Title: The Placeholder
"Anything useful?" I asked again, feeling bored as I swished about back and forth in my princess outfit. I'd decided that I wanted to fuck over the Kuei-jin in style, which meant changing over to 'formal wear' when we reached their compound, with some alterations. The blues were changed to a pale grey and I'd gone for a jagged crown made of dark ice just because.
Dealing with the outer guards of the Golden Temple had been easy enough, I'd used my sheer mastery of blood sorcery to combine the Theft of Vitae and Blood Salvo spells to essentially bootleg an AoE method of draining the blood out of enemies in my area while a pair of large servitors kept anything from getting close while I was doing the initial spellcasting.
It certainly took the edge off my hunger too. I mean I'm still thirsty, but it's a lot better than it was when I woke up.
And now we were at the boring part. Looting their library while we waited for Brook to get back. I'd gotten a single experience point once we started looting their 'ancient secrets of the orient', and while I'd like to maybe improve my Auspex a little more I'm actually gonna save up for Obeah. I just need three xp total to level it enough to heal up Yukie.
"Maybe, demon." Yukie huffed with annoyance and fixed me with a glare. "Stop asking so I can read."
Looting this place for chi technique scrolls for Yukie was a much better idea before I realised I couldn't read them to give her a hand. So here I was pacing back and forth cutely next to a rapidly growing pile of useless poetry and other artsy-fartsy junk.
The regular mortal goons they had patrolling the grounds certainly seemed to be chi capable - albeit fanatically loyal to the Kuei-jin - so we should find something useful eventually.
They were also vastly inferior to my Yukie, but that was to be expected. She is amazing after all.
My ghoul continued to quickly browse through everything within reach, the useful scrolls being tucked into a duffle bag I'd created for her with Chimerstry while the rest were being discarded into the junk pile I was planning to set on fire and roast marshmallows on.
Won't be able to eat them, but at least I can roast them. Perhaps I can sneak onto the top of the PRT building later and leave them there to attract seagulls? That could be funny.
The servitor I'd left outside stomped into the room with Brook in tow, the unfairly busty fledgeling looked fine so I guess she didn't run into any trouble visiting the Anarchs.
"Hi Brook." I waved from next to the pile of discarded scrolls. "I don't suppose you can read moon runes?" I asked hopefully. More help would be handy.
Owie!
"Don't be racist demon." Yukie admonished me, having meanly beaned me on the head with the scroll she'd just been reading.
I flopped backwards onto the scroll pile on the floor, as if I'd been mortally wounded. "Yuuuuuuukiiiieee. So mean." I whined, waving my arms dramatically.
"Deal with it, demon." She snarked back, not even bothering to look up from the new scroll she'd grabbed.
Brook watched our byplay for a bit before just rolling with it. "Uh, don't think so?" She answered eventually, having blinked a bit at the byplay and my alterations to my princess outfit. 'Moon runes?' She mouthed to Yukie.
My ghoul huffed in annoyance again, rolled her eyes at me and got back to reading.
"Right!" I chirped, kipping back up to my feet and skipping over to Brook so I could absorb the servitor that escorted her here. "Since Brook can't read anything either we'll go handle everyone still underground while you keep looting." I suggested to the pair of them.
Brook waited for a response from Yukie - who was now resolutely ignoring me, just like a grumpy cat - before shrugging. "Okay."
We left Yukie to her grumpy, anti-social library pillaging - after I formed up a powerful servitor to act as a bodyguard for her of course - while we headed off to the stairs leading to the lower levels of the temple. Don't even get why Yukie is so grumpy. The moon runes/moonspeak memes were the only good thing to come out of Sailor Moon.
"Well I guess that means I'll have something to drink downstairs." Brook commented when we reached the stairs and the thick layer of ice keeping anyone below from escaping.
Not that they weren't trying - hammering away at it like they were - but they weren't going to get anywhere and with a minor flex of will and blood they were skewered by jagged spikes of ice that instantly grew out from where they were working before they could react, impaling them like insects.
And draining their vitae right back for me to collect.
