Chapter 204

◈ Chapter 204:

Red was staring at the tall thin knight, his eyes round, stunned by what he had just heard. At last he processed the words the knight had spoken and with a ragged scream he sprinted towards him, leaping into the air and latching onto his leg.

"What did you do you shitty pile of bones?! My GOLD! M-My go-"

A long arm came down and a gauntleted hand wrapped around Red's neck. He was lifted into the air by an arm as unbending as steel, his throat gripped tight, squeezing into his scales.

The kobold dangled, eyes bulging from his head as the helm styled like a wolf focused coldly on him, green light flickering from the cracks, giving the visage a merciless cast.

"It wasn't so long ago that you feared to even look at me, little kobold. It seems you have gotten a little too comfortable and a little too over familiar since. You may be our treasurer, but that does not give you licence to disrespect me without consequence. You can still count coin in death, as part of my collection."

Red's eyes went very round and his body stilled, as if afraid just moving might cause the necromancer to turn him into an undead coin counting kobold then and there.

The green light flickered as if noting the reaction.

"Good. I tolerate the goblin's disrespect. Do not make the mistake of assuming that extends to you."

Red let out a pathetic whimper and managed to squeak out a "Yrsh!"

The knight looked the kobold over and made a sound that sounded an awful lot like someone clucking their tongue in annoyance.

"In any case the loss of coin to the void will be accounted for, I am sure, and more, by this 'Abattoir'. That is if you could tamp down your insatiable greed for shiny metal for five minutes, difficult I realise for one such as you."

The wolf helm turned, the voluminous fluff from the black fur trimmed coat hanging off his shoulders shifting with the motion. The helm paused when Quistis came into view and the green light seemed to narrow.

Rain frowned at the necromancer knight and after a moment Vash opened his fist, letting Red crash to the floor on his rump, his gladius clattering against the stone as it fell from his claws.

The kobold scrambled back on his rear, snatching up the sword, looking up at Vash with a fear of the ancient necromancer very much renewed.

"It seems that the Lamia awakens. Although what use she will be I do not know. She may be incapable, the part of her mind that allows fo good sense torn away leaving only a ragged tatter."

Rain turned and crouched down by Quistis. The lamia stirred.

She moved, squinting blearily in the light as she slowly returned to consciousness. Her eyes shifted and focused and came across an extremely large wolf head directly in front of her and filling her view.

It took maybe half a minute for the lamia to comprehend what she was looking at, a look of bewildered confusion on her face, as if she had no memory of him, or even recognised that he was a monster at all. But then her mind seemed to gather itself.

"You," she croaked.

"Yes, me." replied Rain with a guttural growl, "And before you try anything, whether that's attacking me or trying to flee, you should know you have had dozens of heart pins put into your body. I know you can't remove them as your ability doesn't work on enchanted things, so you are as trapped as any of the monsters you brought here over the years, as trapped as that one panthara."

"You…" said Quistis, this time with a despairing tone, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

Rain watched her for a moment to see if she would try something, but then finding she remained subdued he backed away.

After a moment Quistis shakily managed to sit up and looked around in an increasingly unhappy way as she saw Opal and Red and Lyra, the blue kobold wearing an apron and the fanged goblin, and then even more unhappily as the door opened once more and Ravoure and Triskian stepped in.

The sandy scaled drake gave her a miserable look, and that was all that was needed to explain that they were in the exact same situation as her.

Her gaze returned to Rain. "Wha-" she swallowed dryly, "What do you want of me then? I know you chose to capture rather than kill me, there must be a reason."

Rain considered the bedraggled looking lamia, strands of lank black hair hanging across a face paled with fear. It seemed she had retained the important parts of her mind, at least from what he could tell.

He shrugged.

"Lots of things, but-

"But first of all we gotta give you a test run!" said Opal.

"She's not a sword you can just wave around."

"No, but she can do some very useful things. Such as getting rid of that creepy stone sphere in sheepy's wool space."

Quistis made a small shriek and thrust herself back into the corner, looking utterly terrified of even the suggestion, breath coming in pants, the whites of her eyes showing, her chest rising and falling, trembling like a leaf.

"...Maybe don't mention that for now." said Rain.

"...Right…" said Opal.

"What did you do to her to make her like this?" mumbled the blue kobold. She was standing nearby and held one of the dice like controllers held ready in her claws, ready in case the lamia attacked.

"Hmm. Nothing you need to know about Blueberry," replied Opal.

Rain raised his brow. "Her name is… Blueberry?"

"Yup!" replied Opal confidently.

Blueberry gave the goblin a haggard look but then drew in a breath, puffed out her chest, and marched forward with determination. She stopped before Rain and craned her head back to look up at him.

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Then turned and stepped up in front of Lyra instead.

"Actually my name is Berylomszelalos."

"Why are you telling me this?!" cried Lyra.

"If you must know, it's Because speaking to that monster makes me want to empty my bowels in fright. My name Berylomszelalos, but you can call me Beryl for short as non-kobolds struggle with kobold names."

