Akuma

### Goblin Hunt Arc

Gideon and Akuma arrive in Karmia in search for a job. Near the tavern they fin several job postings, one of them offers good money for proof of death of goblins, orcs and demons. Exited with the possibility of fighting an orc Akuma insists with Gideon to choose the one. Nearby a large Dar'zur is being broke and failing at buying any decent armor. The Dar'zur named Balasar, also looking for a job seems interested in the same one as Gideon and Akuma. Akuma is kick in defending the job saying its his, but Gideon mistranslates his sentences as asking for help from him. Seeing how large and strong the Dar'zur seems challenges him for a fight in his native tongue. Gideon intervenes and stops the fight by pulling on Akuma's ear. Gideon, then leaves to ask the guards about the job posting, the town guards indicate that he should take the poster inside the in to the two guards inside. When Gideon returns to Akuma and Balasar he finds both injured after cleary fighting each other. After their fight Akuma extends his hand and proclaims "Strong". The group enter the inn, which is mostly empty besides eight people. The bar keep and a barmaid, two guards, a weird smiling man, a hooded woman, a underage elf and a man with an enormous amount of blond hair. Akuma head towards the fire place and begins eating the coals while Gideon and Balasar head for the guards.

After some discussion Gideon is able to recruit the blond man, named Stinger. The underage elf aproches Gideon upon hearing that he has been to other towns and shows him a horrible drawing of what seems to be a man and asks is he had seen him. Gideon blatantly lies to this kid in her face and tells her yes he had. Gideon explains how he is a hunter in a town not far and if the girl joins them in hunting the goblins maybe she will find him. After some discussion the elf girl, named Laedina, agrees on tagging along. Gideon then relays this information to Akuma, expressing his worry on lying and contracting what could be a child. Akuma asks if he would like him to knock her out, to which Gideon horrifyingly denies. Akuma then assures Gideon that they are strong and therfore will live.

The newly formed group follows the guards outside and takes a carriage towards an nearby forest. Due to Stinger's tracking abilities the group finds 3 goblins fighting over a bag. The group springs into action ambushing the Goblins. Two try to flee but are impaled by Balsar's arrows, the last one is driven to uncontrollably laugh by Gideon's spell and then has his rib cage obliterated by a drop kick from Akuma. The group gathers once again around the bodies and begin discussing what they should take as a trophy, Gideon suggests the ears while Laedina suggests that they cute the hands too for an extra bounty. As they begin carving the bodies Akuma moves away disturbed, he finds a new set of footprints, around 5 Goblins. He drags Gideon over but he suggests turining in for the day since they are injured.

The group returns to town and is told that the guards that handles bounties is not around at night and that they must wait for next day. The group decides to meet at dawn in the square and part ways. Balasar being broke has nowhere to sleep and as such Gideon offers pays for his lodging.

In the following morning the group reunites in the town square once again to collect the bounties for the Goblins. Gideon and Laedina successfully trick the guards and receive an extra bounty by presenting the hands and ears of the same goblin. The group splits the money evenly and Akuma gives his back to Gideon, since he has no need for it. The group then decided to head back into the forest to investigate the trail of the five goblins that Akuma discovered the previous day.

Back at the forest they follow the tracks to a small cave with trap door on the floor. The cave and the trap door do not seem trapped and no goblins are in sight. For a while the group discusses on how to deal with the goblins. Laedina proclaims that she usually just camps the sites for weeks figuring out the different entrances and exits then blocks all exits except one and sets fire to the cave. Then as the goblins flee she shoots them dead. Although the group agreed that this would be a good idea they do not have the time to search for all the exits of the cave. Hearing this Akuma heads into the cave first. Upon entering the group discovers that the cave is not a cave but a dungeon with stone walls and floors. They transverse the cave but after making a wrong turn Akuma steps on a pressure plate and a statute fires an arrow at him. Fortunately he is able to doge it. After this incident the group moves more carefully forward with Gideon using his mage hand to fell for more pressure plates. This proves life saving as Gideon's mage hand triggers a pressure plate that releases a blade from the walls. After some testing and discussion on how to avoid the trap Akuma decides to try and dive trough it but miscalculates the jump and triggers the blade which grazes his foot but leaves him unharmed. This blunder leads to more discussion on how to avoid the trap but Akuma steps on it from the other side and keeps his weight on it locking the mechanism in place and letting everyone trough. The corridor leads to a large open area three book shelves and a desk. Both the desk and bookshelves do not seem of Goblin make and seem to be made for an human or elf. The shelves which both Laedina and Gideon rummage trough are filled with books about the war which does not interest Gideon, however the third bookshelf houses healing spell scrolls and several diaries with several different handwritings on them and written in an language that both Akuma and Gideon do not recognize. Bored Akuma decides to rummage trough the desk and after opening a few drawers notices a large button which he presses. This causes a large portion of the wall to slide off revealing a chest, inside the chest the group finds an axe and gold coins.

