FSE

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There was a certain respite in that short moment between consciousness and unconsciousness.

The world was just a confusing mix of blurred images and muffled sounds as my mind drifted back to the waking world. It could have been minutes, but it may just as well have been seconds stretched into infinity by senses dulled by trauma. I didn't know. I couldn't know. But for that fleeting instant, I thought everything was just a nightmare, one I was awakening from.

Then images took shape, and voices became clear and more audible.

I was greeted by Tama's vulpine face, then a few more of her smaller kin.

"Master?" She asked, sounding seriously concerned. "Can you hear me, Master?"

"Master! Master!" An echo of screechy girlish voices added, like a chant, and a few of Tama's smaller kin leaned over me as well to check on me closer.

I groaned at the painful reminder of what that really meant. The ground was cold, my muscles ached and an unpleasant chill seeped into my bones, forcing me to get up on my feet. I gasped for breath as my body protested with spikes of sharp pain, in response to almost every move. That constricting armour they previously put me into didn't help. Though having it may have helped in survival, it pulled, locked and straightened me into a less comfortable position.

"You shouldn't move." She objected, "You could..."

I struggled to stand.

"It's not like you can call me an ambulance," I said, wheezing and coughing slightly - I didn't feel well, but at least there was no blood. Not mine, at the very least - the stench hovering in the air was almost unbearable. But I would hardly be sicker from the smell alone than I already was from being knocked out cold.

I still forced myself up in the end. With Tama's help, at least, I had to lean on her for support, especially when sudden vertigo assaulted me, forcing me to stagger. The vulpine monster was there to catch me, along with three of their smaller kin, immediately rushing and quite eager to help.

"How long...I was out?"

"Minute. Perhaps two," she replied, and it felt like she was seriously upset, "There needs to be a few of us near you all the time from now on, we can't let humans near you."

"I am human." I protested. Mildly. When staying upright turned into a serious struggle, one can hardly find strength for argument.

"It is not time for jokes, Master. We were very worried." She told me with a clear scowl, despite her animalistic features. Her insistence did convince me to touch my face. It didn't feel any different, but it did sting on touch almost as if bruised. I didn't have any mirror to check. There were different things to worry about.

I didn't say anything and continued walking, or rather tried to. I was reeling with the support of my monstrous companions, back on the cobbled path that raised up to the pagoda-like structure.

There was something up there, I felt it, nonetheless, I couldn't explain the source of that sensation at all.

There were bodies scattered around the pathway rising towards the tower uphill, mostly humans, but those of my furry creatures too. I could identify what was left of Miwah after a club of that brute crushed her skull.

Even if remnants of the monsters seemed locked in what seemed like a bad state of decomposition, my presence seemed to have triggered the process of them being claimed by the red mist. Just as many times before, it quickly dissolved them to nothingness. And soon after, they were birthed anew from a burst of ruby smoke, alive and whole.

There were fewer of them than anticipated. I suspected it was a matter of time before the bloody mists would create more of them to continue the cycle of violence again and again.

We were down to fewer of them than before, only a handful of fiery vulpines, or 'Purifiers' as the game-like window referred to them, and only two shadowy canines - the "Evicerator' types.

More might come back later - there were conditions that I didn't quite understand, and was not in the mood to investigate.

It was a painful reminder that men, however, would not get back up. A loss of life in yet another bloodshed made me gloomy, but frighteningly enough it didn't feel as horrifying as it was before.

Another concentration of the same bloody mist, and another monster spawned. Miwah was back from the dead too, a big werewolf gleamed in her shadowy hue as she rushed to me.

"Master!" She growled, even so in quite an affectionate way. I didn't like to be sandwiched between her, and Tama, but I felt like my legs could give up anytime and couldn't complain.

I wanted to go up, to see what was inside the tower - that feeling there was something important that made me walk towards enemies earlier, and caused me to be hurt in the process.