Rain scratched his chin and looked down at the kobold. He had first found her cowering in the cages amongst the ruins, and then later saved her life in the arena, although it was doubtful she knew that. Judging by her skill with heart pinning that had turned out to be a fortunate idea.

"You knew what you were doing, putting heart pins in the levellers. Is that part of your evolution?" he gravelled.

"No, well, sort of. I have a little experience with healing, but more importantly, before they moved my cage, I had a view into the space where they insert the heart pins and I watched them open up dozens of monsters. I learned a lot from that, and the rest I improvised. The potions took care of my early mistakes," said Beryl, not looking in Rain's direction and instead speaking directly to Lyra, as if it were her who had asked the question and not Rain.

Lyra looked very confused, glancing between Rain and the kobold, clearly wondering if she should say something.

"Probably for the best." Rain looked over at Quistis, "I doubt many would have survived had it been done through guess work."

Beryl scratched her cheek with a claw and looked up at Lyra. "I don't know, maybe. My evolution gives me a little healing ability, but it may as well be nothing compared to leveler healing potions, those things are ridiculously powerful."

Lyra blinked down at her.

"Uh, yes? They are?" she said.

"Shush, I'm not speaking to you," said Beryl to Lyra.

Lyra set her lips in a line. "Look, can you stop using me as a dummy to talk to Rain, just turn around and look at him, go on!"

Beryl physically shivered at that suggestion and lowered her voice to a bare whisper.

"I don't know how you are so comfortable around that monster. He makes me feel like a hatchling hiding in the long grass as some horror prowls nearby, milliseconds from being instantly killed."

"Uh, You get used to it?" mumbled Lyra.

Opal patted the kobold on the shoulder. "It's easy, just imagine he's on your side."

Beryl tried, she really did but just being near that monster made her stomach clench, an icy watery feeling in her guts. She snatched a glance and found it staring at her, yellow eyes that seemed to pull her in, pull her near, dragging her toward teeth. Nope. No way.

As Rain turned to speak with the lamia she slowly backed away, backing across the entire ruined hall until she nearly tripped over a small pile of loot. She stumbled and nearly fell before a red scaled hand caught her and let her catch her balance. The hand then firmly but gently pushed her to the side.

Red was standing guard over the treasures he had gathered, having also retreated away from the scarier ones in the ruined hall, the wolf, the knight, and the lamia. He gave her a suspicious look.

At least here was a more reasonable monster, one that didn't look liable to kill her at the drop of a tail, and also had good sensible kobold understanding of gold. In fact this kobold seemed to have quite a lot of gold. Which made him very interesting and was why she had been keeping an eye on him. It was hard not to. He even had a gold sword for crying out loud! And she had been listening carefully, the unsettling knight had named this kobold as a treasurer, meaning the owner of gold, by the sounds of it, a lot of gold.

As her heart rate slowed she checked him over. He was a little smaller than her as she had grown some due to her evolution, making him much like any of the kobolds in the small tribe she had effectively led… Except this kobold didn't have the shitty bronze scraps that her little tribe pretended was gold, this kobold had the real deal, and a lot of it.

It was inevitable then, that Red finally noticed Beryl wasn't moving and was staring at him. The blue kobold looked down at the gold bladed gladius in his claws, then down at the pile of loot by his feet, then back up at him.

"Hey." said Beryl.

Red gave her an extremely suspicious look, narrowing his eyes.

"...Hi." he got out after a moment, as if wary that Beryl would somehow steal his words as well as his treasure.

"I like your sword. Very big and flashy"

"It's mine."

"It's very nice."

"...Thanks?"

"Can I touch it?"

Red stared at her.

"You want to…  what?"

"You know, just touch your sword. To feel how impressive it is. It will only take a moment, I promise, and then I'll leave you alone, okay?"

Red wondered what this crazy kobold was trying to pull, but then it was just a touch he supposed and he did like showing off. Also he knew how dangerous the blade was having hacked it into his leg one time, he felt sure he could fend her off if it came to it.

"Fine… I guess."

Beryl trotted forward and Red held out the golden blade. Up close he released the Beryl was a few inches taller than him, which became pointedly clear as the female kobold came much closer than was necessary, sidling up beside him until they were pressed shoulder to shoulder. She reached out and touched the golden blade Red was holding out in front of himself, she then slid her claws up and down the blade making cooing sounds of appreciation.

It started to dawn on Red that something else was going on here, increasingly suspicious he snatched the blade from her claws and backed away.

"If this is all some kind of trick, I—!"

But before he could continue Opal slapped him on the back in passing, making him stumble.

"Come on, put that stuff away. Move!"

Red turned back to find the blue kobold was gone, and he nearly had a string of several heart attacks as he frantically checked over his gold to make sure it was all still there. Thankfully it was.

In the end, it didn't take long for Opal to organise what she wanted, maybe not surprising considering the other monsters seemed to have deferred to her as temporary leader.

Rain found himself outside the ruin of the arena in the huge stretch of flat sand that made up the centre of the cavern. He was joined by Red, Opal, Lyra, and Quistis, and about half the total number of small monsters.

