"Well? What do you think, Jin?" Tristessa asked the hunter. Thanks to the holes in the walls of the Outpost, he could observe the interior with his brass eyepiece, an antique he had taken from one of the showcases. "Bandits or merchants?"

Having left the wagon a few meters behind -the vilecross kneeling and waiting in its unholy and silent demeanor- Jin and Tristessa, hidden in the undergrowth, examined the temporary inhabitants of the cobblestone structure.

"Several soldiers… They're wearing light armor and some black wraps. Mmm… They don't seem to be from some Imperial scouting party," the hunter described, adjusting the depth and focus of his instrument's lenses. "No, wait, I also see two wagons with merchandise. And there are a lot of golden objects… A fortune, no doubt about it."

Jin lowered his instrument and looked at Tristessa calmly.

"I'd say it's a group of merchants. They're always protected by mercenaries."

"Of course," she thought, smiling contentedly and taking a sip of the spirit potion. While her body and soul were equally agonizing, nothing could take away the optimism that came from knowing there were even positive aspects of the future that remained unchanged. "Then we could approach and request to share the Outpost for the night, right?"

"It's a possibility, yes. But remember, we Mercer-Archeos are very hated, Tessa. We depend on…" Jin suddenly trailed off, then raised his eyepiece again to continue observing. "I think we have a problem."

"What? What's going on?" Tristessa frowned, a shadow of unease falling over her. Thinking the worst, she had already begun to imagine scenarios where her entire plan would begin to unravel. "Jin!"

"One of the mercenaries… He's watching us," the hunter murmured in a small voice, passing the instrument to Tristessa. "Look."

She didn't hesitate for a moment and brought her right eye closer to the lens. The Outpost's walls increased in size exponentially, and between one of the holes—the same one she had tried to spy through in the last loop—she saw one of the mercenaries standing with his arms crossed, staring fixedly in their direction.

A man with dark skin, yellow eyes, and gray hair. A veteran, both in age and combat experience, with a scar almost hidden in his goatee.

"He looks familiar," she said, a new smile spreading across her face upon seeing that person alive and well. "Let's say hello, what do you think? After all, he's already spotted us."

"B-but how? We're so far away not even a Legiana could spot us!"

"It must be because of his Divinity…," she thought, theorizing but for now without any evidence to sustain it. "If we can convince him to not kill us, we could ask him nicely."

"I don't have a death wish, Miss Tessa."

Through her Divinity, Tristessa ordered the revenant to stand and begin moving forward. Soon, the two walked side by side in front of the wagon, guiding it toward the meeting with the mercenary who had approached and blocked the path to the outpost.

Just as Tristessa remembered, the man was wearing light steel armor and a black poncho bearing the symbol of the mercenary company he worked for, consisting of three vertical red lines. And at the sides of his waist, his bastard sword and his sword-breaker were sheathed, respectively; two weapons with which he had fought the Dullahan to the death…

"Hold it right there!" the mercenary exclaimed, his left hand raised and his right hand on the hilt of his bastard sword. Telepathically, Tristessa complied, and her revenant suddenly stopped, then knelt and bowed its head so the man couldn't see its face. "Where's the coachman for that wagon?"

"It's me, sir," Jin replied with a diplomatic smile.

"And why…?" The man raised a hand to his mouth. He couldn't see behind his cloak, but he could smell the miasma of decay and Death the vilecross gave off. "In the name of Xiliarra, that smell…!"

Stolen story; please report.

Before he could draw his sword, Tristessa stepped forward with both hands raised.

"Wait, Reiden! Please!" she demanded, wanting the mercenary to focus on her. "That vilecross is dead. I'm controlling it with my Divinity!"

"W-what? Dead?" the man repeated, as confused as he was horrified that Tristessa forced the vilecross to raise its head, revealing its hideous, eyeless face, its gangrenous flesh, and its lower jaw hanging and filled with maggots. Reiden looked away to avoid vomiting, forced to make eye contact with Tristessa and Jin. "S-shit! Y-you, miss, how do you know my name?"