The sound of the door panel must have alerted the Goblins that dwelled within the dungeon since two of the appear at one of the doors. Laedina quickly blocks the second door with a chair and the group prepares for battle.

First the group waited to see of the Goblins would fall prey to the trap, but this plan failed since the creatures seemed aware of its existence. Stinger then rushed to fight the Goblins. Banging sounds could also be heard from the door Laedina blocked indicating that goblins here trying to get inside trough there as well. Since they seemed to have trouble with unblocking the door the group focused on the two goblins on the corridor. Laedina shot them with arrows and Stinger faced them in melee combat. Akuma although at first climbed a bookshelf to drop on them once they passed trough the door joined stinger in fighting the goblins as well. As the group was focused on these two Goblins the door in the back blew open and an orc followed by 4 goblins stepped in. Akuma fearing for Gideon's safety left Stinger to deal with the remaining Goblin in the corridor and rushed the orc. Balasar faced the orc first hitting him with his axe with the orc returning the blow. Now heavily outnumbered Gideon suggested a retreat and headed for the door. Akuma would not flee however and charged the orc. Two of the four goblins that accompanied the orc charged after Balasar while the other two surrounded Akuma. Now surrounded by three Goblins the group at the entry door suffered with both Laedina and Balasar passing out due to their injuries. This prompted Gideon who was already at the end of the corridor to charge back in and use his scrolls to bring them back into the fight. Akuma was faring well against the orc and the goblins dodging most of their attacks while hitting his own. After getting healed by Gideon Balasar, Laedina and Stinger finished off the three goblins while Gideon himself rushed to help Akuma. Casting a spell and uttering the magic words ""PeepeePoopoo" Gideon made the orc erupt into incontrollable laughter. Using this opening Akuma dealt the finish blow by performing and "O-soto-gari" on the orc and cracking his skull on the stone floor. With their leader dead the two remaining goblins fled.

After gathering themselves for a while the group counted the goblins they had killed. Laedina suggested that they cut off all hands and feet to bring back for extra profit, Gideon however argued that that would be suspicious and they shouldn't do all of them. Laedina however understood this as not wanting to trick the guards and was kind of pissed off, collecting all the hands and feet anyways.

After gathering the body parts the group decided to explore the rest of the dungeon in search for the remaining Goblins. They found them cowering away in what looked like the barracks were they slept. Laedina asked them were was their boss and their treasure, to which the goblins replied that they had killed him and that the treasure was right there in the room pointing towards a pile of gold, silver and copper coins in the corner. After this Akuma rendered the both unconscious and he and Gideon searched the rest of the dungeon. No treasure was found in the rest of the dungeon however Akuma almost fell in a spike pit where two goblins had previosly fallen and been impaled. Gideon used his mage hand to gather their ears. Returning to the barracks Akuma and Gideon found the group discusiing waht they should do with the Goblins. Laedina advised that they should kill them, however Gideon wondered if it was really worth it if they had so much treasure already. As Laedina moved in on the goblins Akuma placed a hand on her shoulder saying "They are defeated already". This made Laedina snap calling both Akuma and Gideon shit moralists, furious she left the room. Stinger who had been left behind decapitated both the goblins. Akuma was disappointed in the action and told Stinger that "He knew no honor" . The group then left the dungeon bound for the town to collect their bounties. As they left Laedina suggested that Balasar could live there.