To see what was up there. What led me there, called me there, what wasn't just a convenient orientation point in the sea of greenery and gave meaning to the fight.

Before she said anything, a panicked scream sounded from somewhere above. Then another.

I rushed up. Or wanted to, as persistent vertigo hadn't passed just yet.

We made it past another greatly symbolic gateway similar to the one down by the road and through it, to the courtyard in front of the pagoda. There were also smaller buildings surrounding it too, same vaguely Asian design to it, with hip-and-gable roofs though much simpler in style, without much decoration.

They, along with the main tower itself seemed damaged or in disrepair, suggesting that recent inhabitants were squatters in someone's else home, rather than its usual inhabitants.

It seemed someone made a camp here, with improvised tents and campfires, now in complete disarray. Supplies and belongings were scattered around, some burnt, some broken. And a few bodies of soldiers that were unfortunate to escape. A handful of my runaway monsters lurked there, searching.

A man tried to get out from the hiding spot under what was once an improvised shelter, trying to flee, but one of the smaller 'Purifiers' was roaming around. Instead of using her fire blasts, she caught up to him with a long leap and struck him down with a sword she had retrieved.

"For Master! For Master! For Master!" She chanted, usual sadistic glee replaced with blind rage, as she literally chopped her poor victim to pieces. Then the smaller vulpine looked up and noticed me.

"Master!" Her eyes shone in recognition, almost as if something clicked back in the deranged little mind. She dropped the sword and rushed towards me. Others obviously didn't think she was dangerous - to me at the very least.

"Master. Master! Master!" Little psycho hugged me quite affectionately and refused to let me go. She smelled of death, her fur was soaked with blood. I felt repulsed, but others took this as a signal for the group hug.

Their mental processes were truly beyond me.

I wasn't wondering about them for too long as the pain let itself be known.

"Ouch." I breathed out, "This hurts."

It gave me some space. The bloodiest and craziest of them did refuse to let me go even after that. I inadvertently petted her which only encouraged her to stick next to me.

"We should find you the safe spot to rest..." Miwah offered immediately, "Some humans may be still around."

"...and check your injuries." Tama finished the sentence.

And I, deep inside, agreed with that. I was anxious at the very least about how bad it was, not to mention I wanted some quiet time after all of that madness, but there was that feeling...

...that nagging feeling that led me to this cursed place.

I had to see. Using the clingy one as support, I headed towards the pagoda.

While the Asian-styled tower was mostly made of wood, its base was of solid stone masonry elevated above the courtyard with very short stairs rising towards the entrance. I stopped after taking two steps.

The large wooden door was open wide, letting just enough light inside to see what looked like a heavily decorated shrine at least judging from what seemed to be a broken altar, though carved ornaments seem to be damaged, with more goods scattered on the floor. The place looked purposefully vandalized or looted.

Two 'Evicerators' rushed past me, into the tower then stopped to look around, sniffing the air, looking for threats.

I didn't have their senses, and I couldn't understand how they could smell anything other than the blood or scorched flesh, though even I could feel that this something that drew me there wasn't in the temple, or whatever this tower originally was.

I made it back down and almost tripped as vertigo struck again, and I didn't roll down only thanks to my furry helpers.

The source of this strange sensation was one of those other houses. If this place was originally a temple, I assumed those houses were where the priest was supposed to live, though I had no idea how the local religious practice worked in actuality. Lots of armed people we had to go through suggested otherwise.

But my monsters also realized there was something too, rushing towards one of the smaller buildings. I wanted to head there too, but they were faster breaking into the house. Shadowy canids didn't forget to cloak themselves before entering and then...

Then there was a panicked scream and then, silence once more.

"I believe it is safe," Miwah announced without actually looking. Perhaps she felt what her smaller kin was doing. She did enter the run-down abode first while I paused, in expectation of what the nebulous sensation may mean.

