Rai tried adding to Physique again, but a prompt told him that past 2.0 every 0.1 now costs double, which is 20 containment points.
He stopped and put the remaining points into Spirit.
[ID: 000]
[Name: Rai]
[Type: Human]
[Physique: 2.0]
[Spirit: 1.0]
[Abilities: Pyrokinesis; Mind Control; Healthy]
[Notes: …]
Feeling the power inside him stronger than before, Rai picked up his pistol and kukri, cut off the gator man's head and tied it to his belt, then climbed back up the slope.
Time to go reinforce.
…
Crackle!
In the pitch dark, raging fire clawed through the trees. As time passed, it spread into a broad sea of flame, painting the sky red.
Luckily, this was a swamp and wetland; the water and the terrain kept it from turning into a major wildfire.
Even so, it badly tangled Jonah and the other cultists who were hunting. Madison and Zoe had owned the early phase and racked up plenty of kills, but as their power ran dry, and as the cultists, still numerous even after losing half, got their heads on straight, moved cautiously from trunk to trunk, took potshots, and pressed in with a slow encirclement, the tide began to turn.
If not for the fire blocking them, this fight might have ended much sooner.
Never underestimate tech. No matter how great your spells are, one bullet you never see can take your life.
Otherwise, mundane witch-hunters would not have hunted witches for centuries instead of being wiped out.
Compared to the witchcraft dark ages, Madison and Zoe were green. The cultists weren't pro-witch-hunters either. Even if they worshipped the gator man with zeal, that didn't make each one brave or self-sacrificing.
Take Mike, a young man at the very back. The gator man's roar and Jonah's shouting stopped him from running, but after watching acquaintances get shot, burned, or have their necks twisted, he hid at the tail. He'd pop out, throw a blind shot forward, then snap back behind a big trunk and pray those demonic witch eyes wouldn't look his way.
He guarded his front and ignored his back.
Crunch.
A step on dead leaves behind him.
He figured it was a teammate and started to turn to ask something.
Suddenly, his eyes went blank, his hands moved, the twin barrels lifted under his jaw, and he pulled the trigger.
Bang!
His head burst like a melon falling to the ground.
"At least this one worked," Rai said calmly, stepping out of the dark with a finishing blow ready.
He was testing Mind Control.
Mike wasn't the first, just the only one who actually pulled it off. Mind Control doesn't permanently rewrite someone's mind. At Rai's level, it buys at most a second or two.
The target's will matters, and what you try to plant matters too.
Like when Madison told him to lick before, he snapped out fast.
Same with the others just now: when Rai told them to shoot themselves, aside from Mike, who'd been hiding and was clearly scared witless, the rest rejected it at the last instant and woke early.
With death on the line, even if Rai poured in the belief that "nothing bad will happen after you shoot," the mind rebels against something that violates basic sense, forcing Rai to finish them off the old-fashioned way so he wouldn't spook the rest.
Rai wasn't disappointed.
Sometimes going indirect works just as well.
With Physique 2.0, he ghosted between the trees. Soon, he found two more cultists.
He controlled one with Mind Control.
In a blink, the man looked at his buddy and suddenly saw a witch. Startled, he pointed the muzzle over and fired.
The haze lifted a heartbeat later. The witch was gone. In her place lay his own teammate in a pool of blood.
"God… what's happening?" he stammered.
"Ask your god in hell. Oh, right, my book ate him," Rai said, stepping out of the dark to end it with one clean cut.
He rubbed his brow. Even with Spirit raised, he was chewing through it. He really envied a Supreme's mana pool.
He even flashed on a thought: if he fucked the Supreme, would he inherit her aptitudes?
Fiona's carefully made-up yet old face popped into his mind.
Don't be a creep. She could be his grandma.
Rai shook his head and looked over what cultists were left. Time to finish it fast.
But by…
"Hey! Your mighty god came to pay a visit. Come look!" he shouted, hurling what he'd carried over.
Hearing him, the cultists glanced up.
In the firelight, the gator man's massive head tumbled down and thumped to a stop right at Jonah's boots.
Jonah stared at it, brain white-blank; the smooth talker had no words.