"Ha! Who doesn't know the name of the legendary hero Reiden Malak Invran?" Tristessa mentally celebrated the effectiveness of her [Divinity of the Dark Room], filled with information she had gathered in the past and reviewed during the long journey. "Even though you now work for the Fireclaw Company, you are still highly regarded among adventurers."

"Adventurers, eh… Are you one, miss?" the mercenary asked, his grip on his sword hilt relaxing slightly. "Your name?"

"Tristessa Irandell, mister Malak Invran. For now, I am simply a traveler trying to lend a hand to this family." Tristessa patted the hunter on the shoulder and jerked her thumb over his shoulder toward the wagon, where the expectant heads of Lucahn and Tiara could be seen. "They…"

"There is only one family that could arrive from that direction, miss… You." Reiden turned to Jin, his tone anything but friendly. The hunter noticed this and slung his rifle over his shoulder in a gesture of goodwill. "You must be Jin Mercer, aren't you?"

"You are correct, sir," he nodded. "I am accompanied by my wife and child."

"…I see."

Reiden lowered his guard, but he wasn't at all calm. He looked toward the wagon, beyond the undead Vilecross, where Lucahn, Tiara and Gaal were. He seemed to be debating what action to take, considering the type of people he was dealing with.

"Mr. Mercer, you must be more than aware of the situation you're in. All your rights were revoked years ago; any inhabitant of the Dominion knows that... I hope you have a very good reason for abandoning the exile imposed on you," the mercenary leader warned. "Tell your family to get out of the carriage and accompany me to the caravan. My boss will want to speak with all of you."

Nodding silently, Jin turned and left, while Tristessa stood there waiting for Reiden's directive, which soon arrived.

"Your Divinity. End it."

Logically, he wasn't going to allow that revenant to follow them. Feeling an innumerable quantity of drops of sweat dripping down her back, the girl gave the Vilecross one last order for now:

"Release the chains and get off the road. Go to those bushes and sit down. Take as much cover as possible."

"Wait, what's it doing?" Reiden asked, watching the undead creature obey Tristessa's mental commands. The thick, partially rusted chains fell to the ground, and the vilecross began to walk toward the position where bushes and a large, solitary tree abounded. "Tell me, girl!"

"I ordered him to wait there. Or do you expect us to pull the wagon by ourselves once we leave?" she asked with sarcasm.

"If we even let you… I know people from Entrana whose families were destroyed by the Mercer-Archeos," he told her with the coldness of someone who knew what it felt to extinguish a life. That made Tristessa shudder. "Don't provoke me."

She didn't reply, preferring not to push her luck now that she had at least secured passage into Derelict Outpost without any further complications than leaving her means of transport behind.

"This is the best outcome I could have achieved," she thought, trembling with anxiety as she watched the monstrous corpse assume the position she had ordered. "I can finally rest…"

After so many hours, she deactivated the false light produced by her Divinity, and the strain over her soul vanished. The Vilecross's body returned to its natural state; its shoulders, arms, and head fell victim to gravity, limp and lifeless.

"AH, FUCK!" That sudden release was too much for Tristessa, as if stopping the consumption of her spirit points had the opposite effect. She almost lost her balance from the extreme dizziness that took over her senses. "Damn!"

"It seems you're not used to exhausting your Divinity for so long," the mercenary commented, arms crossed and staring with a frowned gaze at her, who had to kneel to avoid falling to the ground. "Sometimes the strain is real torture."

"Yeah… It's good to know another Divinity user understands me."

"Need any help?"

"No, no, thank you. Just… Give me a minute."

There were no further comments or any show of sympathy from him. By the time the entire Mercer-Archeos joined them, the girl could stand on her own two feet without fear of fainting.

"Now we're reliant on a merchant's greed…and faith," she thought, following Reiden closely and the Mercer-Archeos family walking side by side. She met the hunter's eloquent look, to whom she nodded. "Everything will be fine, I know it."

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