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"Do not worry, Derick. Know my mercy - I will give you a fighting chance... After I use the last one Dragonstone I kept for just this special occasion." Prixima pulled out a small, brilliantly golden gemstone and crushed it.

It melted in her hands and was absorbed by her skin. A shockwave emanated from her body, washing over the room and almost knocking some mercenaries off their feet.

Energy enveloped Prixima and began to send off an aura of golden sparks off her.

"COME! LET THE PURGE BEGIN WITH YOU!!" The humanoids prepared their weapons, while Prixima laughed.

It was now, or never!


Enemies stats here!

The force field again bumped Derick back into his place. Prixima scoffed at Riven

"No, you idiot! We are comprised of tiny little spirals of elements that Dragonstones could change, enhance and empower! You ever wonder why I have managed to gather ten - sorry, it makes eleven now - eleven Dragonstones? I've been working with them, crushing them, turning them into dust... and then I found out, to my astonishment, that we're not as magical as before. So of course I needed test subjects. Adrien had strange degree of magic in him so I took his corpse and with power of Dragonstone dust, managed to revive him. Had to clad him in armor, his degree of rot was startling my servants." Prixima was interrupted and glared at Chris.

"Please, Christopher, I'm not done yet." Suddenly a pink ball formed in Chris' mouth, silencing him completely!

"Where was I... oh right. Then Ernest gave me his life. But I overdid with enhancements, really... no matter if you did kill him or not, he would turn into dust in next few days. But then, then I killed Aaron and his corpse was perfect - fresh, magically potent... Then it struck me."

"Why bother changing humans when I could try and make my own?" Prixima snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, the bowls at the table began to bubble and rumble, and silvery goo began to overflow them. It washed over the table, sweeping the chunks of gemstones and the dust and then the goo washed onto the floor. Bubbling and expanding, the goo split into four parts and began to rise.

First it looked like columns of quicksilver... then they were twisting like spirals, and some appendages were forming. With dreaded slurping and bubbling, the goo changed colour from metallic grey to the very huge of human pink.

Suddenly, Prixima wasn't alone - four nude men, with their athletic bodies perfectly shaped, stood between her. They looked definitely very human, and were tall like Christopher and handsome like Gregor - the only distinct feature being their golden, glowing eyes and lack of any genitals.

"Look! LOOK WHAT I HAVE DONE! I've brought the will of Dragons into flesh! I've created first representatives of NEW HUMANITY! You, you, you!" She pointed her finger at Tantallos, Derick, Mannan. "You will all be obsolete when I'm done with my work. I will replace the scum that wanders this world with my new, powerful creations, and then we will set forth to conquer lands beyond this mere island on middle of the great water!"

The humans' appendages and bodies warped and bubbled into grey goo, which then reformed into clothes, armors, weapons, spellbooks.

"Of course, if you managed to survive until I finish my work. So, let me ask... any final words, my little roaches? Because I see Gregor is ready."

A blast of golden energy pushed Derick away - it didn't hurt him, but he could feel an uncomfortable tingle at his skin. Prixima turned around. She took a step forward, and the energy field pushed Derick, along with Chris as well, away.

Another step, and the field pushed them back to the group.

"Please... refer to me properly. Say good morning or whatever, Lady Prixima. Don't you remember my title? It's Countess." She mumbled, her arms crossed on her chest.

"So you were causing all that noise downstairs. And now you come to interrupt my research by yourself. No questions? No 'why you do this' or 'what's your devilish plan, witch?' No? Hmph, you're worse at this than fictional characters in my collection of bad quality drama plays."

"Sire, my men are ready."

"Let's go, then! I have to save my mother from her madness." Leo quickly mounted his horse.

"If that's still possible." He mumbled under his nose as the twenty-so people rode north-west.

*kzzzzt*


IN EXACTLY SAME MOMENT BUT IN VASTLY DIFFERENT LOCATION:

The group went in a line on the thin stairs, with rooftops of the middle floors under the thin ascending bridge. And they entered a small antechamber, which quickly opened into a small, tiled room.

It was illuminated brilliantly by candelier above and sets of torches on the wall. It was that place - Prixima's inner sanctum, her secret laboratory... which was sparsely furnished.

There were sets of empty black cauldrons and copper bowls hastily packed at the corners and nooks of the room; a smaller heap of wooden bowls rested near the archway between antechamber and main room; these were stained with some food leftovers, with the one at the bottom already growing mold.

And at the wall away from the entrance, there was a table, with several pulsating gemstones sitting on top, most of them in various states of being shattered; some even resembled piles of dust rather than actual gemstones.

And leaning above it, was a woman, in her early forties, with shaggy black hair, mumbling something under her nose. Prixima Kesselring.

Mannan looked at Gregor, while something at the table sizzled and bubbled quietly. Then, the bishop took a careful step forward, and opened his mouth to talk.

"What do you want? Don't you see I'm busy? Leave." A rather dry, feminine voice interrupted Mannan before he managed to utter a word. It came from under that shaggy hair - Prixima didn't even turn her head - the voice was barely similar to the soft but cold and demanding voice Gregor and few of his companions knew already.

//Valor's party is no longer active!
//Derick, Edwin Westbringer, Riven, Tantallos Forsaken, Charlotte von Hexham, Gregor von Hexham, Raquel Torriani, Ami Storm and Christopher Shields are in!

"I still want to return that- Are you allright? What poison? I will take a look." Alexandra knelt in front of Valor and placed her hand on his thigh, and he could feel warmth emanating from her hand.

"That's not poison, it's powerful dark magic. There's some tiny metal piece in your leg...." Alexandra kept her hand there for a moment, and then just slumped to the ground. Valor felt much much better in the same moment.

"Countess!" Leo turned his attention from Olison and helped Alexandra onto her knees, and then up. She was pale, sweating, yet managed to get her smile back on; the healthy pinkiness of her cheeks returned soon.

"I'm allright... I'm allright. I... I've managed to remove the curse from the metal piece. It's of course still there but I used my magics; there shouldn't be any infection. Just make sure to visit a surgeon that can remove the metal splinter... I need to sit down for a moment." That said, she moved to a large piece of rubble and sat down. Matilda moved by and healed Valor's wounds, now that magic worked on him, and then turned to Seyena.

"Thank you for letting me to borrow your staff; I've healed whom I could, and now I'm returning the staff. Many thanks again."

"Well then. Is there anything else? If not, we should be going. I hope... I hope I can meet with my mother."

Where is Blaaaaaaaaaade!