The four of them dodged sprinting bystanders as they ran towards the epicenter of the explosion. People were fleeing for their lives in a panic, many of them tripping and being trampled by other passers-by as they attempted to run away. Chase did his best to help up anyone he saw who had tripped and fallen, as did Victoria and even Melanie.
Carmine, naturally, didn’t seem to care all that much, though he supposed that was probably a by-product of her still being mad about being covered in camel spit and not having had a chance to rinse it off yet.
In any case, after several minutes of running from city block to city block, chasing after the trail of smoke curling high into the sky, their group finally emerged out on the street where the explosion had originated from. And to say the explosion had been destructive would have been an understatement – everywhere he looked, Chase could find nothing but destroyed buildings, corpses, and mangled body parts. He estimated at least fifteen dead people so far, and there was no telling how many others were lying in the ruins of the demolished buildings around them.
From what he could see, the blast had originated from within one of the buildings – a high-class bakery, by the looks of things. As if he needed any more proof of this, pieces of various pastries were littering the streets, all of them having been burnt to a crisp. Chase couldn’t help but scowl as he looked down at his feet and saw a woman lying there, crying her eyes at as she stared at a destroyed storefront.
“Damn,” he said, disgust evident in his tone. “That’s just heinous.”
“What, you mean the crying woman?” Victoria asked. She looked down at the woman in question. “Ma’am, are you okay?”
“My business is destroyed!” she wailed. “What do you think?!”
“What, her?” Chase asked. “No.” He stepped past the crying woman and bent down, picking up the remnants of a chocolate doughnut off the ground. “Who would do this to a perfectly good bakery? That’s awful. All those sweet treats, sent to oblivion for no reason… damn whoever’s responsible.”
He tossed the chunk of doughnut away, then rubbed his hands together in an attempt to get the frosting off of them. Idly, he was aware of the rest of his group staring at him, and he paused before turning around.
“What?” he asked.
‘Seriously?” Melanie deadpanned.
“What do you mean?” He blinked, and recognition flashed across his face. “Oh, you mean the crying woman. Yeah, I guess that’s pretty heinous, too.”
Victoria facepalmed, letting out a tired sigh as she did so. “Just… step aside. I’m going to see if I can discern what might have caused the explosion.”
“Is that wise?” Carmine asked, raising an eyebrow. “We’re currently the only ones here. If the guards show up and see us poking around, they might assume the worst. Especially since one of us apparently knows everything there is to know about booby traps.”
“That’s a great point, actually,” Victoria conceded. “Chase, come take a look at this bakery. See if you can tell what might have caused this.”
A vein pulsed in Carmine’s forehead. “Not what I meant.”
“I’m aware, but guards or not, this is going to involve us anyway, so we might as well learn what we can before they show up and contaminate the scene with their incompetence.”
“Why are you assuming they’ll be incompetent by default?” Melanie questioned.
“Have you ever known a city guard not to be?” Victoria asked.
Melanie’s brow furrowed. “Good point. I rescind my earlier statement.”
Chase, meanwhile, let out a tired sigh. “Victoria, come on, do I really have to do this? Because if I have to walk in there and see an entire rack of cinnamon buns or apple fritters that’s been blown to smithereens, I honestly might just break down and cry. Much like that woman back there.”
“Too bad,” she countered. “You’re the booby trap expert, so that means this is your crime scene for now. Consider it your penance for being so callous about the dead people earlier.”
“What, you’re still mad about that? Come on, people are basically an unlimited resource compared to doughnuts. My reaction was entirely justified.”
Victoria gave him an unamused look, which Chase wilted under. “...Just so we’re clear, I’m doing this against my will.”
“You’re about to be doing this with your balls attached to my warhammer if you don’t get in there in five seconds and start looking around,” Victoria deadpanned.
Chase immediately turned around and stepped foot inside the ruined bakery. As expected, there wasn’t much left to see; what had once been a simple, hole-in-the-wall, one-story, two-room building was now little more than a hollowed-out, burned-out husk of adobe. The kitchen area had basically been atomized, while the waiting area out front had been reduced to a series of scraps of metal and charred yellow mud.