"Yeah, should be plenty. I've only really kept them trapped so far." I replied, laying a hand on the ice and absorbing everything. The empty corpses beyond collapsed to the floor as the ice spikes supporting their drained bodies disappeared.
"Good, because I'm thirsty." Brook said, glancing at the bodies at the bottom of the stairs and beginning to slowly assume her Typhonic Avatar form.
"Shall we?" I grinned cockily at the rapidly snake-ifying Cainite.
"Age before beauty." She grinned back, drawing her enchanted dagger and gesturing downwards. I blinked for a moment before realising she meant me.
It's gonna be awkward to eventually explain that I'm actually younger than she is.
Eh, I'll play it off as if I thought I was the 'beauty' from that saying if she brings it up. "Showtime."
It wasn't particularly well lit downstairs. The corridors were lit by the odd candle but light mostly came from Chinese-style lanterns hanging from the wall that glowed with a soft red light. Candles as well. I have the feeling they don't seem to believe in electricity down here. That, or they're trying to keep things off-grid.
Either way, Auspex gives me night vision so the lack of good light didn't matter at all. It's definitely a handy discipline that I'm gonna be getting some extra dots in eventually.
There were odd patterns on the tiles, which had me wary of traps. I'll need to keep an eye out because I remember there being some nasty spinning blades in the game that took me by surprise on my first playthrough, and since this is real life I can't just reload a quicksave.
Soon enough we encountered our first opponents, more of the mortal servants that served the Kuei-jin. The air was rapidly filled with the sounds of twanging of crossbows as well as the bolts shot by the aforementioned twanging crossbows.
Like seriously, why no guns? Some pistols with incendiary ammo would be a much better choice than easily dodged flaming crossbow bolts. Huh, maybe this is why they wanted that shipment of weapons from the Anarchs? Eh, thoughts for later.
I snagged some of the bolts that would've hit Brook out of the air - since her scales soak fuck all in regards to fire damage - with a burst of Celerity and tossed them right back. I let the remainder of the bolts plink harmlessly against my ice armour and drop to the floor.
I'd like to say it was one of those cinematic, hollywood-style action movie moments where the bolts I'd caught were launched back to pierce the eyes and skulls of their original senders in maximum style.
I'd like to say that, but unfortunately that would be a lie.
Firstly my aim was shit - crossbow bolts aren't really meant to be thrown like darts - and secondly I couldn't throw them with the same sort of force they'd had when they were fired from the crossbow. Not without buffing up my strength and I wanted to try something a little different for fighting this time.
So instead of an ultra-cinematic, badass return to sender counterattack the bolts sorta just fell off halfway back to my targets and clattered harmlessly on the floor. A little embarrassing, but they were all gonna die anyways so it didn't matter.
As they reloaded I held out a hand to stop Brook from rushing in just yet. Then I did something completely out of left field.
I started to sing.
I've only really used this for fun - and to fuck with Lexi - but never properly offensively, so this made a nice little trial run.
My voice rang out - enhanced by the power of the blood - suffusing the surrounding area with my power, enchanting, enthralling, pushed beyond beauty and into the realms of the mystical. My voice filled the air and their minds until there was nothing else inside but me and my song.
This was a skill known as the Toreador's Bane, a flexing of Melpominee that was quite literally so captivating that those afflicted by it would simply stand there and stare in awe, completely unaware of their surroundings.
A lot like a Toreador caught deep in the grips of their clan curse, hence the name.
It didn't affect all of them. Maybe a quarter of them managed to resist, but by the time those ones realised what was happening Brook had already leapt into action and closed in on them.
Soon enough she had the small pocket of resistance dead - or wishing they were dead as they writhed painfully on the floor while her venomous bite did the work - and with that done the serpentine Cainite took advantage of the remaining entranced buffet to feed and replenish her own reserves of vitae.
Once Brook had drunk her fill I cut off my song and finished the remaining ones off with that overpowered AoE variant of the Theft of Vitae spell I'd used on the guys outside, ripping their blood right out and streaming it into my waiting mouth.
Mmm, tasty.
"So what the hell was that?" Brook asked, wiping a little bit of blood off her chin.
