Chương 99: Chapter 176: Cold Iron Promise

William Oh has got so much game that when the system tried to quantify it as a stat, it threw back an error, and the numbers went into the negatives. Jason Salazar"Hold still, I wanna axe you a question!" Will shouted as he sprinted after the young woman, his mind taking notes as she ran. Pointed ears, able to run at nearly the same speed as me… in total darkness… yeah, this girl isn't an actual damsel.

Now the question was, what to- Will's teeth clacked together as a trap door swung open underneath him, only for the lip of the pit he was standing above to shoot out and arrest his fall about two inches down.

'Cassandra' glanced over her shoulder, eyes widening as Will continued sprinting across the open pit filled with poisoned blades. He could smell the acrid venom wafting up from beneath.

"EEP!" Cassandra slapped a button on her way past and fumes began pouring into the hallway behind her. Will used a Phantom Snake to solidify the air between them and marked himself with a non-terrain exception, allowing Will to cut past the frozen poisonous gas with ease. Once he was past, he had the snake let go of the air, allowing the gas to continue filling the hall behind them, hopefully cutting off her escape if she tried to double back.

"Shit!" Cassandra shouted, tripping over the hem of her nightgown, ripping the hem before tumbling to the ground, further damaging the sheer material. She turned to face Will, scooting backwards on her butt, eyes wide. Will went in for the kill, diving towards the hapless- What is that? In that fraction of a second that Will felt something bad signal itself through the Debt, He reeled himself backwards, his neck straining at the sudden whiplash.

A brick sank under Cassandra's palm, and a spinning disc of metal whipped out of the wall, missing her head by a couple inches and screaming towards Will. Will's juke backwards bought him enough time to squash himself violently to the ground, allowing the blade to pass over him before springing forward like a pouncing spider.

"ACK!" Cassandra was only halfway to her feet when Will slammed into her, sending both of them tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. She went to slap him and Will caught her hand. She swung with her other hand, and Will stopped it mid-flight with a phantom snake.

"Now listen-" A spring-loaded dagger appeared out of her cleavage and nearly stabbed Will in the face. Will caught the blade with his teeth and tumbled backwards for a moment while Cassandra rose to her feet and started running again. The chase was back on. Why am I even still chasing her? Will thought, spitting out the poisoned dagger tingling his tongue as she disappeared around the corner. He'd scared her a bit to suss out if she was a threat or not.

Now that he knew she was no innocent, there was really no reason to hold back. Will picked himself up with a phantom snake and crossed the distance between them in a fraction of a second, arriving in a small bedroom. Cassandra was in the process of diving into a secret passage, and Will's snakes yanked her back out squirming like a rodent being dragged from its hole.

Will used four Phantom Snakes to drag her limbs behind her before using a single one to secure all of them together, using the shapeshifting armor to create an effective hogtie. Will grabbed the back of Cassandra's head with his hand and brought her face closer for an intimate conversation, a Phantom Snake holding his tomahawk to her throat.

"I don't want to kill you, miss Cassandra. I am however, very good at it." Her face crumpled into fake tears.

"No, please-""Shhh…" Will said, forming a gag out of his Phantom snake's armor.

"Just listen for now. I think there's a way we can both walk away from this alive. All you have to do is repeat after me." Another spring-loaded titty-blade appeared and was clamped down on by Will's Phantom Snake, wrenching it away from his face. I think Loth might like this lady.

"…Any more of those?" Will asked. Cassandra's eyes narrowed.

"Am I gonna have to go looking?" Will asked, leaning closer. Her eyes widened, and she shook her head.

"Good." Will then described the oath he wanted her to make, and added an ultimatum: If she didn't say it within the next ten seconds…Death. Pretty simple, as far as things went. Will ungagged her mouth.

"Say it." Will tightened his hold on the bucking girl to make sure she understood her position.

'Cassandra', if that was her real name, swallowed nervously, her throat flexing against the blade of Will's axe. 8, 7, 6… She apparently could see Will's countdown to murder in his head, because she cleared her throat and started speaking.

"I give you my word as Cassandra, the third Gate Guardian and Mordaine's daughter, that I will not attempt to harm or sabotage you, nor aid anyone trying to harm you, until you die or leave this castle. I will lead you to Mordaine, and if you come to be in peril, I will remove myself from the situation immediately." Will felt the Debt twitch around them as it registered the promise, and he released the fae with a satisfied grunt.

