuku bathing in Elzix's private baths. The hot water made him feel marginally better, and certainly got his brain working again.

He grasped the idea that had come to him yesterday as less of an option and more of a necessity, and made his way back to the town square, forgoing breakfast entirely.

Cain was sat on a rock underneath a fig tree near the beach, as if waiting patiently for somebody to arrive. Izuku went to him.

"Master Cain, I require your teaching." Izuku said to the quietly meditating man.

He did not open his eyes.

"So I have foreseen, even before your affliction at the food house. Though it took longer for the need to manifest than I expected." He said. "You need not specify in what discipline you require guidance, I know it."

Izuku bowed, even if the man could not see him.

"As such your tutelage will be abnormal, just as mine was. I shall teach you the mystic lore of our world and the Horadrim. Each story or history I tell will have hidden meaning and guidance in the magics that you are trying to learn. It will take a lot of consideration on your part to glean the real meaning." He explained. "The more direct teaching will be by learning other skills and disciplines that crossover in unexpected ways."

Ah. Teaching mind magic through parable, like the trials and rituals of the Egyptian book of the dead or similar esoteric spiritual teachings. He understood the necessity of such vagueness in his teaching. Especially due to the subject matter.

Cain then opened his eyes and looked all about him to make certain they were alone, before making eye contact with Izuku.

"Let us not mince words on what this means. The mind arts require utter faith, confidence and trust between two individuals. There shall be no secrets between us. What this also means is that will be my "Official" apprentice, to Isendra's unofficial." He declared. "You are clanless now, for you can never be of the Zann Esu due to chance of birth, but you can become Horadrim."

Izuku knew he must have looked like a fish out of water. There was so much there that left him stunned, from the man's seeming omnipotence of the conversations and going ons of other people, to the seriousness of his demand to actually induct Izuku into his clan. It was a lot to take in from one breath of conversation.

"But. I already have a mistress. A man cannot serve two masters." Izuku paraphrased a quote he couldn't quite remember the origins of.

Cain actually laughed at him.

"Isendra is not your mistress, and while I will take part in your charade for both of your benefit you are to knock it off with me." Cain said. "Isendra, is your mother in all but blood, and you her desperately desired son. That is clear to see for anybody with eyes to see, and the people of this world are not as blind as you seem to think."

Izuku felt himself pale at his choice of words, and the one he chose to emphasize.

"Oh yes. I know what you are. No secrets, remember?" Cain said. "Which you are terrible at keeping anyways. The signs were all too easy to see especially for those who remember the Old Tales.

For the first time, Izuku felt genuine fear towards the man around him, and felt the first signs of the same panic attack he had the day before.

"Relax, you need not fear me revealing your secret, least of all because you know a more damaging one about me." Cain consoled. "Though I know you will never tell anybody about the forbidden arts I have mastered, and that you shall too in time. This is called leverage, you should court such leverage in the future. It is very useful. But before we can begin I will require your oath of secrecy and an induction into my order. You will be protected by the same oath."

Okay, that actually did work to calm Izuku down, but it was a bit much.

"This secrecy, it extends to Isendra, doesn't it?" Izuku asked.

"Indeed. To her you will say that I merely teach you lore, history and philosophy, for I enjoy speaking of these things so. This will be a lie, but you will lie to her about your induction as a Horadrim." Cain explained. "Let me be clear. Mine will be a true apprenticeship. I am not your father, nor grandfather nor friend. I am your Master. Period. And you are not to practice my teachings without my supervision nor continue your habit of experimenting with magic in the heat of battle, or at least not the magic I will be teaching you. In case Isendra failed to properly impart the danger of such magic, let me be even clearer. It is the most forbidden form of magic for a reason. Many reasons. It is easy to make irreversible mistakes that utterly destroy your mind, and is never to be used on another person."

Izuku nodded gravely at the explanation, and knew from his own world the danger of quirks to do with telepathy, or empathy, or other esp types. Rare as they may be.

"I do not expect you to make your oath now. It will require consideration. But I also recognize your need. As such, I will teach a few things today for free." Cain offered. "I will specifically teach you three things today. It is a good number to start with."

Izuku bowed deeply in gratitude.

"Sit. Learn." Cain ordered.

Izuku did so, sitting cross-legged in front of the man that would soon be his true master.

"The first thing to know about the mind, is that it reflects the body, and vice versa. You are what you think, but you also are what you do. So, my first lesson is this." He said seriously, before giving him the most grandfatherly smile he had ever seen. "Smile."

Izuku did so, but a bit unwillingly, as he couldn't stop his own smile from appearing while he laughed at the sudden change from seriousness and the unexpectedness of his command.

"Good start. Smiling and laughing, even when not genuine, can cure fear, sadness and, most unbelievably of all, physical illness." Cain explained. "Smile when you are afraid, smile when you are sad, smile when you are alone facing the totality of the forces of hell, and make them shudder."

This was starting to sound like what he imagined a lecture from All Might to sound like. And it was Awesome. He continued smiling as Cain continued his lesson.

Cain raised a finger.

"This does not only apply to smiling. All that you do with your body, your mind and emotions will reflect. If you clasp your hands into a tight fist as if out of anger, your mood will reflect that. If you haunch over yourself as if shy or humiliated, your confidence will shatter as if it were genuine. Remember this always. That is the first lesson." Cain finished.

He continued.

"You seem to have a handle on that one, so onto the second lesson, and this one you may have to write down." Cain said.

He waited for Izuku to withdraw his notebook before continuing.

"I need you to memorize three little numbers. Four, seven and eight." Cain said as Izuku wrote them down. "This is the first and most important breathing technique for meditation. You inhale for four seconds, hold your breath for seven, then exhale for eight. This will bring calm to your mind and relaxation to your body. When the next thoughts of your home that is lost to you feel overwhelming, do this technique. When you are ready we shall practice." Cain instructed. "Take a few deep breaths first."

Izuku put his journal away and did as instructed. Sitting up straighter in a more comfortable position before taking a few deep breaths.

"Breath in. One. Two. Three. Four. Hold it. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six Seven. Now Exhale. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Now do it again. One…"

And so they repeated the breathing exercise. Five times. Then ten. Soon Izuku felt himself sinking into the ground as if in quicksand, or a waterbed, and knew if somebody were to lift him up by the middle he would sag like a cat being picked up.

"How do you feel?" Cain asked.

"Good." Izuku asked, eyes still closed.

"Well, snap out of it. I need you to be your usual boisterous self for this next lesson." Cain said.

Izuku opened his eyes and tried to stand up, stumbling as he did so in his overly-relaxed state. He eventually shook himself free from the hypnotized state he was in, and that's what he recognized it as, before focusing on Cain.

"For this next one, it will be the first unorthodox skill that you may not see the immediate benefit of, but I will need to trust in my methods." Cain warned before pulling a small box out of his pocket. "For your third lesson, I will teach you how to cheat at cards."

He opened the box to reveal a deck of fifty two cards, with four coats just like from his world. He made a mental note of yet another similarity and possible cross-pollination between their worlds before returning to the moment.

"Have you ever heard of a memory castle?" Cain asked.

"No sir." Said Izuku.

"Sir?" Cain asked almost angrily.

"No master." Izuku corrected.

