7 「Data」 (2/2)

”You... YOU MONSTER!” The man who had just been threatening them shrieked, stomping towards the man as his muscles were beginning to turn to goop. His skin was gone, his insides were beginnign to become visible. Multi-colored tissue, ripping tendons and fat.

By the time he reached the edge of the spell's effective zone, he collapsed, his head rolling off of his shoulders and resting at Cipher's feet.

Their weapons, armors, tools and personal belongings were practically untouched by the spell. Valuables, anything that could be scavenged or worthy of being such, were intact.

”Well done my Lord,” Gallifrey praised him without batting an eye at the suffering he had caused the humans who were ready to kill them.

Peter, Lukrut, Dyne and Ninya were all frozen. He had killed twenty people like they were nothing, though he hadn't smiled or appeared to enjoy what he had done, the airy feeling was clear he didn't care either.

Though that was far from the truth. He cared, he just didn't feel like showing it. He didn't feel regret for what he had done, nor remorse. There was nothing to be guilty for. These people were criminals and he did what no one else had done.

Turning his head, he looked over at the four.

Ninya was holding her staff close to her, held at a diagonal angle. Lukrut was just staring with his hands at his sides, gripping his bow absently in his dominant hand. Dyne wasn't making eye contact, he couldn't even look at the dead skeletons around them.

Peter on the other hand was staring through Cipher. Not only was he powerful, but he had necromantic powers. Something that he hadn't thought he would have as an Arch Mage. This made him think, was he really just a mage?

”So...” Peter cleared his throat to break the awkward fear induced silence, ”You know Necromancy?”

”A few tricks,” Cipher nonchalantly picked at his nails, removing the gunk from beneath them.

”Just a few tricks?” Peter turned his head to the side as he continued to look at him suspiciously. That was a pretty powerful spell from what he could tell. If it was an area effect and worked that quickly, it had to be a higher their than fifth.

They were all thinking of running, though that might not be enough to escape him if he wanted to keep with them. What could he possibly do? They all knew they couldn't fight him.

”Did you have to make them suffer that much?”

”They would have made you all suffer before you died,” his eyes flickered to Ninya and then back to the other men in the party. ”But if you rather not remember...”

”Get rid of the skeletons, collect the items, Gallifrey.” Letting out a sigh, he looked over them. ”「Maximize Magic, Greater Data Edit」” He called upon a spell to tamper with their memories. In a sense, he was using them as guinea pigs, being the first actual people to have their minds messed with via magic with this spell. This was originally used to control monsters, or nonessential NPCs, by editing certain aspects of their memories and affiliations.

After he did that, everything was black for them. They collapsed, unconscious.

He walked over and knelt down beside Ninya and the others. Laying them beside one another, and individually hovering his hands over their sleeping faces.

Information flooded into his own mind as he was changing their most recent memories. Altering what they had seen, what they had thought. To them when they wake up, he planned to have it so they'd never remember what he had done to the mercenary group.

This also made him take note that using high powered necrotic spells was a bad idea. One might see him and believe him to be a necromancer, or worse, a member of the undead.

It was very clear to him that this world was similar to the game where most believed the Undead to be Evil. If he were to be forsaken, his name would be spread and his to-be-reputation would be ruined.

He didn't want to hate the living, and he definitely didn't want to be hated by these adventurers.

If anything, he just didn't want to be hated by Ninya. In his eyes she was cute, in a way she was honorable and righteous. Her humble side though, her unassertive personality, lured him to her.

On top of that, her talent gave her the potential for great things and he wanted to see how far he could push that potential. It would mean he could design other powerful beings and his life here would be secure. Or in some way, so would any power and freedoms he would accumulate over time.

Whilst he worked on the Swords of Darkness however, his Head Guardian Sir Gallifrey went on to destroy the skeletal remains and to collect items left by the departed. Using a magic relic, he started using it to teleport these supposed items back to the Citadel for study.

They wanted to know the average quality of weapons here. As the average level for a trained warrior wasn't very high.

A few hours had past and they woke up, rubbing the sides of their heads. Looking around, they found themselves in the middle of a campsite.

Peter ruffled his hair to get some grass out of his blonde dapper hairdo. ”What...”

Ninya's eyes traveled over the grasslands. Then over towards her friends, noting Cipher and Gallifrey were still laying down with their eyes closed. ”Oh... They're still asleep.”

Lukrut sat up and stretched his arms into the air, looking over at them casually. ”You're right,” he chuckled, ”They must've been exhausted.”

Peter glanced around the campsite, nothing seemed out of place.

Dyne who was asleep against a tree, open his eyes and took a gander at all the talking people. ”We should let them... Nevermind,” Dyne laughed a bit seeing Cipher's eyes flutter open.

”Huh, you didn't leave.” Cipher's eyes were locked directly on Peter, who just shrugged at him.

”Didn't see the point in it. You'd make a valuable member of our team and you're helping us achieve our dreams from as far as I'm concerned.”

Gallifrey slowly stood up from where he had been 'napping' and glanced looked over the adventurers. From what he could see, his Lord's power over them had been a successful test.

Cipher smirked though as he thought the same thing. Now they could go to E-Rantel without any problems, and Ninya wasn't going to run away. Not that she was before, but she definitely wasn't now.

On his own two feet, Cipher walked over and started collecting the campsite. Sir Gallifrey soon joined him and the adventurers helped until everything was packed into Gallifrey's bag.

”Gallifrey, you can head back to the Citadel. Have the construction Golems situate a wall around the parameter.” He ordered with a light nod to confirm his own orders were true.

Gallifrey bowed his head, ”Yes my Lord!” With that the man clumsily went shuffling off back towards the direction of Carne Village.

Cipher then turned his head to look in the direction of E-Rantel, ”Almost there...”