"I have magic vampire singing powers. It's a thing." I shrugged, smoothing down the front of my princess dress and feeling a little self-conscious. Wait, why am I feeling self-conscious about this? I'm amazing. My ability to enthrall an entire crowd of hostiles with my voice proves that.
Well almost an entire crowd, but the ones that resisted died pretty quickly so they shouldn't count.
Brook closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled slowly, processing that for a moment before simply giving up. "Of course the pint-sized elder is basically a vampiric Disney Princess as well. Why not?" She muttered.
I let that slide. She's had a rough two weeks after all.
And I am technically a princess.
Brook looted a crossbow and some bolts off the dead - like the true loot gremlin, video game protagonist she is - and we continued clearing out this level of the temple.
At one point Brook slithered over a very suspicious looking bit of floor and I was forced to use Celerity to grab her by the arm and pull her out of the way of some bamboo spikes that suddenly shot from the wall.
"Thanks." Brook nodded stoically to me, her gaze mostly fixed on the trap she'd inadvertently sprung.
"No worries. Probably wouldn't have really hurt you anyways." I replied graciously. After all, in the absolute worst case scenario the bamboo spikes would have just pierced her heart and I'd only need to un-stake her to fix it. "Might need to keep an eye out for more traps though." I added.
Though to be honest, as far as traps go bamboo spikes were a particularly shitty one.
We continued exploring. I let Brook handle most of the enemies - including the weirdos literally hiding in the walls - while I chose to act as ranged and support. Between the armour I gave her, her scales and her snake-like warform she was surprisingly tanky and a serious threat for the Kuei-jin's mortal servants in melee combat.
And the odd actual Kuei-jin - revealed as such thanks Auspex's aura-vision, and the fact he was leaping around like a demented rabbit - which was more like a speed bump for her than a proper fight. Honestly I barely even needed to help at all, only occasionally tossing out the odd Blood Strike or Theft of Vitae spell to keep her enemies off balance or keep her from being overwhelmed while she dealt with the hopping menace.
The serpentine Cainite was looking especially pleased with herself after she'd practically soloed the jumping-obsessed Kuei-jin guarding a room with massive - and kinda impractical in my opinion - water wheels turning away at the sides of the room. I suppose it was used to provide mechanical power to turn the various ceiling fans we'd seen, but honestly it was super impractical.
Could've at least installed a water slide or something. I suppose Kuei-jin don't have a place in their silly dharma bullshit for having fun. Except the Dragon ones of course. They have far too much fun.
"So what's got you looking so smug?" I asked Brook as I simply erased the barred door blocking our way deeper into the compound from existence with Chimerstry.
"I've figured out how to make my bite venomous earlier and it worked really well on that guy." She replied, holding a finger to one of her fangs for a moment before pulling it away and showing me the tiny drop of dark green venom. "It's making all these fights so much easier."
"Neat." I grinned back. "Bet that'll be a surprise when we get to Ming-Xiao."
We continued deeper below, and I was beginning to doubt the local city authorities knew exactly how much space the Kuei-jin had carved out here, especially since they didn't seem to be tapping into the local power grid if they were using candles for light and water wheels for energy.
And not like electricity energy either, but mechanical energy where the wheels turn gears which turn other things like their ceiling fans. Fucking weird if you ask me.
We encountered a couple more shitty bamboo traps past the water room, but other than that it was pretty boring. We continued exploring - and I may or may not have continued drawing moustaches on the assorted Buddha statues with a permanent marker I'd Chimerstry'd into existence - and dealt with the odd asshole hiding behind fake wall panels.
Honestly they were pretty funny, they'd burst out - and get snagged out the air by either me or Brook - and then promptly get snacked on. These mortals were very dedicated to the bit if nothing else.
Soon enough we were heading down another level, deeper into their compound. After I made a complete mockery of some silly pressure plate puzzle by simply erasing the big Buddha statue that was blocking the stairs from existence.
"How big is this place?" Brook grumbled.
I shrugged. "Dunno. They've had plenty of time to get entrenched down here." I replied, eyeing some of the dusty corners. "We'll just have to- AAAIIIIIIEEEE!!!!"
