Chapter 28: Amalgam(2).

It had been a while since Salvatoris had left, and his village had long since disappeared from view. He hadn't looked back once, thinking of his mother. Yet he had strangely checked Alice's condition several times, her face exuding worry without him even realizing it.

When he looked again at the map the village chief had given him, he dwelt on several points. A large number of places had been marked as dangerous. Among them was a scribbled dot indicating the ruin Salvatoris was looking for, which he now assumed was close to him. However, it was another point that worried him. Close to this annotation was another point of interest, quite different from the others, and Salvatoris knew perfectly well what this place represented. An abandoned facility that had been taken over by a lich.

Liches were necromancers who had renounced their humanity in favor of immortality. Although many of them had kept their flesh-and-blood appearance, like all human beings, this was not the case for all. Some had been reduced to the appearance of skeletons, and the lich who had taken up residence here fell into this category. This lich had a very different reputation from the others, described as "the weakest of the liches". However, this was no reason to take this threat lightly. She had isolated herself in the remains of a destroyed city, setting up their underground as a dungeon. An artificially created dungeon, populated by the undead servants she had amassed. Salvatoris was worried about what might happen if she were to pass near this place. Even if she never went out, perhaps he'd stumble across some of her troops, or worse, the lich herself. But this place was so close to the ruin he was looking for that he couldn't avoid it, forcing him to make a slight detour and hope he wouldn't come across anything on the long road ahead.

Where others would be attentive, or weary of the exaggeratedly long journey, Salvatoris was not. His thoughts were always in a state of disarray. He was trying hard to determine who he really was as he focused on his goal: to get to the ruin and fix Alice. Wait, since when had fixing Alice been on the agenda? When this thought struck Salvatoris' mind, a violent migraine assailed him, causing him to hold his skull. He wanted to go there to continue his vision in a safe place, where electricity could wake Alice up, and where care would be taken not to dehydrate him or starve him as he had woken up. Not to fix Alice. But as he thought this, another thought turned him upside down.

[Why do I think they'll take me in? Why do I trust that everything will be all right... I could have just gone back to the other ruin and it would have been all over... And...why should they feed me or look after me...what happens to me?]

As Salvatoris shuddered at the absurdity of his reasoning, fear assailed him. It wasn't too late to turn back, but the thought didn't even cross his mind. He simply continued on his way, his mind full of questions even as what little thought he had for his mother disappeared, to be replaced by an irresistible urge to protect Alice.

* * *

As the journey dragged on, only the sound of his puppets, agitated furs and dead leaves crunching underfoot surrounded him. Monsters sometimes lurked around, but they weren't brainless. The aura Salvatoris and his undead seemed to share worried them, for they knew that if they attacked him, not everyone would come out alive. Monsters were the enemies of mankind. Far more intelligent than an animal, but less than a human, they were like the connecting element between the two.

The less intelligent monsters followed their instincts, like the routny, attacking any potential threat where they made their home. The more common monsters, on the other hand, were far superior to this, analyzing their targets before attacking them, and knowing how to retreat if the situation wasn't optimal for them, like arcane wolves. However, the most intelligent sometimes organized themselves into tribal societies. They weren't necessarily the strongest, but their intelligence, similar to that of a child or even an adult human, made them terrifying. They were perfectly capable of analyzing the enemy, learning in the midst of battle, retaining the dangers they had already encountered, or teaching them to their fellows, or even harboring a grudge against those who had harmed them in the past. Alphas commanding a pack of arcane wolves, or goblins, were perfect examples.

In reality, because of their intelligence, monsters were by definition not really hostile to humans. It was rather humans who were hostile to them, even if in rare cases monsters would befriend a human without the latter having used magic to tame the beast. However, it was true that the most desperate monsters, no matter how intelligent, would attack anything in sight, in the hope of feeding, even if they didn't stand a chance, which made each group of monsters formidable, and sometimes even unpredictable.

Strangely enough, it was the intelligence of these beasts that worked in Salvatoris' favor. A man traveling alone would be sure to be attacked by the whole of creation. On the other hand, a small group, especially if their aura smelled of death, was generally not worth fighting for food, and was therefore far less likely to be caught out. Salvatoris's group fitted perfectly into this category, allowing him a relatively safe journey as long as he only encountered monsters attacking humans for food, and not out of instinct, hatred or in order to collect trophies for their tribe.

