Completed The Sewers of Elbion

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

Lemures. Oh sure, darling, why not. In fact, why weren't there more monsters? Weren't these sewers missing a dragon or two? How about a few dozen giant snakes? Oh, perhaps several dozen trolls. Why, isn't there some room over there for a big pile of werewolves?

Seriously, and oh how this was the right moment to use crass profanity, fuck Elbion. It was as if those childhood notions of monsters under the bed had come true, save only that they were under the streets instead. Oh but it take some amount of convincing and complaining, but Claire would absolutely adore never having to come back to this godawful city. Alliria, Vel Anir, Fal'Addas, Belgrath, goddamn even Bhathairk, anywhere inbetween would suit her fancy fine, just fine, as long as it was anywhere...anywhere but here. She could deal with men--even women--who might be a threat to her life, oh yes, that was the world in which she belonged. Not this disgusting, brutish, and all-around nasty business of monsters and fiends.

Willis opened the door they'd come to. Claire flinched as cold water dripped onto her skin, and Willis had...certainly nothing bright and reassuring to say.

Claire grimaced, let a pained laugh that barely left the confines of her throat. "Now what?"

 

[Smiling One]

Willis' began to grind his teeth his heart beginning to beat faster. After a person crosses the bridge they would enter what was called "the lounge". It was a mini gambling rig of sorts full of dicing, cards and drinking. It was a recent addition since Fabien received many complaints over the years about the sewers being too damn boring. Fabien claimed that he was going expand his business to include gambling since that was on the rise in recent times. The people's criticism just accelerated the plans.

Willis hung around the lounge twice during his trek through the sewers and he was not particularly fond of it. Cheap ale and questionable practices spoiled his time at the lounge such as blatantly obvious loaded dice. When Willis protested to an Orc bodyguard, he snorted and told him that everything was fair and balanced. Hah! The game was fair balanced and Willis is the purest virgin in Arethirl! Normally Willis would be greeted with a smell of weed and ale but his nose picked up was the same old rancid shit that was pervasive in the sewers.

The young man then looked around and found nothing that looked like the lounge. The bar was gone, the barrels of alcohol and the gambling table is missing. "What the hell is going on?" Willis thought. The place he and Claire were in was a grassy plain full of vines and blackened flowers sticking out on the ceiling.

"The place that we were supposed to enter," Willis said to Claire. "Has been replaced by a garden of some kind." Frowning, Willis placed his hand on the hilt of his Cutlass. "Some one has been tampering with the sewer's passage ways," Willis said. "Follow me and stick close."

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

"Replaced by a garden," she repeated.

Willis had been quite insistent that the sewers were a "paradise" compared to the surface. Oh, that a fact, is it? Well, call Claire crazy, but she vastly preferred a place in which things made sense. Was it too much to ask to harbor reasonable expectations for happenings in the world? Oh but that was the problem was magic, wasn't it? It wasn't in magic's nature to make sense, not like the rest of the mundane world. And here they were now, some number of monsters vaguely behind them, prancing suddenly through a meadow of daisies (ah, not quite, couldn't even get that much if the sewers simply had to be tampered with).

Perhaps one had to be a little crazy to learn magic. No wonder Claire had not a lick of affinity for it.

If nothing else, their current woes she could blame on those ancient xenos who built the sewers in the first place. Because of course they'd lace their construction with danger and deception.

Claire followed behind Willis, peering up and over his shoulder from behind.

"I'm not going very far," she said.

Oh, unless she had to. Little details. Hmmmm.

 

[Smiling One]

This place was unfamiliar territory to Willis, he's heard of some cultists holding a garden but it didn't last long due to things being nearly impossible to grow. According to Fabien, the dark magic produced under the sewers over the years corrupted the area. There were always constant warnings to not eat anything that grows in the sewers for years. Of course there are always idiots who don't listen and end up either dead or a become a Ghoul.

Willis sighed as he tried to look around, of course Claire is acting up again. "Fine then stay here," Willis shrugged trying to look for a way out. "Have the sewers be your home then."

As Willis was saying this, black purple sludge crawled through the grass approaching Claire's boots. "Unless of course," the young man said. "You stick close to me so I can protect you. You've always liked it when I'm out there helping you out and we end up fucking each other."