Until someone screamed, "God is dead!"
It was like pulling a floodgate.
Every cultist's faith collapsed.
"God can't die! He can't!"
"This must be an illusion! Witchcraft!"
"Where is He? Why hasn't He shown up?"
"He… really is dead!"
Disbelief, doubt, pain, despair, panic, all of it spread. With God dead, nobody had the courage to keep fighting the enemies who killed Him.
When the first cultist spun and ran, the second and third hesitated only a breath before following.
Very quickly, it became a total rout.
Including Jonah.
Faith can give people boundless courage.
Once it collapses, though, the disaster is like nothing before.
Like now.
After the gator man's head he brought did its job, Rai no longer needed to hide at all. He ran down the routed cultists and reaped one life after another with ease.
No one turned back to resist.
They had guns. They had numbers.
Anyone Rai caught, unable to run, only sobbed and begged for mercy, the old bravery of facing many with few gone without a trace.
Rai finally understood why, throughout history, the highest casualties in war often happen during a rout.
He showed no mercy.
These cultists had stained their hands with plenty of blood over the years. Every last one deserved death.
Hand them to the police? Forget it.
Never mind how long the case would drag on. Were they supposed to expose that they were witches?
So it was better that I personally preside over justice.
He blew out the brains of the man in front of him with a single shot, then looked ahead and spotted a moonlit, gleaming bald head.
"Don't rush off baldy," Rai called out cheerfully. "I still need to thank you for guiding us to such a surprisingly delightful place for adventure."
The bald shopkeeper, Jonah, shuddered all over.
Gone was his old "kindly" look; he did not even dare answer, only ran for his life.
Hearing the footsteps gaining on him from behind, he could not help looking back and screamed in terror, "Devil!"
On the other side.
Seeing the enemy in chaos and beginning to route, Madison and Zoe, guessing it was very likely Rai's doing, did not sit still. They grabbed seized shotguns and charged out to beat the drowning dogs, to make up for being surrounded before.
"I surrender. D-don't kill me!" An old man had broken his leg while fleeing and lay on the ground howling. Hearing footsteps behind him, he threw up his hands.
"The gator man wasn't as divine as you said in the shop, was he?"
A voice came.
The old man, Old John, looked up and saw that the speaker was the girl who had stood before the gator man statue at the gas station in the daytime.
He hurried to plead, "Y-yes. Compared to you, he's far worse. Spare me. I'm old. I won't live long anyway."
Zoe raised the shotgun and shook her head. "Perfect. Before you die of old age, stand trial for your crimes."
"No…"
Bang!
It ended.
Zoe lifted the muzzle, stepped calmly over Old John's body, and continued the pursuit.
She might look like a pure, cute girl, but after tonight's blood and fire, she did not hesitate when it came time to act. People called her an evil witch, after all.
The chase through the trees continued.
Before long, Rai, Zoe, and Madison linked up.
"Nice work, Rai." Madison's eyes lit when she saw the gator man's head, which Rai had thrown away earlier and now tied back at his waist like a trophy.
Zoe's eyes turned into little hearts.
Who does not want her boyfriend to be fierce and strong. If it were not the wrong time, she would have rushed up to show how excited she was.
Rai patted the gator man's head. He planned to hang it on the wall when they got back and smiled. "Save the thanks for later. Let's finish off the rest."
Of the forty or fifty cultists, only a handful of strays were left.
As the three pressed the pursuit, a string of terrified screams sounded ahead, then quickly fell silent.
Right after, a familiar voice called, "Shit, finally found you!"
Rai looked over and let out a breath. It was Queenie.
In the dark, with her naturally concealing skin, you would not spot her at a glance if she did not speak. She strode over, a deep cut across her neck knitting itself back together, a knife gripped in her hand.
Zoe hurried to her. "Queenie, are you okay?"
Queenie first shook her head, then said, thoroughly annoyed, "I'm fine, but my pants are wet. Shit. The guy who jumped me did it while I was peeing and knocked me out. No morals at all."
Zoe wanted to laugh, but held it in. "So you took him out?"