A still flustered Red was amongst the crowd that formed on the sand. He wouldn't have come, but Opal wasn't the only one who wanted to use the lamia.

"So what do you want me to make?" sighed Quistis at the head of the crowd. She had recovered a great deal since her time in woolspace, although Rain noted that she seemed to have gained some kind of nervous tick, her face and tail tip periodically twitching.

Red pushed and shoved his way to the front of the crowd. "G-get out of the way! I have something I need! Move!"

He thrust a stunned goblin to the ground and rushed forward, storming up before the lamia.

He held up the pin control in his claws above his head.

"I demand you make me a tower made entirely out of solid gold!"

"Aha, R-Red I don't think this a very good use of—" said Lyra, trying to intervene.

"Do it or I'll tear all your insides into little pieces!!!" cried the kobold, shaking his fist in the air.

"Okay, Who gave Red a control? Who thought that was a good idea?!"

Quistis looked down at the straight backed kobold who was looking up at her with a fiercely determined gaze, willing to do anything to get his way, go to any ends.

After a moment of studying the small monster Quistis let out a reluctant sigh.

She did not look even slightly happy about the demand, but she turned and lifted a hand. After a moment the sands began to shiver and shift.

A flash of gold, and then metal was rising from the sandy grains, lustrous soft metal, thick and heavy, shaped into different parts of structure, solid gold tiles, the peak of a roof, blockwork walls, golden gargoyles perched on the edge learning, and arched windows, the view of a grand bedroom seen within, a four poster bed draped in cloth… except made of gold, a fireplace…  except made of gold… and the window was passing, growing from the sand with the tower, rising into the air until the next window giving views of more rooms, tables and chairs, lounges and studies, absolutely everything within made of solid gold from the quill and paper on a desk, to a dear skin rug on the ground.

The entirety of the grand tower emerged from the sand and came to a slow stop, the perfect gold walls glittering in the crystal light, a dark golden reflection of the crowd of shocked monsters standing before it.

Red was practically salivating as he looked up at the monumental amount of gold. His mouth opened, closed again, opened, but was still unable to form words.

With an unintelligible cry he dashed forward, springing through the doorway and into the interior. After a moment Lyra and Opal followed while Rain watched with a sense of concern from the outside. He crouched down to peer through the ground floor window. The inside was like the rest that he had seen, a room, except everything inside of it was made out of solid gold.

That… didn't exactly make for the best building material and he watched as a chair collapsed under its own weight, the legs bending out in all directions, and a fire-iron in the fireplace started to droop down, too heavy and thin to support itself. With a BANG a few of the cupboard doors wrenched from their hinges and smashed to the floor, the gold hinges too soft and small to hold them up.

Red looked around at the golden room like he had ascended to kobold heaven, a paradise made especially for him.

"It's beautiful!"

CRASH!

The chandelier ripped from the ceiling under its own weight and thudded to the floor below like a lead balloon, crushing a sofa below it.

"I uh, have some concerns about the structural integrity of this tower…" mumbled Lyra, looking increasingly nervous.

A series of bangs and crashes came from upstairs as more furniture collapsed under its own weight.

"It's perfect! How can anything ever be wrong with this!" cried Red, gesturing wildly around as picture frames fell from the walls and the stair railing sagged and bent.

That was far from the only problem and Rain looked on with alarm as sand started to pour in through the door the three had just entered through, the wave of sand spreading across the floor.

He turned on Quistis, a snarl on his lip.

"Are you trying to kill them?!"

Quistis flinched under his gaze, but managed to gather herself, her voice subdued.

"I simply did as I was asked, the kobold wanted a golden tower, who am I to question whether that is a good idea or not, or if the tower would be so heavy that it would sink into the sand."

Rain looked between her and the tower. Inch by inch the tower was disappearing, already the sand was pouring in through the ground floor windows. Inside he could see Lyra and Opal wrestling with Red trying to physically drag him from the tower, tears running down his cheeks as he openly wept.

"So turn it to smoke, destroy the tower"

Quistis gave him a particularly acid look, a little of her old confidence returning for a moment.

"Do you have one of the heart pin controls?"

Rain took a step closer and growled.

"I don't need one, I can rip out your spine and it will do the job just as well."

"Ah but then your little goblin won't make her dreams come true."

Rain raised a paw, about to take hold of the lamia's neck when Red and Opal followed by Lyra burst from the window which was now two thirds below the sand. They tumbled to a stop, Red rolling head over heels before springing to his feet.

"No! Don't destroy it! It's mine!" he cried.

"You're not going back in there Red," said Lyra, spitting sand from her mouth. "It's off limits."

The kobold looked on forlornly as his literal solid gold tower slowly sunk below the sands, falling to his knees as each floor disappeared one by one, and then the reaching the tiled roof, the sand spilling in and causing all to back up as the sands swallowed the lustrous architecture.

And then it was gone, only a small dip in the sand left as a sign the golden tower had ever been there.