Draga Of The Vanguard - Chapter 17 Aftermath

After the victory there was a heavy feeling all around Asfleia. More people had died than they had accounted for so corpse burial was costly. They could have burned the bodies…but the people protested against it.

The Fog Giant’s remains were scattered on the battlefield, and too heavy for any man to move. The problem stayed prominent for two days, until Sofz arrived.

The Giant’s remains were shown to him and the captured monster presented. Sofz looked at the captured monster. They began to communicate in it’s strange tongue. Sofz laughed.

“This ‘Fog Giant’ is but a tool. And this little imp is it’s master. This is a Steampunk Imp, the smartest I’ve ever seen.” the wizard said, patting the imp’s head. It wanted to bite him, but his mouth was then blocked by an iron ball with chains.

“I’ll pay 100 gold coins for him.” said the wizard. “At least, to the person who captured him.”

“That would be us, sir.” said Pierre as he, Gars and Morte came out covered in bandages. “…Let’s get those fixed.” said the wizard as he healed the three boys. They immediately felt lighter and free of pain. Morte tore off his bandages to see perfectly smooth skin.

“Now…here’s your payment.”. He threw a sachel at them, and inside all they could see was the gleaming beauty of well earned gold. “Thank you, sir.” said Pierre as he and the others bowed and stepped back, eerie smiles on their faces.

“You….your new name will be Granzia.” said Sofz, looking at the imp. The imp looked up into the sky. ” …” it mumbled. Sofz then began casting an incantation after telling the surrounding Vanguards to move.

A large black portal appeared under the remains of the Giant, and it was slowly sucked in. The wizard and the chained imp were also being dragged in. “Hmm… Got some new entries.”

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Rei had explained what he had seen to his squad. Needless to say…they took it with several grains of salt.

“Three days of sleep will do that to a guy…we were about to add you to the deceased list.” said Morte, looking at Rei with a small smile. “By the way, here’s your share.”

He tossed a small sack to Rei’s bed, Rei opened it up to count 16 coins. Gold coins. “….Where the hell-” he was about to ask when Pierre started explaining. “The Fog Giant wasn’t actually a monster. It was more like a puppet. We caught it’s master.” he answered.

“…We can catch things? I thought Vanguards only killed the demons they faced.” said Rei, still ogling the coins.

“Nah, we can catch them for research or if a noble askes us to.” Said Gars, wiping his black blade.

“Why would a noble want a demon?” asked Rei confused. “Have you ever seen a dryad? I would want to gag one up and-” Morte was about to say when Mai glared at him, her eyes seemingly writing his will.

“Morte made a mistake! You know how nobles are!” shouted Pierre.

“….Morte is a noble?” asked Rei.

The room went silent. Pierre had become a pale pool of sweat, fearing to turn his head to face the two demons that he felt immense bloodlust coming from.

Then his eyes met with another demon who wielded a black demon blade and was emitting a black demon aura.

He turned his head away but saw the two other demons he was trying to avoid. He screamed.

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“That’s what you get you bastardized prick shit!” shouted Morte to a badly beaten Pierre, who was in a sitting with his back rested against the wall, unconscious.

“What the hell….I didn’t hear anything I swear!” said Rei as he backed way from the three, after witnessing the hideous beating Pierre had gone through.

“Might as well tell you. you know what awaits you if you snitch, so I’m sure you’ll control yourself.” said Morte smiling with a bloody fist pump.

“Of course he will. He’s a good boy.” said May with a blood soaked smile.

“A very good boy.” said Gars with a bloody thumbs up.

Rei could swear that he could see flowers in the background and almost smiled along with them, but then remembered the situation.

“This scene is wrong!”

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The corpses were divided into two. Those who had family or friends who could bury them were taken to the morgue.

But those unfortunate enough to not have this much were to be burned. The corpses were thrown naked into a pit and various oils were poured.

A priest offered a short prayer and torches were thrown down the pit. There were several reasons for this.

Number one was to avoid any diseases that may arise. Number two was to reduce the chances of an undead legion rising up. Number three, the priest, was to allow their souls to pass instead of becoming ghosts, which were souls that were corrupted by passing floating eyes which attached themselves to them.

The flames burned high and the Vanguards who were close to those currently dead began weeping and singing a song that they were taught in their childhoods for this situation.

For hours the fire ate away at the corpses, leaving only ash in its wake.

By morning the pit was filled with ash. A single black ulna stuck out of this gray desert.

Then it twitched.

Skin as white as freshly skinned bone grew on it giving it some life.

It began fidgeting and soon a black body with black corneas and red pupils came out of the ash. An archer noticed this and fired at it.

The body used its fleshy arm to grab the arrow, and threw it back…It went through the archer’s head and the soldier dropped into the pit quietly. The body that had done this was now covered halfway in white skin. it walked to the soldier and took his trousers. by the time it had done this, it was covered in skin up until its neck. It climbed out of the pit rather quickly as hair reaching its waist grew. By the time it got to the top it had fully developed.

It was a he. He was about average height for a man standing at 5.9 inches.

He was extremely skinny, his ribcage could be clearly seen by any who viewed him.

He had white rough hair which grew down to his waist and his face was like that of a 25 year old man which worked suprisingly well with his bone white skin. Then there was an odd feature.

His eyes were clearly not human. They were black with red pupils, emitting bloodlust.

“I really thought that imp had what it took… Well, beggars can’t be choosers.” said the man. “If he couldn’t do it. I’ll just have to get someone else…maybe that kid?. I’ll wait for him to grow a little…”

“Then he just might.” said the man as he walked towards the forest Bois Monstre.