"Of course." Queenie still wasn't done venting. "When I woke up, I was tied in a shack. That guy put a knife to my neck and told me to be quiet. I ran my own neck across the blade and made him quiet."
Queenie told her story.
It was about what Rai had guessed.
She had gone off alone and taken a sap to the head.
For breeding needs, the cultists had not planned to kill her, only restrain her.
They had underestimated Queenie's power and got carved through instead.
"I heard gunshots and saw fire and knew you were here, so I followed the trail in. Ran into those guys and just cut them down on the way," Queenie finished.
With the danger past, she had not fled but came to help. She had not expected Rai's group to have the job almost done.
"OK. The witches versus the cultists game is over. The witches win." Madison tossed the now-useless shotgun, clapped the dust from her hands, and declared in the tone of a victor.
Zoe was not as giddy. She looked at the bodies scattered everywhere and frowned. "Rai, what do we do with the corpses?"
"Throw them in the swamp," Rai said.
Killing and burying the bodies was necessary, especially when it was dozens at once. If they left them and someone found them, it would be big news. And it would be a shame not to make use of a swamp as a place to dump corpses. Even if it did all come out later, with the efficiency of the police, who knew what year the investigation would finish.
That was tomorrow's job, though.
Pitch-black night, that many bodies. If you slipped and fell into the swamp yourself, that would be too unlucky.
They were also exhausted after so much fighting, so they returned to the campsite they had set up and planned to sleep first and deal with it in the morning.
"Ugh. Queenie, change your pants. They stink."
"Bitch, look in a mirror. You look like you crawled out of a mud pit. Change everything."
"I have a case of bottled water. Does anyone need it?"
…
Rai could hear the witches arguing. He dragged the horse-faced man he had headshot out of the camp so the stink would not ruin their sleep. He changed into clean clothes, then went into the tent first to rest.
Half-asleep, someone lay down beside him.
Vaguely, another body pressed close.
The scent in his nose was familiar.
Whatever, it's time to sleep.
-
The next day.
A scream shattered the morning calm.
"Madison! Why are you here?!" Zoe blurted.
She had just woken up and meant to snuggle in her boyfriend's arms a bit longer, then noticed extra long hair at his neck. Rai was not going to grow that much hair overnight, and certainly not blonde.
She sat up to check and found Madison on Rai's other side, pressed against him, sleeping soundly.
Zoe demanded an explanation.
Woken from a sweet dream, Madison showed no panic at all. In only a black bra and panties, pale skin mostly bare, she rose naturally, stretched with easy confidence, then feigned surprise.
"Isn't this my tent? Oh, wrong one. So sorry, I was too tired and my eyes played tricks. But I slept great. I'm really jealous of you, Zoe."
Hearing the common excuse and the hidden evil intent, Zoe's eyes opened wide. She was nice, but not being angry now would be strange. Sparks crackled in the air inside the tent; the temperature rose.
One airy line from Madison punctured Zoe's defences, "Rai's body is pretty great. Zoe, so how long can you two even be together?"
Zoe was stunned. Then, inexplicably, a little guilty.
As if only now "remembering," Madison offered an apology. "Sorry. I almost forgot about your… special condition." A beat. "What a pity."
Though she said it to Zoe, her eyes clearly flicked to Rai.
Zoe noticed and lowered her head a little.
In a case like Zoe's unable even to board drag it out long enough and most would have run long ago.
"Watch out for the other women out there," Madison added. "If they find out how good Rai is, they'll snatch him from you without hesitation."
'Are you sure you're not describing yourself?' Zoe shot her a look.
Madison's expression stayed calm. She arched those perfectly shaped, slender brows, leaned to Zoe's ear, and, in the tone of a seasoned pro, murmured, "There are other ways. Want me to teach you…?"
Zoe's cheeks flushed, but she tilted her ear to listen.
As the one taught and the one teaching carried on, Rai awoke for a while but, feigning sleep to avoid getting burned, listened in. Say what you will, Madison might be, in Queenie's words, a "bitch." But a bitch who's wholeheartedly on your side… that felt pretty great.