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

A light breeze of confusion across Claire's face.

Stay here? What? Oh, she hadn't been specific enough, had she? She'd meant what she'd said as a follow-up to what Willis had said: Follow me and stick close. He, well, he took the little "not going very far" bit in isolation. Why, it certainly would be nice if this surprise garden was actually a nice and quiet refuge, then she really would not want to go far from the room instead of not far from Willis' proximity as they went skipping along to some Gate which, naturally, simply wouldn't be abandoned, would it?

Honestly, there had to be more ladders around here somewhere, xeno trickery or no xeno trickery. She was growing quite wearisome of this so-called "paradise" down here.

Anyway. The little mishap of what she meant.

"No, no, no," Claire said, swinging her hands back and forth in front of herself for added emphasis, unaware of her surroundings. "I meant I wasn't going very far from you, Willis. I was following you, wasn't I?"

A finger to her chin and a thoughtful gaze upward. "Well, I do suppose I ought to reserve the right to amend that little statement if our predicament changed drastically enough. Dreadful, I know, but what would you expect me to do, hmmm? Scratch at a horde of monsters with my nails? Oh I've my daggers, yes, but those are for stabbing people in the back, and that's easy; they literally have their back to you. Fighting monsters is just too...exhausting, to put it mildly."

 

[Smiling One]

"Oh," Willis said placing his hand on his head. "Sorry about that Claire I'm just distracted by all this that's." It was good that Claire was finally listening to him and she is (somewhat) offering to help. Though he didn't say it to her face, Willis wasn't impressed by Claire's fighting prowess. She's good with daggers but like she said only if the opponent was unaware of her presence and even then Willis felt that Claire would kill only when necessary. She's not the type of girl who leaves a mess unless of course when it comes to sex.

"Well you can always flash your tits at them," Willis responded half jokily while they walked through the garden. "Some monsters can't resist tits."

The young man then sighed. "In all seriousness," he said. "Monster Hunting is an exhausting and messy profession. Just hang back to the point where the monster can't you. Leave the rest to me okay Claire? I wouldn't know what to do if I saw your pretty face ripped off."

The purple ooze was inches away from Claire's boots ready to strike.

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

Ha. Flashing monsters. If only that wasn't an absurdity, wouldn't that just be pristine? A taming of the vile beasts by stunning them with the sight of something so beautiful they couldn't quite comprehend it, yet stood in awe regardless. Made for a fine myth, perhaps, some goddess descending down on a carpet of clouds or some such and bending the world to her whim in just such a fashion. Hm. A fine little myth. But that wasn't how grimy old Arethil worked, was it?

Leave the rest to me okay Claire?

"Oh yes, Willis, I fully intend to leave it all to you," she said. "Under no circumstances whatsoever will you catch me getting into a tussle with a monster. I'll not have you labor under some misconception that I was being anything but facetious. My nails? My daggers? Hah, hah! Why, someone could give me a wand that had the power to zap a monster to death instantaneously and I'd be just as keen to toss the silly thing aside and hurriedly take my leave while I let some actual Monster Hunters deal with said monster. I've not the faintest intention of ever partaking in such a profession."

Claire walked along behind Willis through the oddity of the underground garden. Unaware.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis laughed. "That's the Claire I know!" he said as he brushed her cheek and kissed Claire. It was strange no matter how vague Claire was about the Lumanari and no matter how much she got herself and Willis in trouble the young man just couldn't help but be drawn to her. It was mostly lust but Claire gave an aura of intrigue and beauty that Willis can't help but be enticed by.

"But if there's one thing that Monster Hunters are good at other than slaying monsters" the young man winked the corner of his eye seeing the purple sludge behind them. "Is that we are very good in bed. I mean it has a lot to do with the fact that we constantly risk our lives for little to no pay. You've witnessed first hand of our prowess."

Just then Willis whirled around, drew out his Cutlass and stabbed the purple blob about to attack Claire. The monster roared as it transformed into an amorphous sludge with two small white eyes and a grey tongue. "Sludgoors," Willis grumbled though he was smirking. "This won't take long Claire."