I shrieked in panic the moment I spotted the monster laying in wait ahead of us while ice blossomed out ahead of me in a crushing wave of destructive force, scouring through the dark passageway like a glacier and leaving a wall of solid wall of ice between me and the hopefully dead abomination.
"Hehe, oops?" I chuckled embarrassedly, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. I dismissed the ice, revealing the scoured and damaged passageway. Remnants of flaming braziers lay in a broken heap at the edge of where my ice reached while the walls and floor had been scoured clear down to the bedrock.
Most importantly though, the creepy, horrific multi-limbed horror-spawned blight against all that was nice and fluffy that had been waiting to ambush us was gone, ground down to less than nothing beneath multiple tons of supernaturally cold, hard ice.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"'Dora. What the fuck?"
"There was a spider." I said, which honestly explained everything.
The tall Cainite eyed the devastation in front of us and turned back to me. "A spider." She raised an unimpressed eyebrow, then blinked. "Wait, are you arachnophobic?"
"Nope. Arachnophobia is an irrational fear of spiders. My fear of spiders is perfectly normal and rational. They have all those spindly legs and creepy faces and wrap things in cocoons full of billions of little spiderlings just waiting to burst out and eat your face so they can lay eggs in your brain." I pouted defensively. Spiders are scary as fuck. It's why I disguise Beorn as a spider cocoon. It makes my Calamity outfit like twenty bajillion times scarier than it already is.
Brook burst out into laughter.
"It's not funny!" I pouted. "Spiders are seriously scary, okay!"
"Hehe, it kind of is 'Dora. This big scary elder, afraid of a tiny little spider." She chuckled.
I glared ferociously at her. She simply laughed more.
So mean!
After Brook got her inappropriate giggling under control we carried on our explorations - keeping an especially watchful eye out for more spiders - and eventually found ourselves in a large circular room with fires burning merrily away in large braziers near a circular dip in the floor. There were four fancy carved pedestals set at equidistant points around the circular divot.
"What are those for?" Brook asked, eying up the pedestals.
"Eh, knowing what smug drama queens Kuei-jin are in general - and Ming-Xiao is in particular - we probably need to put some special keys on each of the pedestals to unlock a magical portal or something to reach her super secret magical sanctum of secret sanctumness." I said flippantly.
"Looks like we need to go find these keys then." Brook sighed, slithering towards the nearest doorway.
The passageways we were now exploring looked more like they were hewn from the bedrock itself. They'd kept with the lack of electric lighting, this time opting for hanging burning braziers full of burning oil.
Yeah I agree, Beast-kun. Fire bad.
The passageway we were following split off to the left and right, terminating in small chambers that each held a pair of mortals with crossbows defending a jade statue of some sort. Brook made to rush forward but I held her back - and skewered the mortals both, in front and behind, with spikes of ice that rose up from beneath them - and pointed at the floor.
"Wait." I said, forming a little lump of ice in my hand and tossing it onto a suspicious-looking tile.
The moment it landed the trap sprung, whirling razor-sharp blades scything out the walls at waist height like something out of the third Indiana Jones movie.
Hehe, only the penitent man shall pass.
Brook stared at the extremely lethal trap. "That… that could've been bad."
"Definitely." I nodded and proceeded to erase the blades from existence.
Chimerstry OP. No nerf.
Brook cautiously slithered forward, keeping low with eyes open for more traps. Nothing happened, and soon enough she was right in front of a jade statue sitting on its own pedestal.
"A jade cat?" The unfairly curvy Cainite blinked at it.
"Probably part of the key to reach Ming-Xiao." I suggested. "I think it's probably meant to be a tiger, maybe?"
We continued exploring, adding a number of other jade animal carvings to the growing collection of stuff: A dragon, an elephant, a crane, and of course the kitty we initially found.
With nothing else of interest on this floor we headed back to the circular chamber and Brook began placing jade animals on pedestals at random until she figured out the correct order and a freaky glowing portal opened.
It kinda reminded me of a stargate - from the movie of the same name - in that the middle rippled like a pool of water suspended in midair.