"That is better. A memory castle is a technique developed for card counting. A way to cheat during a card game. The technique allows for the easy memorization of many things at a time. It improves memory, focus, spatial reasoning skills and organizes one's mind. It can also lend to profitable gambling, which as your elder I must emphasize that you avoid, but like with drink and women I know you will fail to abide such advice in time." Cain explained.

Izuku nodded respectfully but kept his internal disagreement to himself.

"It is a very simple concept. You are to recreate a place in your mind, a place familiar to you. With rooms and furniture and people if possible. A place that, were you stricken blind, you could walk through unaided by a walking stick nor even by putting your hands out to feel your way. Do you have such a place? A childhood home perhaps?" Cain explained.

Izuku nodded. He was already remembering his home in Musutafu, the apartment complex with four identical buildings, magnificent jungle gym, main office and pool. He was already standing in his dining room with his mother digging the crunchy bit of the rice out of the bottom of the steam cooker.

"Does it have to be large?" Izuku asked.

"No. In fact, to start, the smaller, the better. Though, if in time you can expand it, all the better." Cain told him.

Well, with the apartment buildings being identical, he had hundreds of new apartments he could fill with his mind eventually.

"The most important thing is for the place to be vivid in your mind, and be a place of safety and comfort. A place that, under torture, you can escape to like a mental fortress and protect yourself from any corruption." Cain explained.

Izuku nodded. It checked all of the marks.

"You can open your eyes now." Cain instructed.

Izuku obeyed and looked to see that Cain had laid out all of the most important cards. Both jokers, all of the aces, jacks, queens and kings.

"The castle works through association. These are the important cards to make associations with." He said. "In your mind castle, you will represent each one with an important person or thing. For example."

He lifted the king of clubs.

"For the king of clubs, I imagine my father at the head of our dining table, with the queen of clubs, his queen, my mother sitting to his right. I myself am the Jack of clubs sitting to his left." Cain explained. "For the aces, I usually have family heirlooms or irreplaceable objects in my own possession. You only need four. And for the two jokers I usually have enemies or rivals."

Izuku already had him and his parents as the family of hearts and the one family photo of them all as the ace of hearts. He put Drognan and Strom as the jokers, because of how silly they were. For the other queens he put Isendra, Akara and Kashya. For kings he had Warriv and Cain, but didn't dare put Gheed as the final one. He needed to come up with somebody else.

Then his thoughts turned to Alexis. Didn't she deserve a place? He gave her the ace of diamonds to Kashya's queen.

"I see you have already finished most of your associations?" Cain welcomed him back to reality.

"Yes master." Izuku said.

"Do you know how to play solitaire?" He asked next.

"Yes master." Izuku said again.

"Good. I am gifting you these cards. You are to play solitaire before bed each night. You are to practice having those associations in your mind as you play. Have all of these associations in the same room, such as the dining room, to represent those still in the deck. Then create a story when two or more are played. For example, when the king and queen of clubs are in play I imagine my parents going outside to dance in them moonlight away from the party. When Jack is played with them I imagine the three of us, with me as a younger child, sleeping together in their bed after I had a bad dream. So on and so forth." Cain explained. "Once you can do this, you will have mastered the basics of the mind castle. I have more to teach, but not before we swear our oaths. Go, practice all of these three lessons, and make your decision."

Izuku took the deck of cards graciously and, noting the time and seeing how it wasn't even nearing noon yet, bowed and excused himself.

Now in a far improved mood, he wandered the streets of Lut Goleihm applying what he just learned. He smiled all the while he walked, and practiced the breathing technique as he did so. This forced him to walk at a slower place or risk not breathing enough, but made his walk all the more enjoyable.

---

His wandering eventually found him walking past Elzix's and the small, dirty figure standing out front with his arms crossed made him smack himself in embarrassment. Right. He somehow completely forgot about that.

"You said today." The quiet, but now angry, boy whispered accusingly at him.

"I know, I'm sorry. I had an errand to run, but I'm here now! And look, I'll make it up to you. In addition to paying you to clean my clothes, I'll pay for your bath and I'll get you some food.

Deal?" he asked.

He looked at him with a now familiar look of suspicion but eventually nodded. He didn't uncross his arms though.

"Okay, I'll go buy a bath for you from Elzix, he'll take you to the bathing rooms, when I get back with the food I'll give you the clothes to wash, okay?" Izuku clarified. "I think he has an area out back to wash clothes at."

He nodded and followed Izuku inside.

Elzix was in his usual place behind the counter, and looked up to see them approaching with a raised eye.

"Hello sir. This is my new employee, I hired him to do our laundry. I promised to buy him a bath first. Is that allowed?" He asked.

He didn't miss the scandalized look that the boy gave him, nor the even higher eyebrow that Elzix raised at his introduction, but neither were forthcoming with their reasoning.

"It is." Said Elzix. "Same price as ever. Does HE have a name?"

The emphasis on the word "he" was the first clue. When his new employee spoke up it confirmed the hint.

"My name is Myr. Please take me to the women's washroom." Myr said.

She glared at Izuku as Elzix led her away and Izuku just stood there with a smile of confidence he didn't quite feel, but allowed himself to show anyways.

Right then. Onto Atma's!

---

Or not.

He arrived to find a woman sitting outside of the public house crying her eyes out.

She wore an ornate purple and Grey dress, marking her as somebody important. He finally let his smile wane as he watched her wallow in misery. She noticed him.

"Oh. I'm sorry." She said, wiping her face. "You don't need to be seeing someone like me wallow in misery. Did you need some food from my house?"

Izuku put two and two together and realized she must be Atma, owner of the whore/food house. She did kind of look like what he imagined and wealthy merchant lady to look like. The pessimist in him wanted to assume she was merely mourning the loss of her business with all of her workers hiding in the palace, but he was better than that.

"You know, I've had people helping me through my problems since yesterday afternoon, and I think I owe it to the world to pay it forward. Want to tell me what's wrong? I have a bad habit of trying to solve people's problems." Izuku offered.

She laughed at the offer, though not at all in a way as to be doubtful or mean.

"I am a widow, is all. My son and husband were taken from me recently. I thought I was well enough to get back to work, but as you can see, I'm still a mess." She told him.

"Oh. I lost my mother a few months back. Almost a year. What took them?" Izuku said with as much empathy as he could.

"You must have just gotten into town." She said knowingly. "Last month an undead Horadric mage wandered into the city and wreaked havoc. Among his victims were my husband and son."

Izuku blinked. That would explain all of the guards. The coincidence of him being all but inducted into the Horadric order just as said order got its own Blood Raven, a comparison he was certain was more than skin deep, seemed too fateful.

"Oh! I know a member of the Horadrim who I imagine would very much like to resolve that." Izuku told her.

"Well, he's welcome to get permission from Lord Jeryhn to go in the sewers after it and put it out of all of our misery." She told him. "But I would suggest bringing some muscle along. Yes, Radament the Undead is still in the city and we are all terrified. There's no leaving, because the threats out there are worse."

Izuku nodded. Sounded like the Blood Moors all over again. They were clearly on the right track to finding the dark wanderer. The same evil they'd been fighting so far followed him wherever he went. It was nice to at least have a target to focus on, even if they couldn't find it.

"I have put a significant bounty on his head, with additional funds from others who lost people to him. I left the details on a poster inside. You can look over it while eating." Atma told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to stop embarrassing myself in public. I need to go lay down."