When I got in I was welcomed by the gruesome sight of yet another dead body of a man with his throat torn apart, blood splattered all around, and four still living women cowering in the corner of the bamboo cage that dominated the room. Though dirty, unpleasant and smelly, it felt mostly like an old dwelling turned improvised prison.

Only one prisoner stood up and froze upon looking at me, while the other whimpered at the sight of monsters.

I realized that she was the source of that indefinable sensation that almost pulled me there for reasons unknown. Puzzled, I couldn't make myself speak and briefly, just stared in silence.

While she certainly was a very attractive young woman of Asian descent with silky black hair, mystical green eyes and smooth features, she wasn't someone who would make me speechless. Even if she was miles ahead of those dirty and terrified girls still snivelling in the corner. She did look slightly rugged, almost like she had a few bad days, and her worn-out though certainly once expensive robe suggested she wasn't quite the commoner.

It wasn't her look that stunned me though. She just felt - wrong, to say least, and it unsettled not only me but the monsters around. I could feel how tensed they were and seemed to react to the woman the same way I did, while significantly more angered. Growling 'Evicerators' seeped shadowy hue and 'Purifiers' gathered the flames. I gripped Tama's hand just before she managed to throw the fireball at the woman.

The woman stepped back, wary of us, but still stood up with obvious defiant intent. I didn't care - I merely wanted answers I felt she should have. Must have, I told myself, even if I couldn't explain why she specifically all of our people.

"Hello? Who are you?" I said, awkwardly attempting conversation. Perhaps all the strange sensations that drew me here meant I was supposed to talk to her, yet I didn't know what to say exactly.

"What's going on there?"

No reply.

"How did I get there? How do I get back?"

Still no reply.

"Answer me!"

I raised my voice, angry more at that unsettling strange sensation than at the woman I had never seen before.

It did spark a reaction though. She made a slightly disgusted face almost like she couldn't bear to hear my voice, though she did say something. First, she hesitated, then repeated the line seemingly trying a more authoritative tone.

"Do you speak ... English?" I asked though I was far from being calm. Couldn't put my finger on it, but she irked me, somehow.

More than that, she agitated the monsters too.

She said something again. I couldn't understand the language, it was foreign, somewhat high pitched and surprisingly quite annoying to listen to, though I somehow doubted it was actual Chinese or similar. If it was, I wouldn't understand it anyway.

"I don't understand!"

When she again tried to speak something that sounded like a command, Miwah totally lost her cool.

Shadowy werewolf tore off the door of the wooden cage and grabbed the now shocked woman by the neck, raising her other hand ready to tear the offender apart. Other women wailed in terror, even the bossy lady realized her mistake.

"Don't kill her," I commanded, not wanting any more bloodshed.

"Yes, Master," Miwah confirmed.

I was almost unnaturally angry about the whole thing, emotions boiled within me for reasons I couldn't quite put into words, and I felt too done with this situation. I was so fed up with the women I felt I couldn't bear to have them anywhere close, though not enough to wish their death, and I almost felt the tingling sensation creeping over my brain.

"Drop her and the others somewhere on that road, I don't want to see them ever again. Don't harm them."

For the first time, I felt nothing when smaller monsters poured in and dragged the kicking, screaming women away.

I stumbled outside and sat on the stairs of the looted shrine, or whatever this place was. Only Tama remained close, those bunch of her smaller kin were within the earshot.

"What are we going to do now, Master?" The fox-woman asked.

I had no answer. Worse even, I did realize that I had an answer close, but let slip between my fingers when I ordered those women dragged away and thrown out. The feeling, strange, itching sensation that forced me to go there, was gone, with that strange lady out of my sight.

Miwah was back soon enough, along with the rest of the creatures.

"What did you do with the woman?" I asked.

"They run, as you order, Master." The werewolf answered.

Briefly, I considered asking them to hunt down back again, but I felt too tired and my aching body reminded me of itself once more. Besides, what if I was compelled to release them again, I would waste all the effort once more.

I felt exhausted. Answers had to wait.