They had finally recovered enough for Luna to finish restoring her own equipment to a satisfactory level, though her newer garments would certainly leave one short of still calling her a knight. She wore a hand sewn cloak across her shoulders that was a little ragged at the edges of its black grey fabric that resembled the potted holes of a moth's appetite. Beneath it, a stolen tunic she had dipped in sap before washing to turn nearly black, and then sewn in small buttons she had stolen along the way. Her legs were covered by a metal skirt and padded leggings that had the blackened stains of ash deep into their folds.
Her hand adjusted the newly made red scarf, made out of a banner she had ripped down after felling the massive and rather strange golem of corpses and flame she had also rended her new found equipment from. Be that its remains, or forged from what she could make use of. Her hair was kept in a tight crown like braid that kept it from impeeding her as much, though Fia said it did make her look more serious, even a bit darker when the red fabric fluttered across the wind and made the pointed hat she had fashioned from wolf leather all the more ominous. She resembled a kind of brutal hunter who only sought coin or corpses.
Fia adjusted the new leather cuirass, made from a fallen dragon they had found along their trip. It was scalled and a bit rough on the outside, but the inner layer felt like satin against her skin. She was covered by a fine blue silk shroud Luna found in a broken castle, amidst a heap of shattered armor, and paired with a long black skirt made from scavenged satin she had managed to find along their various trips across this strange and darker land. She even wore a lovely little skull on her bust to conceal the otherwise low cut of her cuirass that was taken from a quite stubborn and solitary knight.
They had trudged rather far across trecherous muddy lands, under a few annoying caverns, and for some reason, her strange ally had insisted on inspecting every cave they had discovered, much to Fia's often exhaustion. Though, the modification to Luna's newer weapon was hard to ignore. It had an alignment of gears that would snap the cleaver like blade into a longer form, with a more razor sharp edge on the inner, slightly crescent curve. She could simply snap her wrist, and it would click into the longer form with a deafening sound.
She had also begun using a small dagger in her metal right hand that had a serious of chunks bitten out of the otherwise thick blade. Luna had taken a knight's blade and broken it in half before biting into it in measure segments with a rock until it fit this strange form. Fia had been confused at first, but she had witnessed the functionality first hand. Luna had fought a crucible knight, ancient brass, and rust colored warriors in armor as thick as tree bark and decorated similarly, and used the dagger to deflect a spear thrust that Fia would have thought impossible. The shorter edge made it swifter, and the divots made it perfect for catching the edge of any blade.
The knight had soon after discovered what happened when Luna clicked the extended form back and lost their head far too similarly to the slicing noise of a guillotine than Fia's stomach really had the strength to withstand more than once. She had gotten far more brutal as of late.
She had once fought by Marika's accounts with respectability. Not quite honorable, but she respected the rules of battle as laid out by a foe. She didn't resort to tools unless a foe used magic or inhuman speeds. She had a rather fiery determination against greater foes but seemed more than happy to leave the grunts alone if it was achievable without must hassle.
Luna had slaughtered every last knight, squire, and stray sheep they had passed. Whatever had happened inside during that mental break had clearly changed her, or perhaps it had awoken more of her. Fia had suspected divinity, and the revelation of Luna's status among them had not been shocking. Though, she had never acted like a god or a royal that Fia had ever met. Even in this strangely angriwr state, she never once made Fia herself feel afraid or uncomfortable.
Though, whatever honor or dedication to the rule of combat had clearly faded. She fought violently, purposely going out of her way to draw out as much pain from greater foes as she could with heavy, ragged slashes parred with dancing and infuriating taunts. She became a bit of a bitch, if one were willing to pardon Fia's mental tongue.
She had carved her way so effortlessly through anything she saw, to the point it had now gotten them a little lost. Her last little venture had ended with her falling from a cliff away from Torrent with Fia snagged on the sword belt, landing them next to the corpse of the soldier Luna had felled and in a strange and rather dismal looking swamp or marshland. The trees here were strange and bent in gnarly directions with lines like veins of dull orange cutting through not just the trees but also the water. The eater hummed ever so faintly with the hue or veins or roots, whatever they were, buried into the very soil itself.