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

Claire flinched hard as the cutlass flashed past her, thinking, briefly, that somehow and in some drawn out and convoluted way she had fallen for a ruse, that in fact she was the one who was being played all along, and that finally the trap had been sprung. A common fear, one of the more potent sources of excitement and terror that came from her line of work, the electric thrill same as all the times preceding this one.

My, my, how the spider becomes the fly.

But no. Like all the times preceding this one, her sizzling fear came to nothing. Where in times before it was her cover on the verge of collapse, her mission on the precipice of being compromised, here it was a simple misconception, formed in the fiery flash of fleeting milliseconds.

Willis wasn't aiming for her, but yet another godsdamned monster behind her.

Immediately that electric thrill became poison, euphoric fear morphed to cold terror, and it was all too clear once again that she was trapped--trapped!--underneath a horrid hellscape of a city in this rancid and filthy sewer--strange garden or no strange garden.

Claire shrieked and jumped back from the monster and there for a moment lost her nerves, the final calamitous straw breaking the back of her resolve. She took hold of herself at each shoulder and stared down at the ground with glassed eyes. The Inferimps, the big monster, the fat monster, the elephant monster, the 'Lemures', this sludge-thing. It didn't even matter if Willis killed it because there would be another monster right around the corner. And another. And another. And it would never end! And he would die eventually and then she would die! The ghostly hand of despair touched her heart, infecting it with a drowning thought: this stinking, wretched place would be her tomb.

It was like Omega. Like Jericho. Only here, the monsters were without end and the well of luck would run dry in due time. And they were already lost, weren't they? Willis didn't even know where they were now. He didn't know! He didn't know!

Claire took a few more steps back, creeping panic clawing at the edges of her eyes. The walls and the floors and the ceiling all seemed to be as alive as that abhorrent sludge-thing, each staring at her with cold, hungry eyes. Crushing claustrophobia, the surety of sensing her doom approaching, the bloodcurdling screeches and cries of all those monsters tonight, all of it served to eat away at the edges of her already frayed bravado. Devouring her witticisms and her reason and her humor and her composure and all else and reducing her to a husk of a woman.

I can't take it. I can't take anymore of this!

She should have went with Kha. Or just stayed near the wreckage of the Black Circle Senior's home and let herself be arrested. Anything. Anything was preferable to this ceaseless barrage of nightmarish creatures, these hideous and dreadful things against which she had no hope and against which she was rendered meek and powerless. Men and women she could convince and cajole and coerce; monsters were the perfect counter to her charms and her guile.

This place would be her tomb.

She turned her back to Willis and the sludge-thing. Slapped a hand over her mouth. Hot and disgusting bile rose in her throat. Burned. And lingered. Its acidic taste contaminated the roof of her mouth and her tongue. She was going to be sick. Gods, she was going to be sick.

The sheer vileness of the vomit welling up brought with it some measure of sobriety, enough of an abatement from her panic attack to have a clear thought. Get a hold of yourself! Get sick if you need to get sick, run if you need to run, but get a hold of yourself, Claire! You're the heroine of your own story!

Claire closed her eyes and swallowed. A thick sound, the bile receding back into her stomach, and in its retreat a corrosive truth: she hated this place. Hated this "paradise", and she hated Willis for bringing her down to it. At the very least in Elbion above she could see the night sky, breathe air that was not rank and stale, and entertain the notion of freedom being a constant, of her options for escape from peril being near endless.

She stood there. Head bowed and hand still covering her mouth and shoulders hunched and eyes like those beholden to witness an encroaching and inescapable horror.

She couldn't stay here. All her intuition was screaming at her to run, run, run! The alluring tease of an escape, just ahead and just around a corner called to her, oh wouldn't it be pristine? She need only be bold enough to seize the opportunity.

Just do it. Leave Willis to his miserable monster-hunting life and do it!

Hope crept back into expression, eyes brightening and distant smile slithering. Her legs trembled, shot full of adrenaline once more, the remainder of the throbbing fatigue of her earlier sprinting erased in its wake.

She could do it. She could make it. Why, the night sky was simply waiting for her out there!

There she stood, caring not a wink about how the fight was going behind her, muscles tensed and coiled and ready to spring as soon as she decided to go forward, or back.

