The Itemancer 2 Page 5

  “No.” Izzy replied, still invisible. “I’ve proved my point, and that’s all I wanted. If I indulge you now, you’re just going to keep wanting more.”

  Dee sighed. “You know me too well. We really are sisters aren’t we?”

  “I suppose.” Izzy said. I couldn’t tell anything about what she felt on the matter from her tone.

  Dee poked her finger at the air. “Coward.”

  “Barbarian.” Izzy called back.

  Dee snorted. “I wasn’t the one who started the fight.”

  “You weren’t the one that finished it either.” Izzy quipped.

  Dee stuck out her tongue at the empty air, and I smirked to myself. They were definitely sisters, regardless of how they came into being.

  Amy sidled up to me. “So, you belong to Izzy then?”

  I nodded. “Apparently.”

  She cocked her head. “You don’t seem particularly convinced of that.”

  I shrugged. “That’s the first time I’ve heard it said like that.”

  Amy nodded. “Fair enough. As calm and cool as she normally acts, Izzy can be rather dramatic when she wants to be.”

  I snorted. “You’re telling me. Still, it is kinda nice that she wants to claim me that badly.”

  Amy nodded. “Just be careful that she doesn’t go overboard.”

  “I know,” I said. “I think that’s up to her though.”

  Amy nodded at me again, and moved away to walk alone. I felt a bump against my side a moment later, and looked down to see what it was. It was Izzy, who promptly claimed my arm for her own like a queen claiming her crown.

  “So, I’m yours then?” I asked, chuckling slightly.

  She shrugged. “That was a question?”

  “No, not really. Just surprised that you declared it so… dramatically.”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think about our encounter with that monster imprisoned on the coast. I realized that hiding behind my fear wasn’t doing me any good. So, I chose to take the boldest step forward I could find.”

  I laughed. “You’ve mentioned that you stay invisible so much because of fear, but I still think you’re one of the bravest people I know.”

  She said nothing, but continued to cling to my arm for a while as we traveled.

  Chapter 8

  The next day, my arm was starting to get sore from Izzy clinging to it as we traveled, so I was glad when we reached our destination. At least, I was at first.

  “What is that?” I asked, pointing out at a sea of purple moss.

  Dee, her cooking skill coming into play for once, answered. “That’s a type of fungus. I could give you a lot of details, but basically don’t eat it, it makes you hallucinate.”

  I nodded. Even the smell of spores was making me light-headed. “Do we need to worry about this?” I wondered aloud.

  “I think this was the ants primary food source. Without them to eat it, and with nothing living to compete for resources, it looks like it’s going to keep spreading.”

  That wasn’t good. This fungus would effectively besiege us, trapping us inside whatever space we could carve out for ourselves. It would essentially kill any possibility of completing my trade mission.

  Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound from inside the mossy territory. As we watched, a clump of moss sprouted taller, absorbing more and more mass from the space around it until it was the size of a man. It was the same purple color as the moss, and I realized it was made from the same material. It took an awkward step, then another, becoming more confident as it moved. I watched in horror as a hole opened in the thing’s face. “Fleshy fertilizer things. You eat us for many generations. Now we strong. From now on we eat you.”

  With a yell, Dee casted a ball of fire at the creature. It wilted, but didn’t die. As it walked, it sucked up more moss from it’s surroundings to replenish what it lost. “We eat you. You look like good home for us.” I cursed. Once upon a time, Azeroth, former lord of Apocola, told me that the air in Hell had an absurdly high amount of ambient magic, which had assisted the rapid evolution of the ants. It seemed the same could be said for this fungal infestation. It had clearly grown some kind of collective consciousness.

  “Soon, no more flesh things to prey on us. No more pain. Just us. Freedom.”

  We couldn’t allow that to happen. I pulled Dee aside. “How big can you make your fire?” I asked.

  “The problem isn’t how big I can make it. It’s doing it without burning the rest of you alive.”

  I called out to Izzy, and she popped into vision. “Yes?”