"Yup, see? Drama queen." I nodded at the portal suspended in midair.
I was about to hop through when Brook placed her hand on my shoulder.
"Hmm?" I turned to raise an eyebrow at her.
"I… Do you mind if I handle her myself?" She asked hesitantly.
I blinked in surprise. "Why?"
"I appreciate all the help you've given me, but it's just… I also want to know I'm strong enough to handle situations like this by myself."
"I can get that." I nodded, stepping to the side to give her clear access to the portal. "Have fun."
She nodded seriously to me, before stepping forward and vanishing into Miss Secretly-A-Tentacle-Monster's inner sanctum. Hmm actually, I wonder if I should've warned her about all the tentacles?
Eh, she'll figure it out pretty quick I'm sure.
I waited awkwardly next to the portal. I knew intellectually that Brook should be able to handle Ming-Xiao in her hentai monster form, but I still worried a little.
And as time ticked on my worries continued to grow. Did I accidentally coddle her too much and now she's weaker than she should be? Should I have conjured up a flamethrower or other heavy ordinance with Chimerstry to give her a leg up?
I was contemplating heading through the portal myself and rescuing her when she suddenly popped out of it - sarcophagus key in hand - with icky-looking green splotches on her clothing and a thousand-yard stare on her face.
"She was really a slug-like tentacle monster this whole time?"
"Yup, though more of a slug-like tentacle demon. Why do you think I left Yukie upstairs?" I quipped back with a laugh. "But yeah. She escaped from hell and all that, and it leaves a mark I guess." I added a little more seriously.
"Just LaCroix left now."
"Yup. let's go see how Yukie's getting along with the looting."
"Wow, you made good time. I didn't think we were down there for that long." I said to Yukie - who'd finished sorting through the scrolls she wanted to loot - once Brook and I returned to the library.
"It is easier to read when someone isn't asking pointless questions every ten seconds, demon." She huffed, before stepping up and checking to make sure I wasn't hurt.
I feel like that was meant to be a dig against me. Fortunately I am a magnanimous and gracious princess so I let it slide and let her do her quick checkup, though she still seemed annoyed enough from earlier to skip the usual after-checkup hug.
The three of us quickly strode back to the entrance, Yukie carrying her duffel bag full of loot protectively. I was pretty eager to see what sort of bullshit chi powers she'd be able to learn in the future.
Maybe I can make some disciplines based off some of it too? That's how Saulot made Obeah/Valeren after all. Then again he was learning from some Keui-jin master of some sort too.
Eh whatever, thoughts for later.
Stepping through the ostentatious outer gates I stopped and turned around before flexing with Chimerstry. The Golden Temple rapidly dissolved before my eyes, each plank, every brick, each tiny little perfectly manicured blade of grass, everything all dissolving away as I convinced the reality itself they were really just air instead of a fancy oriental palace.
And when the upper level was done I did the same to the lower levels, until nothing remained but the outer wall surrounding an empty pit where the Kuei-jin's stronghold had been.
And all the corpses. Gotta give the PRT something to occupy themselves with while Brook goes all muder spree on LaCroix. Who knows, maybe the paperwork from all this fallout will give their paper pushes nightmares for weeks.
Yukie and Brook just stared at my handiwork.
"Could you have just done that this whole time?" Brook asked, her expression flat as she turned to stare at me.
"Yeah, but then Yukie wouldn't have gotten her bag of goodies." I nodded my head towards my demon hunter and the aforementioned duffle bag.
And now that the Kuei-jin were done it was time to leave.
We headed back towards the main street, arriving just as my Sire was pulling up with his expert timing. I also spotted a payphone, which gave me a great a idea.
After all, making something to occupy the PRT's attention is kinda pointless without them knowing they should be wasting time with it.
"Be there in a sec." I told the other two before rushing over to the phone and dialling the PRT. Fortunately calling emergency numbers didn't require money, not that it'd matter anyways since I can easily Chimerstry up some coins.
"Hello L.A PRT, what is your emergency?" The operator on the other end answered.