When their talk seemed about done, Rai sat up and greeted them. "Morning, ladies."
"Morning, Rai," they answered in unison.
"What were you two talking about?"
"Nothing!"
Zoe answered first, then gave Rai a kiss. Madison followed with a friendly cheek-kiss. Zoe's eyes flickered, but she held her tongue.
Days like this were lovely. Enjoying one beauty on each arm, Rai sighed to himself. Even with nearly a month of free time, he still wanted more. If only there were no mission quotas.
He shook his head, then clapped his hands lightly. "Come on. Let's go deal with those corpses."
"Rai, hit the gator man first," Madison said suddenly.
Rai frowned. "Why?"
"I heard them last night, apparently the gator man could, y'know, have balls. I want to see it with my own eyes, then cut it off," Madison said, eyes bright, slicing her hand in the air.
"…"
Rai edged a little farther from Madison. He was reconsidering his earlier appraisal.
Zoe stared. "You want that too?"
"Don't be so provincial," Madison sniffed. "I've heard soaking that thing in liquor is great for men. It's a remedy from Asia. Rai, you didn't know? Sell it to the Hollywood boys who like boys, we'll make a killing."
I only know snake wine; never heard of that type of wine. Rai admitted his ignorance. Still, so long as she wasn't going to keep it as some pervy collectable, selling it to fleece Hollywood idiots sounded fine.
Rai led Madison to where they'd left the gator man's body. Zoe came too partly to keep an eye on Madison, partly out of curiosity about gator man anatomy.
Passing Queenie's tent, Madison deliberately hollered to wake her. After some scuffling, all four set out together.
The sea of fire from last night had burned itself out; only a field of blackened ash remained. In a swamp this wet, with such strong powers of recovery, it wouldn't take long for everything to grow back.
With three witches eager to "see the balls of gator," Rai reached the base of the slope where he'd fought the gator man. Luck was with them: the headless body was intact. Last night's ruckus had driven the wildlife far away.
"There really is one!"
At the corpse, Madison ignored the stink and filth, used a stick, tilted, levered then actually pried the target into view.
Zoe and Queenie were not as blunt as Madison, but they were curious, and they looked. Biology is taught early here, and the culture is frank; they weren't as shy as other girls.
"A bit weird, but it absolutely fits Hollywood's taste for the grotesque," Madison said flatly. When you've climbed peak after peak, lesser hills no longer impress.
By coincidence, after her look, Zoe glanced back. Rai squared his shoulders. For a moment, he felt grateful to the Grimoire. Ultimately, though, he had good fundamentals.
"Knife," Madison said, hand out to Rai.
Rai came back to himself, glanced at the kukri on his belt that had done such sterling work last night, and quickly refused. Such a fine blade, he planned to keep using it. No way he'd ruin it on this.
In the end, Madison took Queenie's knife. One neat motion, down and off, and the trophy went into the waiting glass jar, ready to be soaked in booze when they got back.
-
Plop. Plop.
Rai and Zoe tossed bodies into the swamp; after a few splashes, they sank fast.
In the future, maybe gators would eat them; maybe they'd sink into the muck and never see daylight again.
Perhaps only a once-in-a-century drought would bring them back to the surface.
Of course, by then it wouldn't be just these few dozen.
If Rai could think of this as a perfect body dump, how could the local underworld and "upper world" folks, living here for hundreds of years, not know?
Far safer than digging holes or weighing them into lakes.
"The work is finished."
Done emptying the boat, Rai and Zoe rowed back to shore. Madison, handling the land side, glanced at the final corpse Queenie had dragged over and called the reminder. She was about to use Telekinesis to float the last few onto the boat when…
A girl's voice came out of nowhere behind her.
"Did you kill these people?"
Madison jumped, snapped her head around, and saw a young girl in a ragged dress, a little wild-eyed, standing there without anyone noticing her approach.
"You know them?"
Madison's gaze went cold; her palm flipped, ready to act at the slightest wrong word. They'd already killed so many last night; to avoid leaks and the trouble that followed, she didn't mind adding one more.
The girl with big golden waves of hair and deep, shadowed eyes shook her head first, then looked at the bodies on the ground with real pity.