  “I need one of your ice boobs.” She blinked in surprise. “Sorry. You know what I mean, those ice domes that look like boobs. We need one so the rest of us can hide inside while Dee does her thing.”

  Izzy nodded, still blushing slightly. “I can do that.”

  Plan cemented, Izzy, me, Amy, and Gwen cowered in Izzy’s ice construct as Dee prepared her spell. This time, Izzy had made the dome mostly see-through, allowing us to see what was going on outside. Once we were safe, Dee unleashed a torrent of fire worthy of the infamous Hell I had heard stories of growing up.

  A pillar of flame shot toward the sky with a roaring sound, and only Izzy quickly sealing the air hole on the top of the dome prevented us from being flash-baked on the spot. Eventually the flames faded, and we were able to look out at the range of devastation. What had previously been the remains of an ant hill was now a pillar of glass a mile tall. Immediately surrounding the mountain was a ring of more glass, followed by a ring of scorched earth. Some of the mold still remained outside that space, and we could see Dee squaring off in melee combat against the mold creature. Every time Dee did any damage, the creature would suck up more mold from surrounding plants, and it used the mold to form weapons which were able to hold up somewhat against Dee’s steel sword. That was what surprised me the most. The cutting edge alone should have been able to slice through a solid steel block, not to mention the massive amount of passive fire damage that the blade featured. I had no idea how the mold creature was managing it.

  It wasn’t entirely one-sided though. As Dee continued inflicting damage, the creature was quickly sucking up all the available fungus in its vicinity. It seemed to recognize its own predicament as well.

  “We will not go back. We done being food. Your turn to be food fleshbags!”

  It ran from Dee as best it could. It wasn’t particularly fast, but I realized it didn’t need to be. It wasn’t fleeing for it’s life. It was charging at the dome of ice. Izzy pulled ice from the dome into a spear, hoping to slow it while Dee caught up, but the creature didn’t even react to the impalement, simply sliding off the spike a moment after impact. An advantage of being made of mold, I guessed. A second later, a slab of ice fell from the air to squish the being. In terms of damage, this did very little, as the flattened fungus pulled back together a moment later. On the other hand, it gave Dee time to catch up, and as the newly reformed being began to stand, Dee stabbed her sword directly into its torso. With a grunt, she released a stream of flame against the creature’s insides. It tried to escape, but it seemed as if the flames were disrupting it’s mobility.

  As the last of the creature burned, it cried out “Food! We… Eat…”

  With that it was done, and the last of the creature burned away.

  “It seems like everything we meet lately wants to eat me.” I complained.

  Izzy looked me up and down inscrutably, “indeed.” I gulped in response, not sure how to interpret her.

  “I don’t want to eat you.” Gwen said brightly.

  It was too much. I doubled over laughing, to the confusion of Gwen. Izzy looked away, and I thought I saw her smirk for a moment. I felt like I was going crazy,laughing so hard after such a harrowing encounter, but perhaps I was getting used to constant danger.

  “What did I miss?” Dee asked from where she had burned through the dome of ice. I must have been laughing for longer than I realized because she was already
done with her extermination of the remaining mold infestation.

  “Nothing important.” I glanced at Amy, who had pulled Gwen aside, and was having a hushed conversation with her. Gwen looked slightly perplexed by whatever she was telling her. I wasn’t sure how she could be confused, considering part of the starter package I had made for my spirits included basic information about social decorum. I realized then that it didn’t necessarily include any warnings about innuendo, but that was an issue for another time. I shook my head to refocus.

  I smirked at Dee. “Still bored?”

  She shrugged. “It was something, but it didn’t last very long. Honestly, I feel like you made me too strong. I can’t do anything without worrying I’m going to cook one of you.”

  I nodded. “I’ve heard it’s lonely at the top.”

  She snorted in response. “Izzy’s the one on top, but she won’t fight me! I don’t get to be the best, and I don’t get to enjoy my fights. It’s frustrating.” The tone of levity had left her voice, and I realized she was venting her real feelings.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asked. I had solved most of my problems so far by inventing powers to overcome them. I didn’t see why this would be any different. She shook her head though.