"You alright?" Luna asked as she stepped by Fia. There was softness in her voice when she spoke directly to Fia, but it all melted apart around others. Sadly, Fia wondered if that was simply because they had not encountered even a single friendly soul. Only the raging half dead and the mutated survivors of whatever horror had recently and distantly struck these lands.
"I should be." She said as she wiped a bit of the wetness off her skirt. She quickly grew annoyed and simply focused on the bubble spell.
"Simply picture the water coalescing on dirt. Everywhere." Luna whispered, easily cayching what Fia was doing. Those eyes had a strange perception of magic, even before it was cast. Fia's body briefly became surrounded by a thin, cuildish bubble. It popped, leaving her as clean as a whistle. "Very good." She smiled warmly at the praise.
"Well, it is a rather easy spell." She responded with a little earned confidence now.
"Oh is it?" Luna teased as she looked around, taking in their new surroundings. "We could get back up, but this place seems interesting."
"It tastes of madness." Fia mumbled as the powers here became more apparent. She huddled subconsciously behind Luna.
"Don't worry," she assured her with a soft one armed hug, "I shall protect you." She whispered, resting her head to Fia's for a moment. It was a tenderness she was so used to giving others. She was still growing used to it in return, though Ranni and Melina were far easier to ease into.
Fia still felt a little easier, but it was clearly affecting Luna much more than her to be here. She had read of a power such as this, once, but she never imagined it could root itself like a virus into the soil itself this way. She had little clue of the depth of it, only that it had a name. The frenzied flame.
"Stay close behind me." She turned away, beginning a slow trudging across as she stared about their surroundings cautiously. Fia followed close.
...
"Who are they." Rellana muttered to Messmer, munching lightly on a little ration bar.
"Not sure..." He answered, rubbing her back from their treetop vantage point. "The binoculars won't give us much chance now that they are in there."
"Should we follow?" Rellana couldn't quite voice why, but she knew. By the moons, she knew these two were on their side. She just couldn't voice that until they knew for certain, but she sword she once smelled The Moon Princess on her, and she couldn't risk her either being a missed ally, or a dangerous enemy snuffed out early.
"Do you think they are of use or a danger?" Rellana watched the strange knight use that crescent cleaver to hack apart one of the strange lantern like abominations in the forest. She had figured out the trick of their invulnerability newr immediately, but not until after one had been around her long enough to plant the risky roots of frenzy.
Rellana considered that as the woman tore the creature apart like a frenzied animal, but it wasn't the frenzy she recognized. It wasn't mad, but more bestial. She attacked almost like a wolf that had caught its prey. Silent stalking, patience slow movements, followed by surging and sudden attacks. She had seen her do the same the entire time they had followed them. This wasn't frenzy.
She was just a bit mad. Rellana liked a touch of madness. She squeezed Messmer's hand tenderly, sensing the chance for this bizzare and rather bloody woman.
"I think they could be a friend."
...
"This is... haunting." Nahul said as they slowly approached a small clearing. She was covered at this point in those bizarre, insectoid, bulbous creature's blood. They resembled warped humans that had their heads turned into a fly's before being inflated by glowing orange blood until it resembled a thousand bulging balls trying to burst from a weave of tightly bound thorny bones that looked like tree roots. Dried, long dead tree roots.
The place they'd now found was a mansion. It was hidden in a clearing of the forest with several dead bodies out front. Each was beheaded with a spike sticking out of their dried, withered corpses. Kneeling corpses lined up to die. The mansion itself was hidden in a large cleared and burned part of the forest, tucked away under a cliff. It glowed from some of its ancient broken and boarded windows with the same dull orange light. It looked decrepit and burned, yet still stood as if clinging on in defiance like the bodies that sat as if praying to their deaths.
"H.. h.. haunting is c.. certainly a word." Fia responded, her fingers clenched in horror. Very few things terrified Fia this way, so Nahul knew that coming here was necessary.
On their way, or not, whatever lived here needed to die.