novelraw Chapter 453 – Live Bait.
Chapter 453 – Live Bait.
"Alright, and now we just need to find one Cat... In the sea of other Cats..." Halifax sighed as she and the Twins sat and/or stood around the large fountain in the middle of the Capital of Northwind. They'd only just arrived and the sea of other Beastkin made it a bit difficult to find the Cat, especially since she was almost always hiding her energy.
"Maybe you should use that device to contact her?" Zo asked Halifax about the radio she'd been given. “She answers that, doesn't she?”
"Yeah, maybe she'll-" Halifax stopped mid-sentence as she leaped away from the fountain, sensing danger from behind her as she drew her blade only to lower it when she realized she'd been punked.
"Awww, you noticed me, nya." Chloe giggled as she leaped out of the water and onto the side of the fountain, completely dry. "I was gonna sneak up on you and say Omae wa mo shindemew!" The Ninja laughed at her own bad joke.
"So not only are you Akagi's student when it comes to stealth arts, but you've also inherited her horrible sense of humor..." Halifax sighed as he eased up her stance. "Or should I say lack thereof?"
{Like teacher like student.} (Halifax)
"I... I didn't even sense her..." Ro looked to his sister, shocked that even at such close range she'd remained hidden. "Did you?"
"No..." Zo shook her head. "But if she's one of the Boss' students, that shouldn't be surprising.”
{What's more surprising is that our little Divine Blade here managed to sniff her out while we couldn't, odd.} (Ro)
"How'd you know I was there anyway?" Chloe asked as she hopped to the ground. "I thought I was doing pretty good at keeping myself hidden, nya."
"I'm not sure. Just that something felt off." Halifax shrugged not really having a good answer and not questioning it. “Probably just years of experience dealing with sneaky creatures.”
"Well, that just means I need to work on my skills more, nya." Chloe nodded to herself, determined to do better before looking to the Twins. "So these are the newbies? Hmmm... Not bad... Not bad, nya." She said as she zipped around the two Primordials and examined them. "Myaster always finds the neatest ones." She smiled, which for some reason unsettled the two of them.
"How can you call what is the equivalent of two Gods just... Neat?" Halifax chuckled at such a statement. "But then again, with everything else that's happened, I suppose I should just roll with things at this point."
"That's for the best, nya!" Chloe laughed.
"So, now that we've found the missing Cat, what's the plan?" Ro asked Halifax what the next step was. She'd more or less been appointed leader and the Twins weren't foolish enough to question it at this point. "My Sister and I've been hunting that Axe for weeks and we're no closer than where we started.”
"Your little tidbit regarding their communication method seemed like it would've been of more help, but as of now we've done nothing but follow a trail of bodies." Zo sighed, annoyed that they'd gotten no closer even after they'd discovered the spies following them. "Does the Cat have any leads?" She turned to Chloe.
"This Cat has a name." Chloe growled, disliking the disrespectful tone taken by the Primordial. "But sadly no I do not, nya. Myaster sent me on a mission to handle the Murder Cult, not search for Labrys."
"So all we did was go out of our way for nothing." Zo clicked her tongue in irritation. "Northwind is nowhere near where the Axe was killing people, so why are we even here if the Cat has nothing useful?"
"Collecting the Cat was the Bosses order, but we really have wasted a bunch of time trecking up here." Ro agreed.
{I swear if you keep calling me Cat...} (Chloe)
"Are you questioning the Demon kitty's plans?" Halifax asked the two with a look of fake shock on her face while dramatically gasping into her hand. "How could you! I need to report this lack of faith in her fluffiness!"
"W-Well, we're not exactly questioning the Boss..." Ro quickly replied, stammering as he tried to find an answer that would soothe fluffy Satan's wrath.
"Y-Yeah. We just think maybe that things could've been done a bit..." Zo stopped as Halifax started chuckling, only then realizing that the Divine Blade was messing with them. "I... You're an ass.."
"Hey, it's not my fault you two are gullible as hell." Halifax said while laughing. "You should've seen the looks on your faces! It was as if you'd seen your own future ghost!"
{That's because we did!} (Zo x Ro)
"I approve of messing with them, nya." Chloe said, smiling at their terror. "You should do it more, nya."
