Tristiana refuses to answer

“Eris probably knows more than either of us. Try poking what’s left of her brain for intel.” Tristiana said as Bey squinted her eyes at the answer. An answer like this that was open ended was neither a lie or the whole truth, something that wouldn’t trigger a lie detecting artifact. If she didn’t know anything, she would have just said no.

She was hiding something.

“... So what’s our endgame?” Bey asked, hiding her own growing caution as Tristiana stared blankly at her.

“What does Eris say the plan is?” She asked as Bey mulled over the answer. Bey’s words were always incoherent, but there was one phrase she was oddly fixated on. Whenever she was asked what they were trying to do, she’d give the same phrase word for word. What stood out, however, weren’t the words but the deadpan expression Eris always had when speaking, as though someone else was puppeting her body.

“Extinguish the Light. Make a new leader of darkness.” Bey answered, the image of Eris’ face and tone from that moment sending chills down her spine even now. After hearing the words Tristiana smirked, as though this were the answer she was looking for.

“Our goal is to save Eren from his current situation. After that he can take over from there.” Tristiana said, treating Eren as the supposed new leader of darkness. Despite hearing their plan, Bey couldn’t help but bite her lip. She had a rough idea of how everyone else ended up, but she knew Eren was a lost cause. There was no saving him.

“Is that even possible? From what I remember he ended up-” She began, only for Tristiana to open her inventory before Bey could finish her sentence. The air changed, growing thicker than molasses as Bey had to actively **** herself to breath, the items Tristiana had pulled out emanating power far beyond any other artifact ever forged in Ruyanei.

“It’s possible. I was given two things that would let us save him. The only thing I needed was enough artifacts for hybridization and the Gloves of Purification.” Tristiana said while holding her hands up, holding up two strange objects she pulled from her inventory.

The first item clutched in her right hand was a long, thorny stem that bloomed at the tip into a crimson flower, innumerable layers folded within it as it bloomed outwards. A pleasant floral scent wafted from it, the smell somehow familiar to Bey as she tried to identify where she smelled it. It looked like a normal flower, yet there was an ominous aura around it, the mere sight of it causing Bey’s stomach to churn. Despite her growing nausea, she felt an urge of terror as she recognized the flower, the blooming crimson petals plastered on Eren’s mercenary company. Eren had said it was a flower that did not exist, yet clutched in Tristiana’s fingers was undoubtedly a rose.

Her left hand carried a small gem the size of a marble, a faint white glow emanating from it. Bey’s gut said that it was a monster core, yet there was a power to the core she had never felt before. The color was too pure white, and the aura around it was unlike any other monster core she had seen in her life, the aura beckoning her like a moth to the flame. Rather, the air around it was less like a monster core and more like a Divine Blessing, the air around it warm and welcoming. Both artifacts were unfathomably powerful, yet polar opposites, the sight of both of them causing Bey’s head to spin as she fought to stay upright. Tristiana looked down at the rose, taking care not to prick herself on the innumerable thorns.

“This is called the Legacy of the Dead.” She said, rolling it between her fingers and continuing to speak. “Creating one of these costs the life of the hero who used the Blessing. In exchange, if you ram this into another person’s heart, it passes on that hero’s strength and Blessings to them while also giving them the ability to use Legacy of the Dead.” She continued as Bey stared at the flower, silently understanding just how Tristiana knew their benefactor was dead. There was no such thing as free power in this world. There was always a cost to power, whether that was through training or offerings to the gods. An artifact that promised instant power had to be offset by equal loss. .

“It sounds like a more permanent version of a vampire’s abilities.” Bey noted, the theft of skills and Blessings the trademark ability of the sanguine monsters. As she said that, her eyes looked over to the monster core in Tristiana’s hand, curious to hear what exactly they intended to turn Eren into. “And the monster core we’re putting in him?”

“It's an artificial monster species created by the Ancients as an apex predator of all life. They have the special ability to devour the souls of their enemies.” She said, her words doing little to reassure Bey’s caution towards their supposed benefactor. A flower forged from the **** of an unknown hero and an Ancient monster species that shouldn’t exist coming together to turn Eren into the leader of darkness. It was by far the most suspicious and shady plan she’d heard, and judging by the look in Tristiana’s eyes, even she was having second thoughts about the plan.

“So who’s gonna go out to save Eren?” Bey asked, not even bothering to question the logic behind Tristiana’s actions. In 2 days, their supposed enemies would be attacking. All they needed to do was capture them, interrogate them, and act based on the intel. Until then, they would quietly dance to this shadowy puppet master’s tune.

“The 4 weapon heroes, Smithing, and Music. My job has been to gather the components for hybridization and complete it. We’re launching a rescue mission to save him in 9 days.” Tristiana answered, giving up the 6 strongest heroes after Eren, each a veritable monster in their own right. Together, the 6 of them could be a match for even Eren. Having all 6 of them empowered by hybridization would have left them near unstoppable, but even Bey could tell that if her memories of Eren’s current situation were correct, it wasn’t near enough. Before Bey could continue probing the kitsune for answers, Tristiana turned away from her, flicking a switch and talking with a casual tone.

“I'm not keeping you in the dark for fun. I do have a good reason to stay quiet.” She said, reading Bey with ease as she tensed up, ready to reach to her waist and draw her blade on Tristiana. Tristiana continued talking despite that, ignoring Bey’s wariness while showing no signs of resistance.

“And that reason is?” Bey asked as Tristiana looked at her, a hint of fear washing over her eyes as she spoke, glancing around as if something could hear them.

“I know a little more than you, but Eris is the only person out of the 15 of us that knows EVERYTHING.” She answered, her words now soft as she looked Bey in the eye. “Do you still want to remember with that knowledge?” She asked as Bey narrowed her eyes.