I quickly explained that there were a lot of dead bodies and suspected parahuman shenanigans over at the Golden temple, disguising my voice by simply putting on an obnoxiously over the top fake oriental-sounding accent. Then I hung up before they could reply or Yukie could overhear my terrible accent and get even more unfairly annoyed with me.
Sure, I sounded stupid, but as long as they sent someone to investigate then that should buy Brook the time she needed to get rid of Frenchie.
I quickly rushed back to the taxi and hopped in, sitting next to Brook in the back because Yukie was still annoyed and had taken the front seat.
I also used Chimerstry to coat the distant walls of the Golden Temple with oil before setting it on fire, just to make sure the PRT took that call seriously. Kinda hard not to when there's big plumes of billowing smoke rising up into the air.
"Where to?" My Sire asked, and I considered getting him a thesaurus so he could get another line. Sure it's iconic, but I've heard it a lot these last two weeks…
"Venture Tower." Brook stated firmly, before turning to me. "I want to handle LaCroix on my own. He's been using me as his little bitch since I was embraced and called it mercy. His arrogant Ventrue ass is mine."
"Of course. He's all yours." I nodded along. "Just give him a kick in the vagina for me."
"He doesn't have a vagina."
"Of course he does, he's a massive pussy." I joked back, earning some proper throaty laughs from Brook and easing the tension she'd been feeling.
"Thanks 'Dora. I needed that." She said, once she'd gotten her laughter under control.
"You're welcome. Oh, and speaking of things you need. It's dangerous to go alone, take this." I waved my hand and some new goodies appeared right in her lap. I had to resist the urge to giggle like a lunatic at her face.
"'Dora what the fuck?"
"Language, lesser demon." Yukie piped up from the front seat - having stolen shotgun, the traitor - while I could tell Caine was struggling to keep his poker face.
It had been a slog full of fighting and interspersed with bouts of gluttonous feeding as Brook made her way up the Venture Tower, dealing with security guards - including some sort of special forces team masquerading as a private security team armed with military ordinance - and more kindred. Ventrue if she'd have to guess, but neither she nor the dragonfire rounds blasting out of her trusty shotgun really discriminated by clan.
Brook prided herself on being an equal-opportunity asskicker.
Fortunately Chunk - the overweight, slightly dim but still kind of endearing security guard - had not been present. She'd have felt bad if she'd needed to kill the genial fat man as well on her slaughter to the top.
But she'd made it. She was here. All that stood between that French ponce and some justified retribution was the improbably tall and hulking figure of the Sheriff.
The silent giant had discarded his coat and shirt, leaving his heavily muscled upper body on display made it obvious that he didn't need any skill with Potence in order to swing that sword about one handed.
However, ditching the long coat she could maybe understand, it could get in the way during a serious fight. The shirt though not so much. It wasn't as if it would act as a distraction. She wasn't into that sort of thing. She liked soft curves herself, something that Heather had in abundance.
But if the Sheriff didn't want to wear any armour to protect his upper body, who was she to judge?
"Thanks 'Dora." The serpentine kindred muttered as she pulled the fuckmothering rocket launcher free from her back and leveled it at the confused-looking Sheriff.
*BOOOM!!!!*
When the dust cleared she was surprised to find him still alive - if only barely - albeit he was not still in one piece. His arms were gone, there were massive burns all over his body and his lower half was just missing. The once-hulking and indomitable Sheriff was just barely this side of torpor.
Brook slithered forward and grabbed the injured kindred by the throat, hoisting him up to look him in the eye. "Your boss is next." She grinned, her smile widening more and more as her mouth and then jaw literally split apart like a snake's, stretching out to reveal her distended jaw and highly venomous fangs.
Her fangs sunk into his flesh easily, injecting him with a fatal dose of painful venom before she dropped him to the floor and slithered past, leaving the once mighty kindred and symbol of LaCroix's tyranny to meet his Final Death alone and in pain.
Prince LaCroix's office was exactly as she remembered it, but not as she expected it. There were no last minute surprise ambushes, no secret hidden turrets.
No defences left at all.