Izuku offered her a hand to help her stand up and she took it, before walking around the building to where he presumed a back entrance sat.

Izuku got two bowls of food, paying extra for the bowls themselves under condition to be refunded when he returned the bowls, then walked back to Elzix's place.

He arrived to find Myr waiting for him. Now that she was properly washed, she actually looked like a girl now. If you squinted and looked REALLY hard. Okay, no, not really. Not to him, anyways.

"Here you go. Food, as promised." Izuku said.

They both ate in silence, save for the noise that the girl with no table manners made while eating. She sure could down it. Were they sure she was a girl?

They were soon finished and Izuku excused himself, going upstairs. He grabbed his dirty clothes, which was most of them, and put them into an empty burlap sack he kept for the occasion. He then went over to the next room over where Isendra was holed up and knocked on her door.

"What is it, Izuku?" She called out.

"I'm doing the laundry." He said.

"One moment." She said.

Lo and behold, a moment later she emerged with her own burlap sack of dirty clothes.

"Come speak with me when it's all finished." She told him.

"Yes, mistress." He said.

She closed the door on him and he left.

When he got back downstairs he handed Myr the two bags of clothes.

"When you're finished, you should be able to find me in room seventeen. Then I'll pay you… wait, we didn;t agree on pay. Um." He said.

He had to think on that. What was a fair wage for an hour or two of work? Especially with the inflated prices out here where meals cost ten gold minimum.

"is fifty gold pieces fair?" He asked, turning to Elzix questioningly.

He made a motion upward with his thumb as if to say "keep going"

"A hundred gold pieces?" He said next.

Elzix nodded to that.

"A hundred gold pieces it is." He declared. "Every three days, more if I have to go on a trip or need a rush job. Sound good?"

Myr didn't answer, but took the two bags from him and walked to the back door all the same.

He shrugged, taking it for a yes. Seeing the two bowls still on the table where he had left them, he scooped them up and walked back to Atma's to return them. Getting his refund, he figured he had a couple hours of down time before he had to return, and he decided it was time to practice what he'd learned.

He found a table at the back and practiced playing solitaire.

---

"Cassia has been bothering me all day." Isendra told him. "She has been especially dismissive of you, and I would advise you to avoid her at all costs."

Izuku guessed that just avoiding the woman or telling her off was something she wasn't allowed to do for some social reason. That or she was just too prideful and felt the need to show off her superiority to the woman.

"Now, I want to talk to you about the next leg of your journey." She said. "You are nearing the point of learning higher magics, and the way you think about magic will have to change completely. Up until now you have based your spells off of natural laws, this is good. But the higher tiers pay little heed to natural law. When you begin learning spells such as the meteor, or blizzard, or lightning you will understand this."

Izuku nodded, he thought he understood.

"True high magic pays no heed to natural law at all. Such as hydra, frozen orb. But before we get into any of these you will need to be accustomed to the spiritual and symbolic nature of fire and lightning and ice, and more. So from now on you must meditate on these things. What does fire symbolize to different people? From the cook to the blacksmith, to the arsonist or scribe working by candlelight. I need you to think deeply on these things, long and hard, before you can even begin trying to cast such magics." She continued.

He nodded, waiting for her to go on.

"That is all. Go no. Journal and meditate on fire specifically from now on." She ordered.

Izuku bowed and exited her room, walking across the hall to number seventeen.

There he found his dry clothes neatly folded. Myr had taken her time in washing them, but they dried in no time from the hot desert sun. They smelled divine, as linen tended to do when dried in the sun, even without proper detergent to perfume it.

He put the last of them away and sat on the middle of his bed.

He began practicing the four, seven, eight breathing technique and thought of fire. At first he imagined in his mind a furnace, being filled with air by a bellow in rhythm with his breath. As it went on he relaxed deeper and deeper. Then, he found himself sitting in front of the small fireplace back home.

Snow covered the railing outside through the patio windows and the heat from the single log that fit in the fireplace became the sum totality of his world.

Then, the power went out.

"Oh no." His mother said from the couch beside him where she was curled up, sharing a blanket with him. "I'll get the candles."

She sighed in annoyance at having to get from under the warm blanket and breathed out and "ooooh" at the cold that greeted her outside of it.

He watched, smiling, as his mother dug the candles and matchbook out of the dresser underneath the television, and placed them around the living room. She lit each one as she placed them. When she finished, she rushed back over to the couch, slid underneath the blanket and held him close to her for warmth.

They stayed like that for the rest of the dream. Basking in the light and warmth of fire, and the comfort of one another.

He was awoken by a scream.

He registered two things. One, had fallen asleep while meditating. Two, it was unreasonably cold. Even for the desert at night in the winter and the windows wide open. He then recognized the scream as Isnedra's and rushed out of his room towards hers.

He found it covered in ice, almost to the point of being sealed shut. He placed a hand on it and willed the element of fire to destroy the ice blocking his path. It worked, and the door opened at his touch.

Then, he felt rough hands grasp him from behind and push him through. He readied a firebolt to hurl at his attacker only to see Elzix closing the door behind him, and turning that now familiar raised-eyebrow expression on Izuku. Izuku canceled the firebolt.

"Wow." Elzix said. "Your apprentice sure can lose control of a spell, can't he?"

Izuku looked around to find the whole of Isendra's room covered in a thick layer of ice. To the point stalagmites and stalactites were still growing from the ceiling and floor.

Isendra was huddled in her bed, breathing hard and with hands on her face to hide her shame. She nodded at the lie Elzix had just provided her.

"To be clear, I felt a powerful wave of mana and came upstairs to find Isendra comforting her apprentice who just lost control of an ice spell he was practicing. Is this correct Izuku?" Elzix asked pointedly.

"Yes sir." Izuku said, agreeing to the alibi.

"Good. Because an apprentice who can't control his magic can be forgiven. A master who can't? Will not be ignored as the threat to herself and others is too great." Elzix explained. "Also that trident carrying bitch is banned for bothering my patrons. Let her know if she comes harassing you again."

He turned around and opened the door to leave, but had one last thing to say to them.

"Get rid of this ice and expect a hefty fine for damages in the morning. Izuku, sleep with your mistress for the rest of the night…" He paused at the unintended and looked like he was going to correct himself, before shrugging. "Eh, fuck it, shag her too, I don't care."

He then left them.

It was a long night of comforting her after that.

---

This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by Magikuser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.

Prices:

$25 per 1000 words, with some wiggle room for fanfiction.

$25 per 500 words for original fiction, or anything else that is not fanfiction, as well as for smut/fetish material.

Prices subject to change in the future. Check with him.

 

[grime]

It seems they both have their issues, although aside from issues with her clan and that trident bitch I'm not sure what's responsible for such turmoil in Isendra. It also seems that if Isendra truly considers Izuku a surrogate son, then they could benefit from more communication between them emotionally speaking. I don't really believe it though, their relationship is more complicated than just mother and surrogate son. As amusing as Elzix's words were, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Izuku entered a "physical" relationship with Isendra in the future.

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 20:

Meeting Lord Jerhyn​

---

Izuku was woken by Isendra knocking on his door.

He at first struggled to remember leaving her room the night before, but assumed he must have fallen asleep first. Had she carried him back to his own room? Cane wasn't kidding, theirs really was a deep relationship

"Are you ready to go see Lord Jerhyn? We had best not be late for such a gracious invitation." His mistress' voice came in through the door.