“Yes. I do.” Bey said without hesitation as Tristiana sighed, as though she had said a rather stupid thing. She walked away, beckoning Bey to follow as she flicked a switch on the spark gap generator.

“There’s 4 Great Terrors and 6 heroes in the city. Roses say that Mathias, Commerce, Justice, and Magic are also on their way and will be arriving today based on a letter Varrick sent. Keep the generator safe until I return, and I'll tell you everything I know.” She said, refusing to answer Bey’s question as they left the range of the light distortion artifacts concealing the now active spark gap generator. Grabbing Eris and Sarah, she led the trio back to their house. Leaving the three of them artifacts to disguise their appearances, Tristiana left them without any further words, her appearance shifting to a little girl as she continued following whatever plans she had been given. A paw hit Bey’s shoulder as she flinched, looking at Sarah's excited face staring back at her.

“So what did you learn?” She asked excitedly.

“Jack shit. Tris doesn’t want to tell us who or what we’re fighting. Also, Mathias is heading into town, so that’s either a good thing or a VERY bad thing.” Bey answered flatly, Sarah’s face shifting to a cold glare before sighing.

“At least we get two final days to relax.” She said, silently accepting their fate as Bey nodded wearily. Rather than speak any further about their situation, Bey just left the trio to lay down in her bed. They had 2 more days before their enemies attacked, and she intended to spend her last days relaxing, not suffering from whatever shenanigans her hellhound counterparts had planned.

“Come on Eris, let’s go see if we can make Verdi fill a bathtub with his cum and bathe in it.” Sarah said as Eris happily followed, her tail now moving so quickly that Bey could hear it even in the neighboring room as her breathing became excited panting. Beyhe jolted out of bed, running out of her room to find the pair already at the front door, Sarah having a one sided conversation with the now excited Eris getting her long awaited come.

“Wait, no, I’m coming with you!” She said quickly as Sarah gave her a shit eating grin.

“Hear that Eris? Bey here’s joining us.” She said as Eris giggled.

“Sluuut!” She said, her tail wagging even more as her doubled pleasure with Sarah now tripled with Bey joining in.

“If I’m gonna get my insides rearranged, I’m at LEAST gonna know when it’s happening.” Bey said, unwilling to wake up to the sensation of 36 inches of cock suddenly entering her body without warning for the second time. As the trio left for the seedy bar where the ice alchemist resided, Eris perked up, tugging on Sarah’s arm as she spoke.

“Tris dumb! Crispy tentacle not in freeze hole! Meat is fresh in bar! We make him come!” She said as Bey threw Sarah a cold glare.

“I thought you fed her already.” She said as Sarah shrugged.

“You know Eris. She’s always hungry and horny.” She countered as Bey rubbed her eyes, knowing full well Sarah was right.

“Fine. We’ll buy you something fried and something cold on the way there.” Bey said as they saw a hooded figure fly through the air, the trio pausing to look up. Flight was not an uncommon sight in the city considering some monster species and wind mages could do so, but this was different. Instead of flying upwards facing forward, this person was flying backwards, a his entire body pinned by a block of ice the size of a door. A moment later, the ground trembled as a blast wave nearly ruptured their ears, everyone in the area clutching their heads to stifle the ringing.

“Fuck! Who’s the idiot who shot off a wind spell in the city!?” Sarah roared as all three of them clutched their heads, the pain of their shockwave amplified threefold. She silently cursed their linked senses as they heard a thud in the distance, the person that had been shot across the city hitting the city’s outer walls and falling to the ground like a sack of grain.

“Think we should investigate?” Bey asked, stumbling over her feet as she felt her balance break. Cursing, she pulled out a medium grade potion from their inventory and drank a third, handing it over to the other two to heal. T

“Not our fucking problem. We have two days to relax, and I’m spending it drunk and impaled on a cock.” Sarah growled before downing her portion, the taste of the potion nothing short of unpleasant for her as she handed Eris the bottle.

“Un!” Eris said, drinking the last of the potion down before the trio continued walking to the bar, the locals treating the recent explosion as yet another case of some idiot unable to hold their liquor and getting in a fight. Some were on the ground clutching their bloodied eardrums, the shockwave leaving them stumbling around like drunkards while others were gearing up to find and kill whoever pulled such a stunt. As they reached the stairs descending down into the seedy bar, they gawked to find the doorway covered in frost and half broken ice while the stairs descending downwards was covered in burns and rubble, as though an explosion had happened in there.

“Oh shit. Verdi! You okay in there?” Sarah shouted, the trio running into the bar to find the interior was no better than the stairs leading downwards. Every single barrel of liquor was destroyed, there were cracks and holes in the walls from destructive blows, and there were several shattered knives and half melted stakes in the room. To their relief, there were no corpses in the room, just countless **** minions with broken limbs.

“Hey, Eris, can you track Verdi’s scent?” Sarah asked angrily, the trio smelling Verdi’s distinct perfume in the air heading out the door. They could tell from Eris’ senses that he and the rest of his party had left the bar somewhat recently, and that all of them were injured.

“Un!” Eris said, following her nose as Sarah and Bey jogged behind her.

“Do we have to intervene? There’s other cocks and booze in the city, and Verdi’s tough enough to take care of himself. Plus, anyone stupid enough to try and kill him is gonna have the Collector after them.” Bey said, unwilling to get involved in whatever situation the alchemist had gotten himself into.

“Shut up Bey! I don’t take kindly to being cockblocked!” Sarah growled as Eris nodded,the pair even more heated than during coitus. Bey sighed, deciding to just go along with them instead of debate.

“Hah… Fine. Let’s go find them.” Bey said, the trio following the party’s scent as they traversed the city in search of their nightly playmate.