LaCroix himself, Camarilla Prince of Los Angeles, was standing haughtily beside his desk.
"Like sire, like childe. I should have killed you that night. How could someone as lowly as you injure me? You may think you've taken everything away, but I still have my sarcophagus."
"Well you need this to open it." Brook replied smugly, waving the key about in front of his face.
"You've done all the work for me once again." The bastard gloated, actually gloated! As if he hadn't lost so much already in the past twenty minutes. "So much to learn, fledgeling. I thought I had lost it all, but no, here you've sailed on a Gehenna wind, bearing my salvation - and the key to my future."
Brook stared at him incredulously. "You use me, betray me, set a fucking blood hunt on me, and you still think I'm just going to hand it over? Did that Ventrue stick up your ass pierce so far it addled your brain?!"
The smug Frenchman ignored her question. "Give - me - the - key." He demanded, pressing at her with Dominate.
But unlike every other time, the Dominate attempt slipped right off. He was unable to sink his hooks into her mind. It was a shock to her, but certainly a welcome one.
"Fuck you, you euro-trash piece of shit." The serpentine kindred laughed right in his shocked face.
"I said give - me - the - key!" He tried again, desperation in his eyes.
And failed again.
Rather than let him try for a third time Brook grabbed that ridiculous letter opener off of his pathetically small desk. And seriously why does he have an ahnk-style letter opener in the first place? He's as Egyptian as she is, which is to say not at all. Regardless, she picked up the stupid ornament and stabbed him with it.
Repeatedly.
Damn that felt cathartic. The shock on his youthful-looking face would be a treasured memory forever. She would need to ask 'Dora if there was a way to preserve memories.
And then she spun in place and began to leave, the once proud 'prince' on his knees, ranting and bleeding on the floor. It didn't matter what he had to say. He had no hold on her anymore.
She paused and spared the pathetic piece of shit one last glance before dropping the key in the centre of the room. It fell to the floor with a heavy thunk, now beyond her care as she stalked off and left him to his fate. Right now she wanted to get back to the monastery and cuddle with Heather. The mystery of the sarcophagus could wait another night.
She had suspicions about that damn box, and was quite certain LaCroix wasn't going to like what he found inside it.
Brook chuckled darkly to herself as debris rained down on the streets from above. She didn't know quite how the top of the tower had just exploded, but she had a good idea who had just died in the blast and the why.
Her good mood died when she spotted the gathered Anarchs all waiting for her with approving smiles.
Nines stepped forward, still injured but with a huge smile on his face. "Good j-"
Brook's fist interrupted whatever he was going to say. "Fuck you and fuck the Anarchs! You all talk big about not sending youngsters out to fight and die for their elders and fucking leave me high and dry to take on Xiao and LaCroix!!" Brook yelled, finally giving these assholes a piece of her mind. "In fact only one person has even bothered to properly help me and none of you are her!!"
Nines looked shocked as he clutched his now-broken nose. "Look kid we-"
"No!" She yelled back. "Fuck you." She glared him right in the face.
Then she spun to face Skelter. "Fuck you."
Then Damsel. "Especially fuck you, you bitch."
She looked at another Anarch vampire she didn't recognise and paused for a moment before deciding she didn't give a shit. "Don't know you, but fuck you anyway."
She spun back to the flabbergasted Nines. "And fuck you again. Fuck the lot of you, I'm out." She snarled before stomping right past their useless asses - and flipping them all off with both hands for good measure - before hopping in the back of a very familiar taxi.
"Where to?" The driver drawled.
"'Dora. She owes me some answers."
After dropping Brook off at the Venture Tower so she could exact some justified vengeance, Caine drove us off, presumably towards where Jack was waiting to watch the fireworks.
I sat in the back of the taxi, now snuggled up against Yukie, who'd finally forgiven me for whatever it was I did that annoyed her. I was also looking over my Character Sheet, having gotten two experience points for the whole Kuei-jin thing and knew exactly where to put them.
Just gotta reassure her first, since sudden third-eye may be a little shocking. "Hey Yukie. I can get healing powers now. Is it okay if I patch you up?"