"Yes mistress." Izuku called out.

He got dressed quickly and opened the door to let her in. Isendra took one look at him and nodded.

"Good. You have the sense about you to wear the new, nice clothes to a meeting with a lord and fellow warriors. But take your staff along as well. It is a symbol of your status as a warrior mage."

Izuku retrieved Ash Bane, who had gone little used save as a walking stick for some months now, and followed Isendra out. Both made sure to lock their rooms behind them before exiting Elzix' place.

It was early in the morning, and yet the streets were alive with activity all the same. The first catches were being brought in by the fishermen while other stalls were being set up by yawning women and the elderly. He thought he spotted Myr down a side alley, but it could have simply been another street rat sneaking about.

The palace was a long walk, but an easy one. On account of it was the largest thing on the skyline. IT was impossible to miss. When the pair arrived it was to be greeted at the entrance by two imposing men. Both wore similar red sashes around their necks and identical armor, reminiscent of mongolian armor to Izuku but studded with steel. The only difference he could tell between them was that one wore a christmas hat and leather gloves while the other carried a spear in his bare hands.

"Isendra and Izuku?" The man with the spear asked.

"Yes, we are here on instruction from the gate guards." Isendra said, bowing.

Izuku mirrored her bow.

"My name is Kaelan. I am the head of the palace guard and I am to escort guests to where you may break your fast." The man with the spear introduced. "This is Greiz, captain of the local mercenaries, whom you can expect to be working with in time. For now, if you would kindly follow me."

They did so, marching through the reinforced front doors down a long hallway of guards and similarly reinforced doors, if less grand ones. Soon they turned down a much nicer hallway, this one with a wall of stone on one side, and beautiful white arches on the other. Vining plants grew down and up said arches and beyond them was a lavish garden where many tables had been set out, each covered in platters of food.

Instead of chairs, each table had about them many cushioned seats, most of which were already occupied by some of the most imposing men and women Izuku had ever seen. He recognized Strom and Drognan, along with that platinum blonde-haired woman that wouldn't leave his mistress alone.

"Please. Find a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the food provided. My lord will be with you all when you are all properly fed and watered." Kaelan instructed.

They did as he said, making sure to avoid the amazonian and any scene she might cause if Isendra and he sat too close, and getting comfortable in their cushions.

The height of luxury in these parts seemed to be measured in freshness, as there were few things that could be considered dishes. Instead, fresh, ripe and strangely beautiful fruits and vegetables made up most of the food with some baklava and soups. In fact, the soups made up all of the meats and spices, with beans and lentils making up as much of them as meat.

He noticed that the only thing to drink was water, tea and Turkish coffee. He didn't mind this, but he caught a few of the others around eyeing the preferred beverages with disdain.

It was six in the morning, people. The sun hadn't even fully risen over the ocean yet. Did they really need to be plied with mead and wine this early? Or perhaps they just expected such from these kinds of functions?

Izuku noticed nobody reached for any food, seeing as there were no dishes or utensils he assumed they must all have been waiting to be served. He further noted a few last stragglers trickling in, led by Kaelan, to fill the remaining seats. Among them was Cane himself, who looked at him knowingly before finding a seat a few tables over in a position that they could look at each other. It seemed he and Isendra had been among the last to arrive.

A bell rang when the last person sat, and new doors opened from which a host of servants came through. They were male and female, but the former could be mistaken for the latter because they were so effeminate. He decided to simply assume they were eunuchs and leave it at that.

Musicians followed with them, taking up a roost on a stone platform on the north of the garden, where they began to play as the servants served.

They brought with them trays of cups, plates, bowls, eating utensils and serving utensils like ladles. The servants then walked around, providing each person with all of these, save for the serving utensils, before then going around and putting food in people's plates and bowls, and filling their cups, before standing aside to wait for further requests from the guests.

The uncomfortable quiet ceased, replaced with metal on glass, poor table manners and much discussion. Izuku went to war with some of the lentil soup and berries. The blueberries were especially juicy, and having real beef in a stew was divine compared to all of the dry meats and fish he'd become accustomed to.

"So, young one." Said a thin man who was more scar than skin or muscle. "What great, heroic exploits have you embarked on to warrant your presence here?"

A burly, and oddly hairy, woman next to him smacked his shoulder.

"I wanted to let him breathe and relax a little before we pounced on him with questions!" She chastised him, before turning on Izuku. "I'm sorry dear, but you are the youngest person in the room and everyone is going to be naturally curious."

Izuku was more taken aback by the viking with an x-chromosome having the personality of a coddling grandmother than the initial question. He looked around and, sure enough, the next youngest person was a older teenage girl wearing a loincloth and not much else on the other side of the room.

Ignoring all of this, he thought on the question. What exploits were his proudest achievements so far? A scarred but unbearably kind rogue wearing nothing but a white, see-through gown came to his mind unbidden.

"I once saved six sisters of the Sightless Eye from being tortured to death and turned into undead, demonic thralls." He said. "That's probably the most heroic thing I've ever done. Followed by rescuing a wise man from a months-long imprisonment by demons."

Isendra face-plamed but he could see she was clearly smirking beneath her hands. She was terrible at hiding that, although, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what he'd said wrong. He wasn't lying! Why did the people in earshot look confused?

"That's… very commendable work, young man." Said the viking woman a little too sweetly.

He didn't appreciate the condescending tone of that one.

"He is being modest." Isendra said in an angry, but level tone. "His greatest achievement, along with mine, was defeating Andarial, the Maiden of Anguish, in two-on-one combat. Banishing her from this realm and freeing the Blood Moors from the evil that has gripped it for a year now. It was nearly at the expense of his life."

A few looked impressed by her boast, most within earshot looked unconvinced by the claim. One man, the largest there when counting large in terms other than muscle, outright scoffed. He looked a lot like the monkey from that animated movie with the genie in the way he dressed.

"If a child could manage to kill her, then I'm sure some of us could have done it in half the time." The man slurred, half drunk from wherever he'd been before. "And probably without getting injured."

The man stared at Izuku seriously after this grave insult, then continued.

"Still. I can't completely disparage you. You must be skilled indeed to have survived against one of the vaunted "Lesser Evils", as if there was anything lesser about their wretchedness. When most die against minor demons. You're on track to deserving a place among the company here, if you don't already." Said the drunkard. "But until I see you in action and am wowed, I'm going to assume the pretty lady did most of the heavy lifting."

The man made of scars scoffed at the end of the drunkard's speech.

"Don't mind Geglash, he always starts with venom then turns to honey. He is trying to fight against a bad case of permanent pessimism." He explained. "He is an acquired taste, but a much better one than he used to be, I assure you."

"Even so," said a man across the table. "It must have taken you great bravery for you to fight, where most warriors would flee, and greater skill to survive. I say I believe you, and can't wait to see what you can do. But I have to ask, why did you boast about these other exploits instead of that one?"

Izuku shrugged.

"I'm not as proud of that one. It was just another fight, eradicating filth like any other. They asked me what my most heroic exploits were, not my greatest battles. And I always felt it far more heroic to save people from death or horrible suffering, and to put to rest souls in torment, than to kill an enemy." He explained, without even having to think on it.

