Feno the necromancer examined the corpse in front of him. A skeletal smile on his face as the flesh around his left cheekbones slowly dripped off his face. It was a good corpse, a little old maybe, but the Grenir were known for aging gracefully, and really after his previous raids it was getting too hard to find good Grenir specimens. He had retained enough of his former cunning to know that it was about time he moved on and found a new homeground for his experiments, but that would have to wait until he completed this last procedure.

Yes, the brilliant and ingenious Feno might have screwed up a little the first time he raised himself from the dead, but that was only to be expected for a beginner necromancer, acting in secret and without proper guidance. But now, now he was on track to finally fix his former mistake.

After testing on several live beast specimens Feno had uncovered his mistakes in his initial ritual, but that was of no matter now, now the important thing was the new ritual he had invented—the Undead Body Transference Ritual. With it he could move his soul out of this rotting container he was confined into the body of the fresh corpse in front of him.

Truly he was a genius, the Undead Gospel of the Goddess said that such a thing couldn't be done, but here he was having already succeeded with a test subject! Initially he had only been trying to turn himself from a failed ghoul into a ghost to solve the problem of his ever-rotting flesh, but who would have thought he'd stumble across something else entirely? Truly it was the Goddess who was ignorant and was stifling the progress of scientific achievement with her outdated beliefs. He would prove her wrong, prove them all wrong!

Feno finished his preparations and stood at the head of the table the corpse was laid out on to begin. He rubbed his hands greedily, thinking of the perfect body that would soon be his. His eyes flared as began pulling from his magic, his arms waving as he started to chant.

"Ah shelala varekoth deto—ooh" His words suddenly halted as he looked down at a glaring shadow blade sticking out of his chest, his soul light bleeding out through the wound. He tried to turn around to see who the attacker was, only for the blade to suddenly withdraw from his chest as he collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

The last thing he heard before his consciousness faded forever were the words "Truly, such a fool."

***

Rufi shook her maned head from the entrance of the cave. She had taken a larger form about the size of a lion just in case combat broke out, but the necromancer in front of her was so weak it was a wonder he had managed to capture any Grenir at all. She supposed his powers must have been more suited for stealth considering the villagers had called him "the shadow."

"The Body Transference Ritual is forbidden magic for a reason." Rufi continued further into the cave as she talked to the now truly dead necromancer.

"If you had only waited a little longer, perhaps you would have seen why. Though you would have been doomed to die by my hand either way." Rufi made her way into the makeshift cell block in the back of the cave where a strange white creature was growling as it repeatedly beat against the bars of its cage.

"Behold the 'success' of your ritual." Rufi shook her head, looking at the strange white creature. What had once been a Grenir had undergone a strange mutation, its muscles were thicker, its jaws heavier, now with two tusks curving out of the mouth as drool dripped down its chin. Instead of acting like a proper two legged creature, it leaned on its heavy arms like a gorilla when it wasn't pounding away at the bars of the cell. Its eyes were a mad red, devoid of all intelligence.

With every burst of its fists chaotic mana swells seemed to surge within the cell like a red mist, barely being contained by the barrier magic around the cage. "Yes, truly a monster worthy of the name." Despite her words, Rufi's eyes lit up with excitement, she licked her lips imagining the fight that was about to take place. "Come," She whispered, crouching into a battle position as she saw the barrier magic on the cage slowly breaking. "That little one was hardly worth my time. With you…" Her claws extended. "There is still hope for a good fight."

***

After I woke from my nap and seemed so desolate, Rivi gave me a bit of space, not wanting to intrude too much on whatever was going on in my head.

I gave her a thin smile and took her arm as we made our way back towards the village, but other than that said nothing, taking the moments of silence on our walk back to recompose myself and to shake away the lingering fears and feelings of despair that even I couldn't quite explain to myself.

But at the moment I was in no mood to think. I just wanted to hold onto Rivi's arm, eat something tasty, and then go to bed again, though having just taken a nap I figured it might be a while.

"Rufi, we're home," I sighed and entered the building the Grenir had assigned to us for our stay. "How have you been, just—" I froze.

Rufi froze mid lick as she was cleaning the blood off of her paws.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!!?" I rushed to Rufi and picked up her half blood-soaked paw. "Was there intruders, did you go out, what the hell happened? Why is there blood on your paws?"

Rufi tried to look innocently to the side, avoiding my gaze, but I grabbed her adorable silver-grey sides and held her close to my chest. "Don't think you're going anywhere until we get this figured out. You're smart, right, we can communicate?"

Rufi looked up at me pitifully. I looked at her with a wicked smile. "Come on, don't you think it's time we had a little chat?"

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