Still, as Chase stepped over the mangled body of the baker behind the counter – sending a quick prayer that the man had made it to the great bistro in the sky in the process – he couldn’t help but realize something interesting. The blast, while obviously powerful, had originated from the kitchen, and it hadn’t been magical in nature. A fine residue of black powder lined the walls and floor within the kitchen; Chase raised a finger and dragged it against some of the powder, and then after a moment of hesitation, tasted it.
“Hm…” he said. “Tastes like how the inside of Carmine’s old volcanic lair smelled.”
“What’d you just say Carmine tasted like?!” Victoria shouted.
“What?!” Carmine shouted.
Instantly, Chase paled. “No, no, that’s not what I said! I said this disgusting black powder reminds me of the way her old volcanic base smelled! You know, the one you had back in our old world?!”
“Oh!” Carmine paused. “Well, what the hells is that supposed to mean?!”
Chase facepalmed. “Just get in here!” he growled.
“Only if you promise not to try and taste me!”
“Fuck off! Are you getting in here or not?!”
Carmine didn’t answer, but he heard her moving around the front of the building regardless. A few seconds later, she appeared in the doorway, looking around in awe.
“Geez,” she noted. “Looks like a bomb went off in here.”
“Yes, I believe you’re right,” Chase said. He motioned to the black residue on the wall. “Taste this, you’ll see what I mean.”
Carmine’s brow furrowed. “I’m not doing that.”
“Just do it, you big baby.”
“Chase, I’m not in the habit of tasting random powdery substances at crime scenes. Hells, I can’t believe you figured you’d taste it, either. You don’t know where that shit’s been, after all.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Yeah I do, it’s been right here, on the wall,” Chase replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Anyway, since you’re too much of a wuss to taste it and see what I mean… what was that chemical that you had a ton of back in your old base when you were still the Demon Queen on Zora? You know – dirty-yellow in color, kinda easy to break or scratch, smells like rotten eggs or a sewer…”
“You mean sulfur?”
Chase snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that shit. That’s what they made this bomb out of.”
“Okay.” She paused. “...You really needed to taste it to determine that? The stench filling the room wasn’t enough?”
“Fuck off, I wasn’t sure if that was just the smell of burnt eclairs or what. I had to be certain. Also, I’m the one with the booby trap skills here, not you.”
“I mean, whatever you say, but still. Kinda weird.”
Chase let out a grunt as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Anyway, what that’s supposed to tell us, I have no idea. Whoever designed and planted the bomb obviously has access to a lot of sulfur, because it was a key ingredient in whatever alchemical reaction fueled the explosion.” He shook his head. “I don’t know where the bomb was planted to start – probably under the counter, if I’m being honest, though it’s hard to tell because the entire kitchen is completely ruined. I’m basing that assertion purely on the fact that if I had been the perpetrator, that’s where I’d have planted it.”
“Good to know you’ve extensively considered how best to bomb a public area,” Carmine told him.
“Oh, shut up. That comes with the territory of having this kind of Skill and you know it.” Chase uncrossed his arms. “Past that, I can’t tell you much more. I do find it weird that the bomb itself didn’t seem to have any shrapnel attached to it, though.”
“What do you mean?” Carmine asked.
“I mean that, if it were me, AKA someone who actually knows what the hells they’re doing when it comes to things like this, I’d have at least filled the bomb with some nails or something, that way I could have maximized its killing potential.” Chase brought a hand up to his chin in thought. “But this person didn’t do that, rather they relied on the sheer killing power of the explosion. Risky gambit, if you ask me – if it had been less powerful than they’d wanted it, then it wouldn’t have been nearly as destructive. I can’t tell if this was the work of a rank amateur who simply didn’t know any better or if it was someone who actually knows their shit and was just so confident that they could get the power of the explosion correct that they figured they didn’t need the additional killing potential of built-in shrapnel to help.”
Chase couldn’t help but realize Carmine had gone silent during his rambling. He blinked, then looked over to her. “Am I boring you?”
Carmine jolted in surprise, then stared at him. “Sorry, what was that?”
Chase let out a tired sigh. “You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. You started rambling and I tuned you out rather than have my ears assaulted by the finer points of explosive geekery.”
Chase facepalmed again, then looked out to the town square. “Please tell me one of you was listening in on my rambling!”
“I was!” Melanie called back.
“Thank you!” Chase turned back towards Carmine. “See? I can draw an audience, after all.”
“If you say so,” she told him. “Can we go? I really don’t want to be here when the guards show up.”