"I don't know them. But life shouldn't be erased so casually. They should have had more time for food, for music to savour what's good in the world."
"If you knew what they tried to do to us last night, you wouldn't be pitying the deaths of this scum. Believe me, them dying is the biggest contribution they could make to others and to the world," Queenie said, walking over; she'd noticed the stranger too.
"Rare to hear you agree with me," Madison said, cutting Queenie a side-eye, then turning back to the girl with a smile. "Trying to play superhero like in the movies? Not smart, girl. When you see us murderers dumping bodies, the right move is to hide, not to end up dumped with them."
"So, pick your death. Fire? Bullets? Knife?"
Madison flicked her hand; a hunting rifle and a knife on the ground rose and aimed at the stranger.
In her eyes, whether this girl lived or died, she wasn't walking away. Since that was the case, exposing a bit of ability didn't matter, and she could see how the girl reacted.
Madison watched her with wicked amusement.
Sure enough, seeing the floating rifle and knife, the stranger blinked in surprise. "Witches?"
"Correct." Madison snapped her fingers. "Perfect timing, the great Dark Mother needs a young, lively sacrifice. Since you came to us, we'll offer you up."
"Dark Mother? Sacrifice? Witches serve someone?"
Unexpectedly, on hearing she'd be sacrificed, the girl didn't show fear, regret, or despair. Instead, her face held puzzlement, like something just didn't add up.
Madison was about to crank the pressure and make her "recognise reality" when Rai, who had beached the boat and walked over, cut in.
"Alright, Madison, stop scaring her."
He turned to the stranger, unexpected recognition in his eyes. He hadn't thought another Salem-blooded witch would show up here and meet them like this.
He greeted her and explained, "Queenie wasn't lying. These people were cultists with a lot of innocent blood on their hands. Last night, they turned their knives on us. They just didn't expect there were witches here and got killed for it…"
Rai patiently laid it out and then showed her the gator man corpse they hadn't yet disposed of.
"The so-called King of Gators, lord of the swamp. When I lived out here, I heard plenty of killings and crying it started with that thing. I didn't think it would die here." The girl seemed relieved, like a stone had dropped from her heart. "I believe you. Misty Day. Nice to meet you."
Arms folded, Madison curled her lip. "Sliding in this fast? No can do. Rai, you sure she can keep a secret?"
"Don't worry, I will!" Misty said before Rai could answer. "Actually, I'm the same as you, I'm a witch."
"A witch?"
Zoe and Queenie (Madison excluded) were both wide-eyed.
"Yes." Misty nodded rapidly. To prove it, she glanced around, spotted a dead fish belly-up in a puddle, walked over, scooped it out, and cupped it in both hands.
Madison, Zoe, and Queenie leaned in, curious.
A few breaths later, as Misty smiled gently, the fish in her palms suddenly flopped, alive and kicking.
"The dead… came back to life?" Queenie voiced what they were all thinking.
Even though Rai already knew Misty's power, seeing Vitalum Vitalis with his own eyes still shocked him.
Vitalum Vitalis, one of the Seven Wonders, can bring back the dead, but with many limits, often costing the caster's own life force.
Misty was different. Born with it, she had much deeper mastery and far less backlash from God's own hand.
No wonder that when preachers found out what she could do, they branded her a demon and burned her alive. She'd trespassed in a realm reserved for God.
Pity: the Grimoire wouldn't let this help him. If Rai died, his soul would be "contained" by the Book, becoming Entry 000. Not even a Supreme could pull a contained soul out of that book.
Looking at this walking resurrection pool, Rai couldn't help feeling regret.
Then Zoe seemed to recall something. "Misty Day? That name is so familiar. Are you the one Myrtle mentioned, the young witch who, because of Vitalum Vitalis, was discovered and burned alive by a bunch of church folks?"
When Myrtle had recruited her, explaining the dangers witches faced now, she'd specifically cited a recent case: a girl Zoe's age, not found in time by the coven, condemned as an evil witch and burned. The story had stuck with brand-new witch Zoe.