  “You could make me weaker, but that’s not really satisfying either. Unless you had some way to find me something worth fighting, I don’t think there’s much you could do.”

  I shook my head. The only thing I could think of was to spend all my remaining XP to craft an opponent for her to fight periodically, and I couldn’t subject someone to a life like that against their will. Not to mention, XP was a limited resource. She nodded sadly, and we set to work.

  The next hour was spent watching Dee scour every inch of ground in our vicinity, hoping we could ensure beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fungus didn’t recover, and spread again. Dee even went into the now glassy ant mountain, reheating the interior. The rest of us watched as Amy revitalized the ground after Dee had burned it. She claimed that the mold likely only reached the point it had because it didn’t have to compete with other plants for resources.

  By the time Dee and Amy were done, a blood-red sunset framed everything in a definitively hellish light. Izzy had erected a wall of what could only be described as lukewarm ice for us to lean against. When I asked her why it wasn’t cold, she had looked at me, and dryly said “magic.” We were now sitting with our backs against the wall watching the sunset, Izzy leaning into me slightly. Gwen was passed out a few feet away. I found it strange, because item spirits didn’t need to sleep, and I hadn’t even realized they had the mechanism to do so. Regardless, she had quickly declared she was “just that bored,” and passed out.

  “Hey lovebirds, you ready to get going?” Dee called out to us as she emerged from the inside of the mountain. “I’m all done here.”

  I looked up at the sky, and considered before replying. “It’s gonna be dark soon, I think it’s best if we camp here for tonight.”

  “Ok!” She called back brightly as she moved to join us. Wordlessly, Dee began collecting stones. Given the lack of wood in hell, we had taken to gathering a collection of stones, and having Dee superheat them for warmth. Thanks to her magic, the heat continued emanating for hours, turning them into an effective replacement for a campfire.

  We spent the night there, basking in the heat from the stones. Since Izzy’s declaration of ownership, we no longer slept in large cuddle-piles like we had before. Instead, Izzy draped herself over me like a queen claiming her throne. I didn’t particularly mind, though I missed the heat that magically emanated from Dee. Izzy’s body was frigid by nature, and nights in hell could get surprisingly chilly.

  By morning, I was sneezing, and certain I had a cold. *Sniff sniff* “So, I’ve been thinking about where to go next, and decided we need to find some way to get to the mainland.”

  Amy nodded. “We would need a boat for that.”

  I grinned back at her. “I actually thought of that. We’re going to go take one from Firenze.”

  Chapter 9

  For the next six days, we marched toward Apocola. Surprisingly, Firenze hadn’t established any guard posts on the perimeter of the territory, only establishing small outposts near villages, or important labor sites. A couple times, Izzy winked at me, and disappeared when we were near such outposts, returning a few minutes later with fresh blood frozen onto her blade. I didn’t ask, and she didn't say anything. I wasn’t sure whether she held a grudge against them, or was simply trying to prevent them from raising the alarm as we passed. Either way, I was glad to be on her good side.

  As we traveled, I noticed that despite everything, the villagers actually seemed happier. They even seemed like they were gaining more fat, and I could only guess that Firenze had been giving them larger rations than the previous government. Once I realized that, I started to wonder about Firenze. Were they really the enemy? Knowing they had improved the lives of the people here didn’t fit with my view of the world. All I could do was shrug, and carry on. Worrying about it would only make my life more difficult.

  Before I knew it we had arrived at Apocola. Looking at the walls from a distance, I could tell they were well-guarded. Troops patrolled the entire length of the walls; alert, and with no obvious gaps in their coverage. We huddled behind a hill as we surveyed the defenses.

  “So, what do you want to do?” Dee asked. “Should we fight our way through?”

  “I think I would feel guilty killing that many people.” I responded, uncomfortable with the knowledge of how easy it would be for us to tear through the soldiers on the wall.

  “Plus, I’m worried about collateral damage.”