Isendra once again face palmed, this time with a clearly proud smile on her face while a few of the warriors around him looked ashamed. The scar man lifted his hands to his face, looking almost wistful, as he examined himself. It was not difficult to imagine how Izuku's words might have affected him, nor how he got so many scars.

He noticed somebody across from him on another table looking intently at him, and glanced up to see Cane nodded in approval. Did the man have superhuman hearing or something?

There was another chime.

Izuku looked around to see a few of the warriors about him suddenly develop even more atrocious table manners, were such a thing possible. He looked to a nearby servant, a veiled woman who barely looked old enough to be considered a woman.

She leaned down and whispered to him.

"That was to indicate that breakfast shall end in five minutes. So have your fill." She said. "Is there something you want more of?"

Izuku looked over to the platter of baklava, which he hadn't had any of yet.

"Say no more, young master." She said with mirth in her voice.

He didn't care if people thought him childish for eating sweets. And boy, did he eat them. He'd never had baklava before, but it was like eating a solid chunk of the flaky bits of a croissant. If said chunk of flaky bits were soaked in honey and syrup and had some nuts ground up and thrown in there.

He ate them until he was nearly sick, knowing that while he had missed good, red meat and vegetables, he wouldn't get much more sweets in the foreseeable future. If ever. They were arguably better than the stuff he could get in Japan, unlike everything else. He supposed that could be boiled down to fruits and vegetables not losing quality from being mass produced, but sweets did. Between the manufacturing process and preservatives.

Had he ever had any real, homemade sweets? Definitely not with chocolates, those were never made from scratch on valentines day but were just made of store-bought chocolate that girls melted down and poured into molds. Same for baked goods. Mass-produced flour, sugar and the like. The intricacies of handmade flout, sweetening from less than perfect sugar or salt.

He worried he might be spoiled on properly made food here in Sanctuary.

A final chime rang and the servants came around to take away their dishes. Izuku handed his to the nice lady who served him baklava. He tried to thank her again, but his mouth was too dry. Thankfully the servants left the water and tea on the tables, along with their cups.

Why was all of the tea mint?

The servants vanished back through the doors they came through and the musicians followed them.

"All rise for Lord Jerhyn, Sultan of Lut Gohlein." Kaelan announced.

They all did so, standing at attention with eyes downcast out of respect. Izuku did his best to mirror those around him.

The man who walked in was nothing like he expected. He was far less gaudy than he imagined the sultan of such a place to be. His clothes were clean and well-fitted, sure. He wore a sultan's fez and carried himself with dignity, but aside from that there was nothing overly kingly about him. He did not wear excessive jewelry, for one, save for the golden hilt of his sword and a spot of it on his crown. He supposed the purple die of part of his clothes was a showing of great wealth too.

The most striking thing about him, to Izuku's mind, was that he didn't look… soft. From afar he could tell the man had calluses on his hands from hard work, that his skin had been weather by sin, wind and sand. This man knew what real work was, and Izuku couldn't help imagining him helping down by the docks when workers were needed, fighting threats to his city beside his guard, and doing his best to remain a part of his people.

This is a man who could work a day in the fields. This was a man who could fight.

"I would like to first give you all a warm, if late, welcome to Lut Gohlein." Lord Jerhyns said. "I'm sure you have all deduced that I did not bring you here to share good news. So you will find it unsurprising to learn that a dire threat now faces Lut Gholein and the Empire."

He paused for dramatic effect. The response he got was silence interspersed with a few bored sniffles and a single cough from somewhere behind Izuku. Jerhyn continued.

"An oasis town nearby has fallen to corruption, and begun the process of demonification. It must be purged." He explained.

That time he did get a reaction. Mostly solemn sighs, like those of a hard worker in a really dirty and difficult job being told they need to pull triple shifts for a month. Or maybe a young man being told he had to put down his dog?

"My scouts have reported the extent of the corruption, and the Vizjerei Mage-Lord Drognan agrees with my strategists." Jerhyn finished.

Wait. Mage-Lord? That sounded like a high, potentially highest, title for a mage. And Drognan had still taken the time to go around in order to help a stranger, let alone a child, feel better? He had to wonder about that.

But the role of demon eradication was as unexpected to Izuku as a pest exterminator being called in to squash some roaches.

"It is an unfortunate necessity, but we must scorch the earth and salt it. You are all hereby drafted into my service, a right I have never before made use of, but one I have as Sultan. But know that I do not place this role on you lightly. I do not enjoy the prospect of what I am asking you to do, many of the unturned survivors deserve none of what we are to visit upon them, and yet you must kill them to the last woman and child. Leave no survivors." Jerhyn declared.

Izuku gaped and readied to respond when he felt Isendra clasp him, painfully, by the wrist. He looked up to see a solemn, defeated look on her face as she shook her head. Hers matched the faces of everyone else gathered and he knew all of them were hurting, they just weren't naive enough to be angry too.

"Preparations have been made for a three week campaign. One to travel in each direction and one for combat. We will be leaving at sunset." Jerhyn sad. "Just know that you will be compensated. I pledge my support to any and all that come to the aid of Lut Gholein, as such, whether it be wealth, passage or honor, all are due to you."

---

Izuku felt just as defeated as everybody else had looked by the time they returned to the inn and walked into his original room to pack up. They canceled the remainder of their stay and planned to sleep for the rest of the day for the journey ahead.

"Izuku really, it is a necessary and solemn duty." Isendra said from the doorway.

He turned around to see her closing it behind her.

"It is a sad fact of life that when one delves into evil magics, it doesn't just effect the caster. It can poison the surrounding are and people as well." She explained. "It's not uncommon, but it's not talked about in polite company for good reason. Because the only course of action is to cauterize the wound entirely."

"Even the innocent people who haven't been corrupted?" Izuku asked.

"We cannot know for certain who is or who isn't. People have taken mercy on those they thought were clean and almost always proved wrong in the past, and the infection spread a second or third time." She explained. "They can fake it really well. It's difficult in the extreme to tell the demonic from the clean, to the point you can effectively assume all are."

"Why don't they choose to simply kill the confirmed infected and quarantine the uninfected?" He pleaded.

She shook her head.

"It's not about choice. It's about ability. I know you come from a place of seemingly infinite wealth and manpower. This is not that place. We cannot afford, financially, to contain the seemingly safe for the rest of their lives. Let alone guarantee that we have the physical and magical might to do so." She explained.

He understood it. He didn't like it, but he understood it. If vaccines didn't exist and quarantine couldn't be guaranteed for a virulent disease with insane fatality rate, there is only one alternative. Kill all of the infected and those who came in contact with them, then burn it all.

"Can we refuse?" He asked.

"No." She said. "A sultan, king or any other ruler has every power to enlist any person within their lands. We agreed to such by entering, trading with, living and accepting his own hospitality in said land. The only way to get out of taking part in this would be to go on the run as outlaws, which would be certain death for us."

Izuku looked at that claim suspiciously.

"No place would give us sanctuary. All cities, towns, caravans and ships will know of us. But they would in all likelihood sent the Viz-Jaq'taar after us." She warned. "They are colloquially called the mage slayers. Assassins specializing in dealing with people exactly like you and I. They would also likely send the Khral-Harzhek order after us as well, as us defecting would lead people to suspect that we have been corrupted. This is all assuming we make it past the gate without being executed."