 

[Smiling One]

Sludegoors were very common in dirty towns. Whenever there was dirt and grime, there was a guarantee that at least one of those sludging beasts will be attracted to them. The Sludgoors preferred to hide in the deepest parts of the sewers. Places where people won't bother to look, due to their amorphous shape it was relatively easy for them to slip in consume whatever materials they can find and slip out.

Despite the Sludgedoor's immense size they had the ability to adapt and shrink through small door ways or cracks on the floor and were very fast. It was why it was hypothesized by Monster Hunters that they didn't discover the beast until 50 years ago. The Sludgedoor was hard to understand since whenever it was killed it dissipates into a green acid making it hard to analyze it's body. Madame Valkery managed to get some sample of its sludge and analyzed it at Wyvern's Keep. She theorized that the Sludgedoors weren't born but rather created perhaps by some mad mage.

Willis held his cutlass out and sighed about 1/3 of fucking monsters were the creation of some mad scientist or an ancient cult. When will people learn that playing God would just have disastrous consequences namely for the people of Arethril?! Maybe Sludgedoors were a recent creation or they arose from sea of garbage created by the people. Right now what matters to Willis getting out of here, Claire on the other hand was trembling ready to run off again.

"Claire!" Willis breathed taking out one more ice bomb from his little black bag. "Do not run! We're almost to the bloody gate! It's only a few feet from here!"

The Sludgedoor roared and formed a big brown ball and launched it towards Willis. It moved as fast as a boulder launched by a trebuchet and Willis barely managed to dodge and launching an ice bomb towards the moldy beast. The bomb began to sink inside of the Sludgedoor's slimy purple "body" not having any effect.

"Damn!" Willis growled an Ice bomb can only be activated if it a physical object. Stupid of him not to hit the ground. Thinking quickly, Willis picked up a pebble that was next to his boot and launched it at the Ice Bomb just before it was completely submerged. Almost instantly the icicle spikes sprouted out from the Sludgedoor's body as it slowed down struggling against the ice that was pinning it down until finally it was encased in a spikey icicle tomb.

Willis sighed and sheathed his Cutlass running over to Claire and removing her hand from mouth. "Don't hate me," he said kissing Claire on the lips passionately. "I love you Claire, I know this is a nightmare for you but look at me Claire. We are almost there. I will get you out of this place that's my promise to you. You're stronger than this Claire you and I have survived worse together remember that red skinned race from the south that tried to take over Elbion? You and I held them off. We can do the same here."

Kissing Claire on the forehead, Willis extended his hand to Claire "If we can get past these Gardens," Willis said to her. "We can get to the ladder that leads to the exit."

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

Utter revulsion, twisting up from her stomach when he kissed her. That rising sickness, held only at bay and kept from spilling up into her mouth and into his by a frantic and struggling suppression of will. She could taste the smell of the sewers on his lips. Taste it. And it was not simply the vileness of their environs which stirred that boiling cauldron of nausea in her guts.

Her intuition was screaming at her, begging her to finally see! And in the sharpness of mind brought on by reaching her wit's end, the erosion of all things save base survival, she at last thought she had. The whole horrifying thing figured out.

My, my, how the spider becomes the fly.

Claire pushed away from Willis and shouted, "Don't touch me!" She lifted her hands defensively, eyes wide with hurt and terror, backing away from him as if he, too, were a monster.

How she simply didn't allow herself to see before! All the little slips and clues were right there! But it was the final note, ringing hollow and false in her ears, that ruined the song of deception that had captivated her so. I love you, he had said. Willis kept saying that, ceaselessly, since Renaldus' house. But now--hmmm, hmmm!--now she heard it for what it truly was, and wouldn't she be one to know? Why, she used those very same words herself in a cavalier and cynical effort to control her marks, to manipulate them into doing what she wanted.