However, even though the journey was calm, Salvatoris felt a bad feeling coming over him. An aura similar to his own was spreading throughout the area around him, and even the monsters that had followed him in search of an opening in his defense had fled. The forest seemed normal, brimming with life as it now sported its autumnal hue. But this place smelled of death, a sign that he had just entered the area he wished to avoid. Normally, no trace would be left by a lich near his domain. This would scare off any presence that might strengthen his army once killed, or attract the armies of the kingdom wishing to exterminate the threat posed by a lich. But this lich sought isolation, and showed its presence to the best of its ability in order to remain isolated from the world. As this lich was the weakest, no heroes or even armies in the kingdom came to challenge her, as her fellow lichs were far more dangerous. So she was no immediate threat, but that didn't mean that adventurers in search of glory weren't out to kill her. This dark aura served to dissuade them from trying, once they understood the enormous gap in power between them and a lich that had lived for hundreds of years.

The uncontrollable shivers running through Salvatoris' body were proof of the effectiveness of this method. However, he had been careful to stay on the edge of this area, and despite his fear he knew he was safe as long as he didn't get any closer to the lich. However, as he moved deeper into the forest, he realized something that sent a chill down his spine. The ruin was not just close to where the lich lived, but right on the edge of where his territory ended. With this in mind, he continued forward, and soon the ruin loomed on the horizon. As he had guessed, it lay just outside the lich's zone of influence, as if she had avoided encompassing this place on purpose, in order to incite its destruction rather than indirectly protect it. After all, if androids had indeed taken up residence there, they would represent a major threat to the few troops this "weak" lich possessed.

However, as Salvatoris stepped out of the lich's zone of influence and came dangerously close to the ruin, a shot rang out. A jet of burning plasma had destroyed one of her puppets on the spot, without her having time to react. The lich's aura had vanished, only to be replaced by indescribable fear, leaving Salvatoris bitterly regretting his choice. Nevertheless, he continued forward, speaking in the loudest voice he could muster.

"I'm a friend! I have an injured android with me! Alice! I'm from...uh..."

Salvatoris hesitated for a moment; he'd just come from the realm of Drac, but had almost instinctively said "dictatorial Ares", without even thinking that might work in his favor. However, he continued his sentence anyway, realizing that it would certainly help him.

"I come from the dictatorial Ares!"

At his words, a slight commotion erupted from the ruin. The occupants didn't seem very numerous, but they seemed shocked enough to make enough noise for Salvatoris to notice from a few dozen meters away.

It was several long seconds before a figure emerged from the ruin, approaching Salvatoris. Skepticism marked his gestures. When the figure was close enough for him to make it out clearly, an image struck him. It was a feminine figure with long red hair covering her pelvis, and emerald-green eyes. Her degraded appearance showed her age, with metal parts protruding from her body in places. Some of her arms and legs looked as if they had been washed away by the battles she had fought since being left to her own devices after the fall of her civilization. Even her clothes were in a deplorable state, barely making out the strangely familiar armor she wore. However, just as the android was about to open her mouth in order to address her, keeping a safe distance, Salvatoris whispered to her, a bewildered look passing over her face.

"Melissa? Is that you? But... but... you weren't... you hadn't been destroyed?!"

Melissa's eyes became round with surprise as a multitude of thoughts assaulted her mind.

[Who is he? Why does he know my name? How...how does he know... But where's Alice, did she succeed in her plan?! Is she all right? ]

However, despite her many questions, she asked only one. Her melodious voice was a distant memory. Her voice was flawed, going off in every conceivable tone without her being able to control it. She did, however, manage to convey her concern and astonishment to some extent, as she adopted a fighting stance for safety's sake.

"What do you really want?"

"I already told you, I'm a friend! I want Alice repaired, her condition is critical!"

Melissa's eyes flickered. What passed through her eyes wasn't sadness, it was genuine joy. Of course, hearing that her friend, whom she hadn't seen in literally centuries, was in critical condition wasn't something she could rejoice about, but it did mean that she was alive! In the next instant, she rushed to Salvatoris' side, almost threatening to kill him as other androids showed up from the ruin, along with a few sentries, rusty and barely recognizable.

"Where is she, tell me!"

"Ju- just behind. One of my puppets is carrying it."

Salvatoris replied, shocked by the speed Melissa could muster despite her condition, as well as the barely concealed urge to kill she was projecting at him to make sure he answered. The thought that the centuries must have changed him crossed Salvatoris' mind. But he didn't have time to think about it as Melissa tore Alice away from her undead, knocking him down with a violent kick, shattering some of his bones.

"Her condition is beyond critical! She's barely functioning! How long has she been conscious?! She promised to stand by until-"

Melissa interrupted her screaming, realizing something. If Alice's place of residence had ended up in the same state as hers, and on top of that she was alone, with no one to maintain it, it was only logical that she should break her promise to achieve her goal...

Melissa stared closely at Salvatoris, asking the most important question of all.

"Did she show i-it to you?"

"Showed me?"

Salvatoris replied, tilting his head. However, he immediately realized what Melissa was talking about, nodding hurriedly to her question.

"Well, then follow me... I-if you're here, you must hav-ave realized what your gods have done to us, haven't you...you?"