Misty raked her messy, long hair with her fingers, thought a moment, then nodded. "Lately, the only witch who got burned that fits should be me."
Zoe blurted, "Weren't you burned? Sorry, I mean, how are you totally fine now?"
"Who knows? When I woke up and realised I still had a breath left, I smeared dung on the burns… Look! This!"
Misty pulled a grey, sticky lump of shit from her shoulder bag and, excited, held it out to them.
"In Louisiana's swamps, there are tillandsia plants everywhere, and gator poo has a great healing effect. Nature has its own fixes, so I got better fast."
"God!" Madison clamped a hand over her nose and backed up.
Rai, Zoe, and Queenie, not wanting to be too rude, forced smiles and took a quick look at the dung up close.
Either not self-aware or just preferring her own world, Misty warmly finished introducing her treasure, put it away, and, in high spirits, said:
"I knew witches wouldn't be only me; there had to be others like me. I didn't know how to find you. Luckily, today, while I was meditating in the forest, I felt something here calling me. I don't know what it was, but I knew I had to answer. And I met you."
"I'm grateful for the call now I know I'm not alone."
Then she simply started to sing, cheerful and light:
"Her song rings like silver bells across the night… don't you want to love her… she's like a bird, her life in her own hands, and where will her love fly…"
Watching Misty sing and dance by herself, Zoe and the others traded looks; she really did feel a bit different from them.
When the song ended, Zoe stepped forward, smiled politely, and invited, "Misty, would you like to come back to the witches' academy with us? Headmistress Cordelia welcomes every new witch. There, you won't have to fear outside threats. The academy can also help you control your power better."
Unexpectedly, Misty shook her head without hesitation. "No! I still prefer living out here. Also, if I go with you, I feel like I will go into very big trouble."
Zoe wanted to persuade her again, but Madison blocked her. "Give it a rest. If she doesn't want to go, why beg? Honestly, if the Council hadn't forced me, I wouldn't have stayed either. L.A. is way too far. Who knows if anyone in Hollywood will even remember me when I go back."
"Relax, nobody remembers you now," Queenie added on cue.
"Shit…"
While those two started up again, Rai took out paper and pen, wrote down the academy's address and his phone number, and handed it to Misty. "If you run into trouble or just want to come to visit, head to this address. We're there most of the time. If it's inconvenient, just call me."
"Are they okay?" Misty asked, worried, watching Madison and Queenie's quarrel heat up. She accepted the paper without refusing.
Rai glanced back, utterly calm. "Don't worry. That's their friendship-building method. You'll get used to it."
"Friendship-building? That really is strange."
Misty shook her head, then looked back at Rai, sniffed lightly, and a trace of intoxication entered her eyes. "Your life-breath is so rich. No wonder you could kill the swamp lord, that thing that despised life. Can you come to my place sometime? Do you like music? I can teach you to sing. Also, I cook really well…"
Loving life as she did, she instinctively wanted to be close to him; that's why she completely ignored Zoe's face getting darker by the second, directly gave Rai her address, and warmly invited him.
If Zoe had felt regret earlier that Misty wouldn't join the academy, now she didn't; she even felt a bit glad. One Madison eyeing Rai was already enough; add a Misty and that'd be too much.
Rai was puzzled at first by Misty's special attention, then realised it was probably his 2.0 Physique "vitality." With his girlfriend right there, he wasn't about to say anything dumb. After a few polite lines and once Madison and Queenie's "friendly exchange" wound down, both sides split up to avoid drawing attention by lingering.
Watching Misty leave, Rai called the girls to finish disposing of the remaining corpses. To be safe, they burned the gator man's headless body to ash so no other creature would eat the flesh and become a new gator man and finally drove off.
By a democratic vote, they didn't head straight back to New Orleans. Feeling their camping had been "interrupted," they turned toward the original destination; with no more incidents this time, they happily played the whole day before finally going home.
Worth noting: under double pressure from Madison and the newly appeared Misty, that night Zoe proactively tried on Rai the methods Madison had taught her in the daytime. Still amateur compared to Madison, but Rai was perfectly satisfied with the different kind of enjoyment.