Every day the gaps in Izuku's understanding of this world seemed to grow. All this time he had been assuming that most of Sanctuary and its people were like those of the Blood Moors. Weak, small in number, disorganized and incapable of dealing with these threats.

He should have known better just from the strength of character and skill of the Sisters of the Sightless eye how incorrect that was. They had only been in such dire straits because they had been blindsided and overwhelmed. Other people were surely just as strong, if not far stronger, but also better organized and well-funded.

His threat assessment of the people on this planet just increased by an order of magnitude. And if these demons are as big of a threat to all of the rest of Sanctuary as they were to the Blood Moors, then he ought to heighten his estimation of them just as much.

"How powerful can sorcerers become?" He eventually asked.

"There truly is no limit." Isendra answered. "But it is common for them to be an order of magnitude more powerful than me. I am brilliant, but young. There are other brilliant people out there. And many of them have lived thrice as much life as me. You've seen the snowball effect of your improvement just in this last year. Imagine what you could be in fifty years. Such men and women are out there."

Izuku sighed. Yeah, that was about what he suspected.

"We really need to get me caught up on geography, religion and politics." Izuku said. "All I knew of Sanctuary was the Blood Moors. And they gave me the wrong impression. I need to know who I may fight wars with or beside. I never considered until now that my war wasn't just with hell. Other wars, between men, are ones I may have to fight as well."

She nodded.

"Get some rest. We leave this afternoon to buy extra rations and head out. After one last bath, of course."

---

Isendra and Izuku advanced to the front gate just as the sun was setting.

They were once again among the last to arrive, as the entire street leading up to the front gate was full of the warriors they saw earlier, though now they were dressed for war and packed for it as well. The two sorcerers had brought enough rations to feed themselves for four weeks, and he was sure they had all done the same.

Some even had horses. Drognan was one of them, and he rode over to them as they approached before they got in earshot of others.

"Are you feeling well, young Midoriya." The Mage-Lord asked.

"I'm fine. What happened during lunch didn't happen because of the horrors I fought, and won't come again during war." He explained. "It comes during peace."

The serious man gave him an expression that Izuku almost mistook for pity, but after a moment recognized as understanding.

"That is usually how it is, isn't it? Don't go developing the empty sight. And when we come back, alive, I will introduce you to people I know who can help you cope with that." Drognan told him.

He then turned around and trotted to the front of the army. Izuku and Isendra followed.

 

[CILinkz]

now that Drognan is introduced as Vizjerei i wonder why the story is named after that. Izuku is currently in Isendras care, Cain wants to "secretly" train him into being Horadrim but the story is not named after either. Does he reject Cain after a time? does Isendra die or dissapear and he needs to find a different trainer?

the part that Cain made him swore to not reveal anything always didnt sit right with me so im hoping for a resolution on that front later down the line that makes it feel good again. kinda feels like taking Advantage of Isendras goodwill and Betraying her trust. I know Cain is one of the good guys but thats only bc of my metaknowledge. without that he would be sus as heck. he should be old and wise enough to know what he is doing is not okay and can affect izukus spirit with all that secret keeping.

thats a real interesting story, keep up the good work!

 

[NonsensicalRants]

It seems they both have their issues, although aside from issues with her clan and that trident bitch I'm not sure what's responsible for such turmoil in Isendra. It also seems that if Isendra truly considers Izuku a surrogate son, then they could benefit from more communication between them emotionally speaking. I don't really believe it though, their relationship is more complicated than just mother and surrogate son. As amusing as Elzix's words were, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Izuku entered a "physical" relationship with Isendra in the future.

Click to shrink...

I entirely agree on how their relationship is complicated, but no to the physical intimacy. Big fat no from me dawg, and I think I speak for magiuser here too.

The best comparison I can make for their relationship is Naked Snake and Boss from MGS3

 

[Magikuser]

Chapter 21:

To burn the infection away​

---

Izuku was long since accustomed to the hot sun of the desert and biting winds. Riding a camel as he did so, however, was new and uncomfortable.

They were much smellier creatures than the horse and oxen, but with those he had ridden on the wagon they carried along not on their backs. There was that horse he rode back to the pond which birthed him into this world, but again, he'd had a saddle for that. And the horse didn't smell so bad. Or rock back and forth so much.

Camels suck.

His frozen armor spell was losing its battle against the afternoon sun and so he recast it again. A few meters ahead of him he saw Strom cast a similar spell on himself. Similar but different. Instead of a thin layer of ice, a swirling barrier of excited air swirled around him. Izuku suspected the idea was for the air to wick head off of him instead of outright protecting him from the sun.

"What is that spell?" Izuku asked.

Strom turned around curiously, and smiled.

"It is called cyclone armor. It not only keeps a man cool but protects from and even absorbs elemental assaults on my person, both magical and natural. Fire, wind and ice need not bite me."

A cool breeze swept over them, kicking up a fine sheet of sand that danced over them. They all leaned back on their camels to enjoy the fine relief it brought.

"It is actually much better for hiking up snow capped mountains, and is what my clan mainly uses it for." Strom added. "I didn't get to enjoy that breeze because the armor protected me from it, like it would the frigid winds and snow. It also keeps good visibility from snow and sand."

That did sound useful. Of course, Izuku perked up on one word in particular.

"Can you tell me about your clan's history?" Izuku asked. "Whatever you're comfortable sharing with an outsider, I mean."

"I assume that, with the world being as it is right now, your education into culture, history and languages has been put on hold in favor of combat training?" Strom asked, turning to Isendra.

"You would assume correct. And I'm less happy about it than you are." Isendra told him.

He nodded.

"Well, it's on trips like these that it's best to teach such things. Even though you seem to be using these hours to practice finer control of your spells I will regale you all the same! But don't slack on your deliberately underpowered ice armor practice. That's good training." Strom told him.

Strom hummed a bit before continuing.

"Well the first thing you should know about my clan's history, is that I was banished from said clan specifically for discovering it's lost history. A dark spot in its past. And as I am banished, I am willing to share all of it! I am suffering the price, I may as well enjoy the fruits of my punishment. Strom explained. "My druid clan are kin to the children of Bul Kathos, that much is well known, but we were formed not by that ancient in particular but instead a rival, Esu, who seduced us into elemental magic.

Isendra perked up at this explanation.

"She only taught us the beginnings of elemental magic. We later branched out away from the first druids after being banished by followers of Bul Kathos and their way of physical purity. I was banished prematurely, before learning much of my clan's magic. I only know two animal summoning spells and luckily had hidden my knowledge of the Elemental magics, but that was enough to spare my life and convince my teacher to merely banish me never to return, instead of leaving me to the beasts." Strom finished. "For that mercy, I will always be thankful. But for their rejection of truth and their own inheritance, I shall always hate them."

They were all silent after he finished describing the internal emotional typhoon that was his existence. He was a shockingly open and expressive man.

Isendra was the first to break this silence.

"Are you certain your clan was formed by Esu?" She asked.

"Indeed," Said Strom. "Our writings show that she called herself such. She was a firstborn, a rival to Bul-Kathos."

There was a lot of terminology that still went over Izuku's head here, and he made a point of writing the many new questions in his head down. Isendra continued to stare at Strom, as if staring at an alien artifact.

"That's strange, she never mentioned starting another clan of elemental magic users." Isendra said.

This time Strom ogled at her.