It was all so clear now. Why, wasn't it just convenient that Willis happened to be captured by the same cultist at near the same time as her, who just so happened to be a eunuch and thereby immune to her charms? And my, and how easily all those lackeys were dispatched, Renaldus included, those unwitting pawns! Hmm, garnering trust, "saving" her like that, just as she might with her marks, a tactic she in her own hubris never believed could work on her. And why oh why did she not immediately cut ties with Willis when she saw that he served a xeno--a fucking xeno--at the Monster Hunter Fortress! Everything was clear in hindsight, like how fiendishly coincidental it was that she and Kha were brazenly attacked at The Broken Quill that very night! And the flourish to finish the swordswoman, oh yes, Willis and his xeno overlord's plot all along: how Omega violated her very mind and extracted the knowledge of the Luminari from it! Ha! "You and I held them off", what reeking rubbish!

The Luminari was compromised. She knew it, she just knew it! And now? Now that Willis and his xeno grandmaster had gotten what they wanted from her? Well, what else? Time to dispose of her. Funny, oh so funny, how she and Willis just so happened to be running into a plethora of monsters so suddenly, hmm? Almost as if this seasoned "Monster Hunter" was leading her into them! Oh my, what an accident, dead little Claire, eaten by monsters and surely not murdered, the Luminari's wrath left unprovoked and only tears to be shed in the "tragedy"! Why else would he keep insisting that she not run?

There were yet things that she didn't fully understand, like why the elephant monster wasn't allowed to kill her, but that didn't simply erase all the rest of this damning evidence, now did it? No! Because of course there would be another monster around the corner, and this one might well be the one whom Willis--in his nefarious and serpentine scheme--allowed to kill her, to eat her.

None of this would have happened if only she'd gone with Kha! But then, neither would she have uncovered this venomous scheme, unveiled Willis for what he was. Not only a sympathizer, but an outright traitor to Mankind. She was the heroine of her own story, and this was how her story was playing itself out. A devilish villain, whom she had erroneously trusted, come to imperil her and put her through tribulation after tribulation.

But not anymore! Oh no! Now she, she had the upper hand! The spider come fly come spider once more!

Quick excuse. Play along. Wait for the next monster to come. Finish this.

"I'm sorry," Claire said, touching her cheek with a quivering hand and looking on the verge of tears. Womanly tears were always persuasive. "I just... I just want to get out of this wretched place. It's all too much for me, can't you see that? I'm not meant for this! Not like you are!"

A little quaking sigh. That's good. Easy when channeling real terror. Dry-rinsing her hands for added effect, finding that admirable piece of resolve to continue forward.

"I'll stay behind you and leave everything to you. You know best." Claire wiped at her eyes. "Don't tell Kha I... this all so embarrassing, please don't tell her anything about this."

She took a tentative step forward, making ready to follow after him, wherever he might be going. Said, "I hope that stupid gate is as close as you say."

Oh, but it didn't matter how close or how far they were from this supposed gate, now did it? The game was up. And Claire was ready to crown herself the winner at the first opportunity.

 

[Smiling One]

It was the first time that woman yelled at Willis not to touch her when he leaned towards a kiss.

Normally if Willis could tell that a woman wasn't feeling comfortable to his advances. Willis would back off and move on respecting the woman's wishes. It came off as a shock when Claire screamed at the young man raising her hands up looking at him with fear in her eyes. Willis was taken aback at Claire's reaction. She looked at Willis as though he was a monster "she's losing it," Willis thought. The young man read Claire all wrong. From the time he was with Claire, Willis' impression on her was that she was thrill seeking individual who hated to be held down by authority.

Claire was her own woman and had her own agenda. She dresses seductively not afraid nor caring of showing off her huge cleavage and was turned on whenever there was danger. As long as she was in a safe place witnessing it that is. There was a lot to like about Claire in Willis' eyes, however there was always that mysterious side towards her that made Willis a bit suspicious about her.

Trajan Meng, Lumanri, the Interest of Mankind. Not even Vel Anirians were this frothing of the mouth patriotic about their bragging of the human spirit. Willis sometimes wondered if all the seduction and thrill seeking about Claire was just a mask she puts on. Given that the two of them did defeat Omega and Claire did seem fine, Willis didn't think about it especially when the two of them fucked like Wilderbeasts in the night.

Now Claire is breaking down right in front of Willis obviously tired, frightened and downright pissed at Willis for dragging her into this sewers. Who knew what is going through her head right now. Willis thought that Claire didn't mind some adventure as long as she had someone looking out for her and by looking out it really means have the person take the hits while she runs off with her rush of her adrenaline. The young man hadn't seen her like this since she got kidnapped by Omega. Claire managed to brush it off as no big deal but Willis was still doubtufl.