  “I’d be good.” Dee replied, batting her lashes at me innocently. Izzy turned to glare at Dee, who promptly looked away.

  “No, I’d rather do this through stealth if we can.”

  Gwen raised her hand. “What if I killed them from really far away?”

  “Why do you guys want to kill them so bad?” I asked, flabbergasted.

  “Because they’re dicks?” Dee said.

  I waved off her comment. “Doesn’t mean we have to kill them. What do you think Izzy?”

  Izzy pondered my question. “I could get in and out easily enough. You probably could too with some clever teleportation. The best idea I can see, is if everyone returns to their items, and the two of us carry them.

  I nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. It would probably be easiest if you took Dee and Gwen, since you’ve got the permanent invisibility thing. I’ll hold on to Amy.”

  Izzy nodded silently, holding out her hand to Dee who placed her scabbarded sword into Izzy’s palm. Izzy’s other hand slung Gwen’s gun over her shoulder. Without a word, the two spirits disappeared into their items.

  “Into the breach I suppose.” Amy said, a moment before she also disappeared.

  With a sigh, I went over the plan with Izzy, and we chose a meeting point. A moment later she vanished. We would have no way to keep track of each other in stealth, so until we met up again, I was on my own. I felt my mana depleting as I activated my own invisibility, and was silently grateful that I had dropped all of my fleshcrafting XP from fighting the mercenaries into my mana pool. It was increasing the longevity of my invisibility by a lot.

  As silently as I could, I snuck through the scarlet grass that ringed the hill I had been standing on, and slowly approached the walls. After some thought, I decided to sneak through one of the gates rather than teleporting over the wall. My mana pool may have grown, but anything I could do to conserve mana was welcome. The upside to the city being occupied was that there was very little traffic moving along the roads. That made it remarkably easy to stroll past the guards. Or so I thought.

  As I passed through the gate, a red light shone down from the edge of the wall, illuminating me despite my invisibility. A shout rang came from among the guards on duty, and a gunshot followed a moment later. The invisibility sloughed off of me as my
shirt took the impact of the bullet, stunning me. There was a sword in my face a moment later.

  “Don’t move, or I’ll skewer you.” The guardsman in question stated.

  Panicking, I fixed my eyes on a faraway rooftop, and dropped all of my mana into teleportation. It was far more mana than was actually needed for the spell, and I quickly dropped to the tiles of the roof with a thud, suffering the effects of mana deprivation. Bells rang across the city as the town guard sprang into a state of alert. I half expected one of the item spirits to decide the time for stealth was over, but luckily, none emerged to add to the chaos.

  “Is everything ok? It sounds like you got caught.” Amy spoke to me telepathically. I had added this ability early on, but it only worked while the spirits were in their items.

  “Everything’s fine, I got away.” I replied sluggishly, still shaking off the effects of the mana drain.

  “Alright, well let me know if you need my help, I’d cleanse this whole town for you, if you wanted me to.”

  I grimaced. “Since when were you bloodthirsty? Isn’t that Dee’s job?”

  I received the telepathic equivalent to a snort, followed by, “It’s my job to protect you. You are the Item God after all, and I am your item.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t let Izzy hear you say anything like that. She might decide to duel you for me.”

  Amy snorted again. “She could try.”

  Shaking my head, I shifted from laying on the rooftop to crouching on it. My mana was refilling slower than I wanted, so I pulled a cloak out of my pack. It had originally been intended as a backup for rainy days. Dee created it with the tailoring skill I had given to her, but unlike my shirt, it didn’t have any special effects aside from being a particularly garish yellow color. Supposedly, that was so people could see me in the rain, though I suspected Dee just wanted an excuse to laugh at my expense.

  Saddened by having to spend the XP, I invested five thousand into “Lesser Invisibility.” Essentially, it would turn anything covered by the cloak invisible, but wouldn’t affect my whole body the way “Greater Invisibility” would. Luckily, It was a very large cloak, and the hood was big enough to pull down over my face. It wasn’t perfect, but it would serve until my mana was fully regenerated.