"Wait, are you saying… Esu is alive? That you've met her?" Strom asked.

"Oh yes." Said Isendra. "She visits my clan's main fortress all the time. Should the world become more peaceful again I would be overjoyed to introduce you."

Cassia rudely interjected with her usual demeaning snort.

"As if one of the Firstborn would be interested in meeting a failure who was banished from his clan." Cassia said. "If what you say is true, then why would the creator of your clan want anything to do with such a pathetic man?"

Izuku felt the bite of Cassia's words on Strom's behalf, but he merely smiled and raised an eyebrow at the woman. Most shockingly the smile was a genuine one, and it reached his eyes. When he spoke, it shone through into his voice as well.

"Funny. You demanded so very much of this pathetic man the other night." Strom said.

The otherwise beautiful blonde twisted her face into an ugly expression and turned the reigns on her horse to gallop away for another group.

Izuku felt further retribution was in order.

"So THAT'S what all that demonic screeching was about." Izuku said, deliberately ignoring the Isendra's look of horror and raised her hand commanding him to stop. "I thought Andarial had come back and picked up the hobby of skinning cats alive while singing opera."

Cassia heard every word, and the scandalized glare she threw back at him warmed him like a cup of hot cocoa and a snowy day. She kicked her horse into a full trot to get away from Stroms uproarious laughter. Izuku looked to Isendra to find her face was beat red as she bit into her own knuckle trying to hold back her laughter, and had to stop breathing altogether to accomplish the feat.

"You. Really. Shouldn't have said that." She warned him in an unusually high pitched voice, brought about by her suffocating herself.

"She's right." Said Strom. "And as a bit of further advice, you also shouldn't kiss and tell. I normally never would, but I am deeply ashamed of myself for having kissed that one."

---

It was nighttime when they arrived at an overlook glaring down upon the small town they were sent to destroy. Even from afar, they could hear the screaming and the crying.

Every single person, from hired rogue, to trained soldier and masterful mage wore expressions of stone that betrayed nothing of their inner turmoil.

"The place is walled on most sides." Said Isendra. "I can create a grant barrier of ice on the sides where it is not. It will trap them all inside, leaving one or two entrances for you all to flood in and the infected to flood out into our swords and arrows."

Grognan nodded.

"Then your little pyromaniac and I can reign fireballs from outside to destroy as much cover as possible, what little will remain shall not avail them for long." The red-garbed mage added.

How did Izuku manage to have a reputation as a pyromancer even out here? Was he more famous than he realized.

Thinking on it, he realized he had traveled with the caravan for three months. More than enough time for word of the twelve year old who killed Andarial to travel far and wide. He probably had Gheed to thank for that.

"When that barrage ends, us sorcerers can run in to join the fray." Drognan continued.

"I would hold off on that." Said Isendra. "Once you finish the barrage of fireballs, I should be finished preparing a meteor to strike the city. The more devastation we cause from afar, the less…"

She took a deep, shuddering breath,

"The less we have to suffer witnessing up close." She finished, unable to meet anybody's eyes.

Not that anybody else was trying to meet hers.

"You can cast a meteor strike?" Cassia asked, her usual antagonism replaced with what might have been confused for respect.

"With a few minutes of preparation, yes." Isendra said.

"Then you will all have your hands busy." Said Strom. "While you do that, I can send a molten boulder spell to destroy any buildings you miss and block an extra avenue of escape, saving you the effort of an ice wall. But I will need a vanguard to guard my flank."

"And you shall have one in me and any of these mercenaries who would join me." Cassia said, looking about at the nearly one hundred mercenaries within earshot.

The best stepped forward to crowd around her as a rallying point.

"Once all of that is over though, and Vanguard makes it inside, Izuku, Lady Isendra and Drognan should join us inside." Said Geglesh. "Seal the way behind you to prevent any escape."

"And leave some archers and swordsmen interspersed at a distance to catch any that might." Said Izuku. "Any self-admitted cowards ready to volunteer for that task?"

He actually got some chuckles for his joke, and with the mood sufficiently lightened several did raise their hands. Some of the younger, or especially old, volunteered to be at the very back to pick off stragglers.

"Go now. Form an evenly dispersed circle around the city from afar. Far enough to see any approaching." Geiz ordered his men.

These men left and did as instructed.

Those remaining looked between each other, as if waiting for somebody to have an additional stratagem or word of wisdom, or encouragement or even a justification for the distasteful task they had been assigned. None came.

---

"Okay. So. Bombarding a small city with fireballs..." Drognan tried to begin with his instruction as if he was preparing to give a lecture on earth science.

He then breathed out in frustration and leaned back into the rocky alcove they had found for themselves. He seemed defeated despite the battle not having even begun yet. The signal was the erection of ice walls. Thankfully said signals hadn't started yet.

While the rest of the forces sent to eliminate this plague had either circled evenly around the small city or else prepared themselves for storming it, the two of them had crept around the cliffs overlooking it in order to find a good vantage point. There were plenty to be found, as two sides of the city were built against the rocky faces of cliffs as natural buttresses. These cliffs gave the pair of elemental mages a perfect vantage point, looking down upon the buildings with sadness and disdain.

"Okay!" Drognan started over, his voice now more forlorn and angry. "You are going to want to aim for the buildings closest to us first, then focus outwards towards where Isendra is positioned on the far corner. That way, when she called her meteor strike, she eliminated the most people possible. That way we have fewer to take care of face to face."

Izuku understood and nodded in agreement.

White light erupted upwards from the multitude of city gates along the two walls. Even taller walls of ice covered the few exits and entrances to the city.

The pair began their bombardment.

---

Isendra stood there, panting and sweating, trying to remain conscious after dropping a meteor on the front of the city. The extra word of rebuilding the ice walls to cover the new gaps in the stone walls of the city took even more out of her.

She hadn't even gone into the fray and yet she had already drunken through her supply of mana potions. Her over-eagerness to be done with this distasteful assignment was causing mistakes.

"Mistress!" She heard her apprentice call out.

She turned to see Izuku running southward along the wall, past the breach she had created and promptly covered up. He was similarly out of breath and exhausted as she was. She had seen the hailstorm of fireballs, and had taken great pride in knowing which was her apprentices and which was the elder caster. The size difference made it obvious. Not that she would ever say size was everything. But Izuku's were bigger and surprisingly more powerful.

"Follow me! Stay close. Treat them like any other undead or demon, for that is what they all are!" She lied to her boy, knowing that he recognized her words as such.

She didn't give him time to respond or even think on her question. She charged through the gap she deliberately left in the ice while and felt him follow from behind her. The mercenaries closed in behind them to shoot or cut down anything that may escape.

The city was alive with fire and shambling horrors. Men, women and children twisted by the dark powers into a mockery of their former selves.

Limbs and fingers were stretched far too long, to the point of tendons snapping and muscle tearing, and the wounds of the skin similarly ripping still bled as they crawled on all fours to attack anything, including one another. One saw them as soon as they entered, and bared its teeth. The misshapen jaw had stretch such that each was so far placed from each other as to leave black gums separated by molars that had been filed down into fangs.

Madness filled their eyes and corruption grew on their skin like vining plants or mold with the occasional horn or tuft of fur sprouted.

It screeched and charged at them on all fours, aiming to bite and claw at them. They vaporized it into dusted charcoal with a pair of fireballs.