"Claire....." Willis remained rooted to the ground watching tears form around the Claire's face. This was his fault, he should never have taken the scenic route especially if it was full of monsters. The sewers were simultaneously the safest and most dangerous place to hide in Elbion. With it's magical paths and dangerous monsters. The best way to disappear was to go inside the sewers.

"No Claire I got it," he said. "I should've been more careful. I didn't think the sewers would be a big deal for you since we've faced worse. I'm so sorry that you went through this but I'm going to do whatever it takes to get you to your place."

He sounded like a knight, disgusting but Claire needed to be cheered up after all. "Of course I won't tell Kha," he smirked. "I'll just tell her that you were a courageous and daring heroine after we left."

Willis winked and turned on his heel opening the door which lead to the ladder of the bloody gate. "There it is," Willis said. "The ladder ahead will take us to the bloody gate and out of Elbion. So where's this place that you were going to go Claire?"

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

Claire smiled.

In her mind a storm. Was he on to her? He had to be! He had to be be! Damn it, she overreacted when she recoiled and yelled for him not to touch her. Oh but of course such a rash action tipped her hand, tipped the whole deck even!

Just act natural. Stay calm. Stay. Calm.

It was all too convenient, yet another improbable happenstance in the long line of them. How Willis suddenly now, only after such an exposing outburst from her, oh so coincidentally found the door leading to this supposed exit. But she knew. Oh yes she knew! This was a death trap! That ladder wasn't going anywhere but to her doom. No doubt! He knew that she knew about him now, about his and the xeno grandmaster's plans. Good plans always had contingencies. Yes they did! Why, now it made perfect sense. Perhaps Willis thought himself compromised before, and so sent her into that room with the elephant monster to die, but figured he had not been at the very last moment and reconsidered and therefore saved her. Of course! It was all so clear!

Where he was truly taking her down here in this xeno-built sewer and for what sinister purpose, she would never know. Oh no. She'd fallen into this gambit every step of the way--with Renaldus, with Omega--but not here. Not anymore. Here the heroine would make her stand and crawl out from this monster-infested darkness!

Claire become acutely aware of the weight of the daggers on her belt. But she dared not touch them. Dared not do anything but play the sweet, unwitting lamb. The game was truly over: she figured out Willis' secrets, and Willis surmised that she knew. But she knew what came next. Both of them would pretend like it wasn't, like the game was still going on, each vying for the winning position.

And Claire knew the only winning move for her. Without a monster to distract Willis, the one chance she had to make it out of this alive was to not go up that fucking ladder first. And once he was dealt with, she could find the real exit out of these foul sewers.

Whatever you do, dear, get him on that ladder first. Get his back exposed and his hands preoccupied. And end this charade.

Feed him some made-up rubbish that will convince him its worth it to take a chance and get on that ladder. Act meek and obedient so he follows through. And do not miss.

"I was just going to leave the city, love," she said. "Until it was safe, of course. But I think that would be rather impolite to just leave Kha fluttering in the wind. Why, she'll be at the Luminari safehouse with the others, waiting on me. Perhaps I could show you around? Introduce you properly? Oh even if that's not quite your thing, I'll simply melt into the baths we've got there. And wouldn't it be a shame if I had to bathe alone, hmmmm?"

Yes. That was his weakness. That would work. Surely.

A few steps to catch up to him. Close, but not too close.

"After you, Willis. I'm to stay behind you, aren't I?" A playful little smirk to seal the deal.

And her heart pounded with fury and terror in her chest.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis was starting to become wary of Claire. It was not like Claire to play the helpless girl in dire situations despite the fact she doesn't like to fight. Even when Omega penetrated her mind, Claire while traumatized managed to be somewhat playful. The young man smiled and giving Claire a curt nod, but there was a part of him that screamed that Claire was going to stab him in the back. Literally. Willis had a feeling that sooner or later Claire for reasons of her own would back stab him. She wasn't exactly subtle about willing to abandon people in order to preserve herself. If Claire would leave Kha a supposed close friend of hers, she would definitely abandon Willis, even stab him if it meant she can get away.