"Mayhaps." Halifax replied with a smirk that Chloe quickly returned as they cackled, imagining how much fun they would have with the Twins.
"What the hell have we gotten ourselves into..." Zo groaned as she realized that the two of them were in-sync. "Can we just get on with this thing? What's the plan? Besides torment the two of us."
"Hey, I can do two things at once." Halifax laughed. "But in all seriousness, I do have something up my sleeve, though there's no guarantee it's going to work."
{And, it's risky.} (Halifax)
"Labrys is searching for energy, souls, to invigorate himself after millennia of dormancy.” Halifax explained “So far whenever we've seen attack sites it's been either villagers unlucky enough to have been nearby, adventurer companies sent to kill him, or soldiers."
"I've kept an eye on the chatter in the Capital and that lines up with what people are saying, nya." Chloe said, explaining that local gossip told of a mysterious monster that was killing people, though the government was cracking down heavily on such rumors to prevent the spread of panic. "I dug around a bit during my spare time and found that some high-ranking commanders have been killed too, most of which were highly capable magic users, nya."
"Yeah, he's targeting the most powerful people to get soul juice, we already knew that." Zo said, not understanding why they were retreading this.
"Yes, and it's because of this... soul juice as you called it that we're going to be able to find him." Halifax said. "Labyrs will be drawn to powerful individuals in an attempt to regain his power in the shortest time possible. All we need to do is string out some tasty bait and he'll come running like a moth to a flame, and once we've got him in our sites all we need to do is set the hook and reel him in."
"I... I suppose that could work, but if it was that easy why hasn't he shown up already? My Sister and I should be more than sufficiently tempting targets." Ro asked, noting that the two of them were substantially more powerful than anyone else around and would thus be the perfect meal.
"Correct, you are powerful." Halifax agreed but shook her head. "Too powerful. Even leashed by Akagi the two of you leak far too much energy and it's clear as day from your energy that you're Primordials. He'd be foolish to attack two entities that are equivalent to mid-ranking Gods."
{And the fact that you two morons are also NOT restraining your power much means that you act like a repellent. He probably can sense you miles away and keeps a wide berth around you. What was that phrase Akagi once used? Lit up like a Christmas Tree?} (Halifax)
"So who do you suggest we use as bait? The Cat? She's hardly more than a kitty treat for him." Ro said sarcastically while Chloe squinted in disapproval and aggravation. "You'd be better off using yourself if you're going to use anyone."
"While I'd love to use myself as bait the issue is that we will run into the same problem, Labrys won't directly attack me, at least not until he gets his full power back." Halifax shot that idea down. "He knows me well enough to recognize my power and understands that taking me head-on is going to be a challenge even under ideal circumstances. Thus, using me is out of the question." She said before shifting her eyes to Chloe. "And thus, the best option we've got is to use Chloe as bait. Do you mind? It's going to be risky and you might get killed if things go wrong." She said, noting that while it appeared that Chloe had gotten much stronger than the last time she'd seen the Cat, there was still a good chance that a weapon forged by a Demon Lord would simply outclass her.
"Don't worry about me, nya. I can handle myself!" Chloe said while flexing her muscles and throwing a few punches into the air. "That ol' Axe won't even know what hit him, nya!"
"Good, then let's make preparations to ambush him. You two need to completely hide your energy and I'll do the same." Halifax explained that they'd need to do this starting now if they wanted to have any chance at tricking him. "We'll stalk him like we were doing before, and once we're certain he's within a few miles of our position Chloe will unleash just enough power to draw his attention." She smirked. "And with any luck, this little moth will be drawn to the flame and burned to a crisp."
{This will end things, Labrys. For four thousand years I've hunted you, but now I've finally got a way to draw you out. And maybe... Maybe I'll even get some answers if I'm lucky.} (Halifax)
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Ughmmmmmm..." Alm groaned in pain as she sat on the edge of her bed. She'd been woken out of a dead sleep by a splitting headache and was covered in sweat. Her head splitting pain only getting worse as memories she didn't understand flooded her mind.
"The place... What is it... Why... I need to... I need to go..." Alm shook her head, trying to toss the strange memories aside. "No, I'm not him... I'm Alm... But the world... The plan... If I don't..." She said before blacking out and falling back onto the bed.