Cassandra stood, smoothing her torn nightgown, her expression quivering with barely concealed rage and… possibly shame?

"So…Mordaine's daughter?" Will asked incredulously.

"Do Fae even have children?" If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Of course."

"How does that work? Is it the same as humans?" Will asked, cocking his head.

"Or do you do some weird…fae…thing? What's the process?"

"…So after a certain age-" She started to speak, but Will held up a hand, forestalling any further explanation.

"Nevermind. Forget I asked, I'd rather figure it out myself." Will said, taking a step towards the exit beyond Cassandra, his mind wandering. Cassandra stiffened, her mouth silently opened and closed a couple times as he approached, before she seemed to shake herself out of it.

"Okay?" She said in a trembling voice, her hand reaching up to slip the strap of her nightgown off her shoulder.

"…What are you doing?" Will asked, stepping back with a frown. Does she have some other hidden weapon under there or something? Maybe another knife hidden in the armpit, or a razor-sharp wire concealed in the strap, to wrap around his neck and cut his windpipe?

"I'm... you said…" Cassandra's face turned red.

"Nothing…apparently." She said, heaving a sigh and fixing her clothes.

"Alright, lead the way." Will said, motioning to the exit behind her with the haft of his weapon. Cassandra turned to lead him through the halls, a mote of light hovering above her finger.

"…And bear in mind," Will said, shifting the haft to point at her.

"While being Mordaine's daughter prevents me from simply burying my tomahawk in you, there are an infinite number of ways I can punish you that don't involve plunging my weapon into your soft flesh. If you displease me, rest assured I will find creative ways to make your suffering prolonged. I'll enjoy it, though. Deeply." Cassandra shivered and glanced over her shoulder at him, her expression half-exasperated.

"Are you doing that on purpose?"

"Doing what?" Will asked. …He was doing it on purpose. Will was cribbing a bit from Charnessa's lecture on women to Badur, hashed together with a few tidbits he'd overheard from Anna and June discussing Loth's 'trashy' books. Apparently it's working…whatever that means. Making her more…compliant…I guess? It was all a bit of a shot in the dark.

"…Dear gods." Cassandra muttered under her breath, shaking her head as she faced forward and resumed walking. They navigated the abyssal labyrinth, chatting about the difference between Fae and Climbers for a good ten minutes before stopping at a nondescript stone wall.

"Beyond here lies the main hall that leads to my father." Cassandra said, motioning to the wall.

"Unfortunately the peril kicks in pretty much immediately," She said with an embarrassed half smile.

"So I can't follow you further. Much as I'd like to." Cassandra went up on her tiptoes and kissed Will's cheek.

"Thanks for the stimulating conversation. And for being gentle with me. As gentle as you could have, I suppose. Although I didn't mind being manhandled a bit," She said, looking up at him with half-lidded eyes. Will's heart skipped a beat, thumping hard to catch up, his guts squirmed and he barely caught his breath.

"…Is this lipstick poisoned?" Will asked, pointing at his cheek. Cassandra's smoldering expression broke and she half-choked on her breath, snorting in an unladylike manner before coughing and breaking into braying laughter.

"No, it's not poisoned." She said once she recovered, wiping tears out of her eyes before pressing a hidden button in the wall, causing a doorway to swing aside.

"Thank you miss." Will said, ducking down and stepping out through the hidden door.

"Come visit me again sometime…" Cassandra said as Will passed the threshold into the main hall.

"… You're a lot of fun, William Oh." Cassandra's voice faded as the secret door shut behind him. Humming, Will straightened his clothes and slipped his tomahawk back in his belt, raising his gaze to find Travis standing in the hallway, glaring at him.

The Master Decoy looked ragged, his clothes perforated and shredded, like he'd spent the last fifteen minutes being crawled on by spiders the size of loaves of bread, constantly biting him in every unprotected body part while his focus was on battling a greater monster… Probably exactly that, actually. Will thought.

"…You insufferable bastard," Travis muttered, his gaze lingering on Will's cheek.

"She would've totally killed you, man." Will said.

"I guess we'll never KNOW, will we!?"

"…We know." Will said. Travis glared at him for a moment longer before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"Yeah…Still."

"C'mon, let's finish this." Will clapped Travis on the shoulder and headed further into the castle, heading towards the center, where the beam of Miasmatic light from the Key Site should reside.