“Uh, yeah, probably a good move,” Chase agreed. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Their group hurried away from the location of the explosion, taking care to dodge any guards they saw approaching the area on the way. Thankfully, nobody tried to stop them, and they were able to continue on unimpeded and without interruption.
At least until Melanie spoke up a few minutes later.
“Hey, can we stop?” she requested.
“Why?” Chase asked without looking back. “Are your legs tired or something?”
“No, dumbass, I’m a Lich, my legs don’t get tired. No, I have to do something real quick.”
“Like what?”
“...I’m not telling you that. It’s personal.”
That got his attention. Chase instantly stopped, as did Carmine and Victoria. Together, the three of them rounded on Melanie, who stared at them with wide eyes.
“Uh, I guess it’d be too much to ask you all not to pry into it?” she requested, a sheepish grin crossing over her face.
“Melanie, tell me what you need to do, and be truthful about it,” Carmine ordered.
“I need to mail a letter to someone,” Melanie replied involuntarily.
“Uh-huh. What’s the letter, and who are you mailing it to?”
Melanie bit her lip as she tried desperately to resist Carmine’s order, but eventually, the dam broke, and she couldn’t help but blurt it out.
“It’s a love letter to Heinrich!”
Chase blinked in surprise. “...For real? You’re writing love letters to the guy who almost got the entire mortal plane and the Demon Realms involved in a massive war against each other?”
“I can’t help it! You all told me to sleep with him so he’d fall from grace and his followers would leave him, and I did it, and it was soooo good, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking of him for the past five years!” Melanie sighed wistfully. “You’ve never been in love, you couldn’t hope to understand my emotions…”
Chase and Carmine exchanged a quick glance with each other.
“...So, just a question,” Carmine ventured. “Does he, you know… write back?”
“He does! That’s how I know he has feelings for me, too! His letters are always so romantic…”
“In what ways?”
“Well, mainly he writes about how much he wants to manhandle me, you know? Because I’m so much smaller than him. He keeps telling me he wants to pick me up and bend me over random objects in the house, and-”
“Okay, okay, too much information, stop talking,” Carmine hurriedly amended. “Show me the letter. I promise we won’t open it and read it, I just want to see it.”
Again, Melanie tried to resist, but she was unable to, and eventually reached into her cloak and came back with an envelope, which she handed over to Carmine. It was a bright pink envelope, and had a big kiss mark over the front of it. Carmine gave her a deadpan look, and Melanie grinned sheepishly. Chase, meanwhile, couldn’t help but furrow his brow as a strange scent filled the air.
“What’s that smell?” he asked. “It’s not just me, right?”
“No, I smell it, too,” Victoria stated. Realization crossed her face. “Melanie, did you… spray your love letter with perfume before sealing it in the envelope?”
Melanie didn’t say anything, but the incandescent blush that crossed over her deathly pale face said more than enough. Carmine just stared at her.
“You don’t even wear perfume,” Carmine pointed out.
“I know,” Melanie said quietly. “Please just give it back.”
Carmine thought for a moment, then shrugged and handed the letter back over to her. Melanie snatched it up, then tucked it safely back inside her cloak with a relieved sigh.
“I’m surprised you’re okay with this development,” Chase pointed out. “She just admitted she’s been trading sultry love letters with the man who almost ended the world five years ago.”
“Honestly, Chase, at this point, I don’t really care what she does anymore,” Carmine said tiredly. “Whatever makes her happy, I guess.”
XXX
Name: Chase Ironheart
Level: 9
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Swordmaster
Strength: 20 (MAX)
Dexterity: 15
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 13
Constitution: 18
Charisma: 16
Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4)
Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)
Traits: Blessed
Name: Carmine Nolastname
Level: 9
Race: Greater Demon
Class: Arcane Witch
Subclass: Archmage
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 19
Wisdom: 19
Constitution: 12
Charisma: 8
Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)
Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5)
Traits: Blessed
Name: Melanie Vhaeries
Level: 9
Race: Ascended Human
Class: Necromancer
Subclass: Arch-Lich
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 16
Constitution: 15
Charisma: 12
Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8)
Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)
Traits: None
Name: Victoria Firelight
Level: 10
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Subclass: Devotee
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 9
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 13
Constitution: 19
Charisma: 11
Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)
Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)
Traits: None