From the time they've spent together, as long as Claire was placed in a safe situation she would be sassy and even taunt the enemy from time to time. Perhaps their trek through the sewers broke Claire but they have been through worse situations. Omega being the worst of them all and while Claire was shaken by the events, she still managed to have quip or two. "What are you hiding Claire?" Willis asked. If she were to try to kill him then it was probably for to save herself. She already blamed him for everything that has happened so far.

"Of course Claire," Willis smiled staring at her. She was an emotional mess but she still tried to smile and tempt him with some "bathing" time. "I would love that," he said. "You can't imagine how much I'm eager for a good washing and fucking after traversing these sewers."

Perhaps it would also be a good time to take a look at the Lumanari see who they are and more importantly how much they'll pay Willis for work. It's very doubtful that Claire would kill Willis now as she still needs to navigate a burning city full of monsters on the loose. Just as Willis turned on his heel to climb the ladder his entire body froze stiff as a board. It was then a yellow aura surrounded the young man following this sounds of clicking came from behind Claire. "Ah!" a mysterious figure crept up behind her his voice sounding like stone grating against the pavement. "More people! For my experiment!"

The creature crawled from the shadows to reveal itself to Claire.

A sickly person though it was capable of magic and intelligence. "Come," the being said. "With enough blood, I shall find the secrets to unleash the glory of the Age of Wonders!"

 

[Trajan Meng]

((Clarissa Mejeure))​

All at once the terrible thrum of fear and the trembling rush of thrill. This was what she craved, what she lived for, this delicate balance, this walking of the tight-rope named intrigue. And oh were the stakes so much higher then ever before! All the Luminari depended on her, on this moment. Trajan was watching, as her dear Kha would say. And it was even more than that. This, oh yes this, was her chance to escape this hellish world Willis had dragged her into, this monster-infested dungeon he had so desperately tried to lull her into thinking was a "paradise". This was her chance to rid herself of this xeno sympathizer, this traitor to Mankind, and put an end to his scheme! First him, then that xeno grandmaster. There was still time to warn Trajan and Kha and everyone, to set things right and pristine again!

Claire's smile trembled, even as she tried her hardest to maintain her composure and her put-on demeanor of normalcy. A sudden thought piercing holes of doubt in her mind. Oh gods. What if he didn't take the bait? She knew the game was up, and he knew the game was up, so what if he was resilient enough to not take the bait!?

There was no way she could best him if he didn't, she wasn't a fighter! She was the furthest thing from a fighter! Only by some slim fluke could she possibly win. But that was what it was going to come to now. She was already too close to try running, surely. So she would need to seize that luck, that fluke, or die.

AND THERE IT WAS!

What an imbecile! The fool gave up his advantage! She knew it would work, she knew it! Oh how she loved being right! Everyone had their weakness, the loose string that when pulled at the right time would ensure their complete unraveling.

Willis had turned to the ladder, exposing his back. Even froze as if captured by some arresting thought. Some yellow aura--gods no! She didn't know what it was but she didn't like it.

Now or never!

Claire drew one of her daggers, clapped both hands to the hilt, heard something behind her that she completely disregarded in her single-minded focus, and lunged forward.

Don't miss!

She thrust the blade at Willis' back, aiming where she thought his kidneys lay.

 

[Smiling One]

The fat creature sighed and waved his hand freezing the woman before she could stab the man in the kidneys. "You know," he said to no one in particular. "While being ignored has it's advantages it can be annoying when one doesn't pay attention to your musings." The creature scuttled towards a frozen Willis and Claire. "Weapons," he muttered observing their armaments. "This will not do."

Another wave with his hand immediately Claire's and Willis' weapons turned into blue butterflies which flew high onto the burning ashes of Elbion. "There is a certain beauty in nature," the creature mused. "We Dwarves never appreciated it oh well." raising his golden prosthetic a large bubble engulfed both of them and began to float. "Now my specimens," a smile formed on his face. "We have a long way to go I am so close to unlocking the key to restoring my people's former glory."

And with that the creature raised one of its four golden legs and began jumped onto the surface of Elbion, the bubble carrying a frozen Willis and Claire following him.