"… Pain in the ass just to deliver a message," Travis grumbled, falling in alongside Will. Across the Floor, Hubert Bakton was standing in front of Kincaid's stronghold, admiring his newly augmented dueling blade. Cold Iron Promise +8 Strength +12 Kinesthetics + 8 Acuity +(1) Focus +(5)% damage against Fae Each counterattack in the same battle gains 15% power. Swordmaster Abilities gain extra range, scaling with Focus. Wielder may sense Debt more easily.

Cold Iron Promise can deflect and sever Debt and Contracts, although the wielder incurs a portion of the original Debt. This Debt feedback diminishes as the Myth of the blade grows. I always did see the Focus scaling of the range boost as a major flaw that prevented it from becoming my favorite, since the sword itself never added Focus, and my growth is average. Now all I have to do is make them afraid of it, and the Focus and range boost comes rolling in?

I guess it's in my best interest to make them afraid of this sword, Hewey thought, trying to stop himself from grinning manically. He was a Lord, after all. There was a certain expectation of propriety. Even after years of being called 'Lord Bakton', he still thought of himself as 'Hewey'. Not that anyone called him that anymore. Maybe his sister or his parents, but they were long since left behind, living out peaceful lives of opulence in the Ring.

The rattling of the front gate caught Hewey's attention as a half-dozen Fae strode out with their noses in the air, wearing tight silk clothes that smelled faintly of rotting meat.

"If it isn't the Lord Bakton himself, come to visit our humble abode. Please, be wel-" Master's Lunge 84 Charges remaining. Hewey teleported forward, enjoying the extra range as he plunged the curved dueling saber through the fae's hastily upraised palm and into its throat, dropping the monster gurgling to the ground.

"You-You violate the sanctity of hospitality, attacking us in our own home when we offer peace!" one of the doomed fae shouted, pointing a single clawlike nail at him as it backed away. Hewey could feel the Debt gather up and lunge towards him like a coiled snake. He caught it on the blade and let it slip aside, his hand tingling as a bit of it flowed into him.

"I'm not a guest, I'm an enemy. I owe you nothing." Hewey said, dissipating the rest of the clinging Debt with an ease he could barely believe. Yep. Works perfectly. The Fae paled as the Debt was swept aside by the thin blade, it's gaze lingering on the unpolished metal. Hewey felt the blade grow in strength as it gobbled up the monster's fear. +(2) Focus +(10)% damage against Fae Oh, yes, this is going to work out nicely, Hewey thought.

"I'll spell out the rules." Hewey said, wiping Cold Iron Promise on the dead fae's clothes.

"I'm going to start killing your people, and I'm going to continue until you give me what I want."

"Foolish human, you-" Another fae said, drawing his blade. An instant later it went down, drowning in it's own blood.

"…and…what do you want?" one of the Fae asked.

"…start giving me things, and we'll quit when I'm satisfied."

"That's extortion!" Another one of the Fae shouted, a thread of Debt racing towards him.

"No, it's war." Hewey said, catching and dissipating the Debt.

"You think killing thousands of Climbers for sport over the centuries wouldn't bite you in the ass? Be thankful this is war and not extermination." They broke and ran. Hewey stabbed the slowest one in the back while the others scuttled into their nest, looking for things of value to appease him. He didn't tell them about the two humans he was looking for, because as soon as they knew that was what he was looking for, they would find a way to screw him over.

Better to get Kearney and Eolande as a package deal with tons of other treasure. More terrifying for them, too. Fearing my unpredictable, capricious nature. … It's about godsdamn time, Hewey thought as he sauntered through the open gate. Hewey knew from the moment he saw the Relic Seed that he was caught up in events bigger than himself. The turning of the Coil, the end of the world, and the beginning of another. He was just acting as a proxy.

A herald for something bigger than himself, caught up in someone else's legend. But he took the Relic Seed anyway, because when he thought of all the good Climbers who left Bakton Keep to visit this… nest… in search of treasure, never to return… He couldn't help but relish the opportunity to be the hand that wielded their comeuppance. +(3) Focus +(15)% damage against Fae Hewey whistled as he walked down the halls, Fae scrambling across the floors, walls, and ceiling in panic, swarming like the insects they were.

Hewey chuckled as he considered: William Oh had probably been expecting Lord Bakton to lead some kind of covert rescue mission. But covert rescue missions don't grow the blade's Myth. It only took a few more effortless kills and resisting Debt that should've made him a slave before they began piling treasure in front of his pitiless gaze.