"Yes please." She nodded eagerly. Sitting out of the fighting earlier obviously didn't sit well with her at all, even if she did get a whole bunch of probably-rare chi scrolls out of it.
"Okay then, just relax."
I quickly dumped all three right in Obeah. With a touch I could now: diagnose any injuries or sickness; prevent all feelings of pain and/or put the target to sleep; and lastly heal injuries.
There was a slight feeling of itching as my third-eye appeared on my forehead, and a small gasp from Yukie, but I ignored that for now to focus on healing her.
I vanished her armour and bandages with chimerstry and placed my hand under her shirt directly on her belly, removing her pain first so she wouldn't feel the discomfort of her injuries pressing against her clothing.
Then I began healing her, a soft blue glow from my third-eye lightly illuminating her face as I worked, pausing now and then to use that diagnostic touch to see how the healing was progressing.
"Feeling better?" I asked, once she was fully healed and I turned off the pain-blocking power.
"Much better, demon." She smiled at me.
"Good." I grinned back, removing my hand from beneath her shirt.
"So, you have another eye now." She commented with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, it comes with the healing powers." I nodded before forming up an ice mirror and taking a look.
I had a large vertical third eye on my forehead, easily visible with the short and spiky fringe I'd given myself. Pretty cool actually. It's basically exactly like the one from the DMP logo I'd stolen for my Calamity outfit's mask. The only difference is it was a pale blue matching my other eyes, instead of being purple like the DMP logo was.
I made it blink a couple times, flexing the new muscles that came with new eyelids. Gonna be awkward to hide though, unless…
A quick flex of Chimerstry and it vanished, replaced with smooth skin, the extra sight it gave vanishing as well. Then I touched Yukie's arm and focused on the Obeah diagnostic power and it reappeared. Also Yukie is in one hundred percent health.
Neat, so I can turn it on and off whenever I need.
I vanished it and my ice mirror and leant against Yukie.
My thoughts turned back to the events of the night, and how I'd basically reduced the Kuei-jin's fancy stronghold to nothing with ease. In fact if Yukie and Brook hadn't been there I probably would've just done that from the start before simply just eating Ming-Xiao while she had a meltdown at all her plans collapsing.
I… it was just so… easy… to be a person of mass destruction. I wasn't even as scary as I could be either. Max out a couple more disciplines and I doubt anyone short of Caine would be able to stop me if I flipped out. Hell maxed out Fortitude would let me facetank nukes.
Actually with Celerity at this level I may actually be able to outrun a nuclear explosion. Or at least the shockwave, not sure how fast the heat travels.
Still, it's kinda scary.
"Something on your mind, Childe." My Sire said, diverting my attention to something other than how stupidly scary I could be.
"I'm just worried, I guess." I said slowly, trying to put my thoughts into words. "I'm stupidly strong now, and it's starting to sink in a little. Using my Character Sheet to gain powers is amazing, it means I can defend myself now, but it's all happened so fast and I'm worried I won't have the wisdom or experience to use these powers wisely."
Yukie pulled me tighter against her in a show of silent support. I gave her a smile of thanks.
"I guess I'm just worried it'll go to my head. I don't… I don't really want to wind up going on a crazy power trip and become somebody I'm not. If that makes sense." I continued trying to explain to my Sire.
"It does. The power in your blood is something you will grow into with time. I cannot say you will not make mistakes, Amity, but the important part is learning from them." He smiled, then his tone turned rueful. "Something the kindred of these nights seem to have trouble with."
That made me feel a lot better. Well the first part at least. I could totally understand the latter part. Although…
"I think Brook may surprise you."
He chuckled. "Is it because of her own strength of character, or because you stacked the deck in her favour I wonder?"
"Eh, guilty." I shrugged. "But she was so fresh and new and needed someone to look out for her."
"The Fourth Tradition exists for a reason. I am proud of you for taking it upon yourself to act as an elder to teach her, even if you didn't decide to formally adopt her when she was on trial."
"Wait, I could've done that this whole time?"
His smug silence was confirmation enough.
Ugh I'm a dumbass.
Stop laughing at me Sire! And you too Yukie!