The screech and fireballs got the attention of the surrounding corrupted and they swarmed. They did not do so quickly or efficiently, as few of them could move at a respectable pace due to their mutilated forms. Some were lengthened, some were twisted into something resembling a human rope, others were made to be backwards. These last ones had to crawl on their backs with their hands and legs turned in the wrong direction while their shoulder blades and pelvises jutted forward on their torsos.

She and her apprentice mowed them down with novas and ice blasts and so much fire, as if to burn away the horrific sights before them.

The pair advanced into the underground areas of the city to find it had once been a beautiful oasis, with the underground being tunneled and tiled into bath houses and eateries. It outright put Jerhyn's palace to shame, even with the walls painted, as they now were, with blood and gore and ash.

There were far more of the corrupted down below. Whether they had taken shelter down her to deliberately hid away from the spell onslaught or if they had merely been down here coincidentally to begin with, she did not know. Nor did she care, merely returning to her slaughter of the people now reduced to less than animals.

They did not scream in pain as they died, only ever screeching in aggression or moaning pitifully as they shambled about. There was still a great deal of screaming and weeping, and it took her far too long to realize it was hers.

She did so upon breaking into an empty bath room the size and shape of a play theater that had been barricaded from the inside and stopped herself. With no enemy in sight for the first time in what must have been an hour she collected herself, if for no other reason than for her apprentice's sake so as not to see her in such a state any longer.

She turned around to console him and felt all of the blood in her body run cold.

"Izuku?" She called out.

There was no response.

She rushed back into the thin, ornately windowed hallway and scanned every inch of the piles of dead, unmutated, and rotting people. There was no sign of her apprentice.

"Izuku!" She yelled, now in a panic.

She was answered not from the direction she came, but behind her in the pooling water of the bath theater. A large crash into the water as if a piece of the ceiling caved in.

She turned around to see that something large had indeed fallen from the ceiling, but it was a fleshy, rotting thing the size of an elephant. Pieces of it were still connected to the ceiling, like lengths of intestines.

The mass rose and revealed itself to be women; Many of them, each clearly pregnant before the corruption, and now molded together like an army of clay figurines smashed together and tossed aside. The black growths of corruption filled the valleys where their flesh combined and from it many horns, larger than most she had seen so far, erupted from painful-looking sores.

Isendra readied her staff as the many mouths of the creature all screamed in unison and the mass of limbs charged.

---

Izuku sprinted back up to the surface from the subway-like bath houses beneath the city. It was not by the entrance to the underground that he and Isendra had gone down together, but it was the only one he could find after getting separated.

He reached the surface not to fresh air, but to the smell of burnt katsu.

It seemed many more of the corrupted and demonically twisted people had shambled back up to the surface. This explained why the path he had taken back up was so empty of the beastly people, but now he was faced with a wall of them.

"Ice them!" He heard a loud, booming voice from above and behind him.

Izuku hurled an ice nova forward, which he commanded to only push forward and not behind him. Geglesh the boulder came tumbling over the railing to the underground passage with sword in one hand, wineskin in the other, and he used both to shatter the frozen abominations like fine china.

"We need to get you somewhere with cover!" Gaglesh ordered.

They ran, not away from the enemies, for there was no direction they could go without running onto such. No, they ran towards the burned but still standing ruins of stone homes and shops seeking a hold out from the onslaught. They found one, more western in style than middle-eastern, but still standing and not on fire. With these traits, it won by default.

Gaglesh kicked the door down, and in doing so also shattered the bookcase that had been barricading it.

"Ice wall, kid!" Gaglesh ordered.

Izuku caught his meaning and filled the doorway with a thick wall of ice, large enough to keep the corrupted out for hours. The other windows were still boarded up but he didn't take any chances, covering each and every possible entrance in ice thick enough to stop a bullet.

These creatures were weak, only deadly due to the many pointed bits on them. He hadn't encountered any mutated into a form able to wield magic, or retain their strength, or worse, increase in strength. But he couldn't rule it out.

He turned to Gaglesh to see him taking a long drink from his wineskin. The look on his face did not indicate that it was pleasant going down.

"The upstairs?" Izuku asked.

He nodded but held out a hand to stop Izuku from going up there. He stopped his wineskin and took point, climbing the stairs with his sword drawn. Izuku followed closely behind.

They arrived on the second floor to find the windows and patio door similarly barricaded, but Gaglesh took no liberties. He slowly walked in, as if to advance on the wardrobe and check it for an enemy, but he stopped three steps in.

Izuku stared in confusion when the man lowered his weapon and stood up straight. From behind he almost looked defeated, and when he turned around to stare at Izuku he looked even moreso. Like a man who had accepted his own death.

Izuku let his confusion show on his face until he saw movement on the floor, and promptly registered that there was no floor.

The inhabitants of that abode, whoever they had been, looked to have been melted into a slush of human meat, forming a mossy carpet on most of the floor. Thick tendrils, like rope of muscle, covered every bit of the floor like banyan tree roots. They were lined with sharp demonic horns and human teeth.

"Kid. Get going." Gaglesh ordered solemnly.

He lazily tossed his wineskin to Izuku who caught it.

As soon as it landed in his hands the ropes of meat and bone came to life, springing like a Venus fly trap. They wrapped around him quickly, coiling and cutting and suffocating. Gaglesh screamed in agony as the sound of his flesh being torn apart and bones snapping filled the room. Whatever he tried to yell was incomprehensible over his death wails.

In a moment of shocking clarity, Izuku knew exactly what to do. Later he would marvel at his own instincts, but he followed them to the letter. He dropped the wineskin to the ground and pointed Ash Bane directly at Gagleshe's pained face.

There was a pause, as they looked at one another, and all pain left the drunkard's expression as he stared directly into Izuku's soul.

Then he nodded, and Izuku cast the most merciful fireball he'd ever use.

It exploded upon the man and the trap containing him, and as Izuku intended he didn't have time to feel pain as he was reduced to burned splinters instantly. He didn't even make a sound as he and the creature which felled him died.

The blast also had the unfortunate effect of knocking Izuku off of his feet with so much force that he slammed into the wall at the top of the stairs, though he was fortunate enough to not go tumbling down those too. The hit to the head he took was enough to make his vision go blurry.

When he picked himself back up he stumbled, his center of balance ruined.

The blast had also blown out the windows, along with the patio door which had been close enough to the blast to be similarly destroyed.

He stumbled towards the patio, casually burned away the last of Gaglesh's remains along with the human meat trap which killed him. He didn't see the point in half-assing his crematorial mercy killing.

He reached the railing at the end of the patio and stared out at the sea of human bodies twisted by demonic forces. He felt no more pity, or anger, or sadness or even horror. He felt, instead, a profound boredom like one would feel while cleaning a toilet, or a grease trap.

Remembering the rescue of Deckard Cain, he raised his hands and flooded the street beneath him with his own mana. Then, with a thought, he ignited it along with all of the corrupted people it enveloped.

It wasn't the powerful flames of his fireball or firebolt, but the weak flames of his old bastardized fire wall. It would not be enough to be instantly fatal, but they didn't seem to complain about the otherwise slow and agonizing death he met upon them.

"I must cauterize the wound." Izuku absently mumbled to himself in a voice that sounded foreign to him. "Burn the infection away."