Once back in town the exhausted group collected their bounties, Gideons's deception worked, and the group received double bounties from some goblins. Once their earnings were divided Gideon suggested that they all stay together since there was some good money to be made with the goblin hunt and they all decided to meet over dinner to discuss their next steps once they were rested.

The group parted ways with Gideon and Akuma headed towards the library to investigate the diaries found in the dungeon. Upon asking the librarian she was able to tell them that the diaries were in elvish and seemed deeply disturbed by its contents. Gideon tried to reassure her stating that it was a "fanfic" which did not help. Furthermore, Gideon borrowed a elvish-common dictionary from the library to try and understand the contents of said diaries. As they left Akuma desired a book as well taking one at random from one of the shelves. He was immediately intercepted by the library staff who told him he couldn’t walk out with a book, much to the surprise of Akuma since Gideon could. Gideon once again deescalate the situation and asked Akuma to return the book which he did.

Back at the Inn Akuma asked for a bowl, filled it with hot coals and retreated to his room for some rest. After a well-deserved nap the group meets again for dinner. During the dinner Gideon gives the diaries to Ladina so that she can translate what's inside. The diaries were written by many different people and speak of various experiments to extract the soul from the body, all of which obviously failed resulting in various goblin deaths. The diaries also spoke of a move clearly indicating that the group responsible for the experiments had relocated somewhere else. Now interested in the dungeon the group decided to investigate it further, with Laedina heading back to the woods to see if she could have any extra information and Balasar heading to the library to see about the architecture of the place. Troughout the dinner Akuma stared intently at Stinger pondering what to do. He felt angry that he killed that Stinger killed the unarmed goblins, but he also felt that he wasn’t fully understanding his reasons. After some heavy thinking Akuma decided that there was only one thing he could do. Fight Stinger.

After warning Gideon of what he wished to do Akuma stood up and challenged Stinger for a duel before heading outside the tavern to wait for him. Stinger calmly finished his food before standing up and heading outside to face Akuma. Seeing this as a golden opportunity to make some *bag* Gideon began publicizing the fight and quickly gathered a large crowd around both fighters. Bets were being placed with Gideon taking in 10% of each bet for securing the transaction. By the time all bets were in 3 gold were put on Stinger and 5 on Akuma. While Gideon happily announced both fighter's Akuma and Stinger stared each other down. As Gideon gave the order to prepare Stinger drew his sword waring Akuma "Don't forget you asked for this." To which Akuma replied "I know." before bowing and taking is fighting stance.

The fight began with Akuma rushing Stinger being able to knock him ou of his feet, Stinger quickly recovered and launched a series of attack's with his sword towards Akuma. As the fight went on Gideon exaggerated each attack with illusions as to seem like they generated sparks. The fight was fast and fierce and it ended with Akuma victorious. As Stinger lay on the ground Akuma extended his hand to him saying "Strength is good, Honor is better." Stinger swatted his hand away "Honor is what my family died for" he said before walking away.

As the crowd dispersed with some people weeping over losing their life savings Gideon approached Akuma to boast about pickpocketing a guard for all the money he had. As he said this a faint "Hey, where's my money." Was heard from a nearby guard which made both Akuma and Gideon rush back into the Tavern.

The night approached and the group decided to turn in for the night. Once again Akuma asked for a bowl at the inn being given the same charred bowl as before.

During the night Gideon was awakened form his sleep by a rustling at his door, which he could discern as someone trying to open it. Gideon pondered jumping out of the window but did not want to leave Akuma and as such prepared to cast Invisibility on himself if the door opened. This never happened however as after some failed attempts the intruder left. After waiting long minutes Gideon rushed into Akuma's room where we has practicing his judo moves. He told Akuma of what had happened and both went to Balasar's room and explained the situation. Akuma looked trough the window hoping to see the perpetrator but saw nothing. The trio then descended that stairs towards the main hall of the tavern but it was empty with no signs of intrusion. As Gideon wondered who was it that tried to open his door and if it was the law enforcement Akuma suggested that if he wanted to know that badly maybe he should just have opened the door. To which Gideon respondet3d that that was the reason he was the manager of the operation. For safety Gideon asked if he could sleep in Balasar's room since Akuma was a waling nightlight. To avoid inconveniencing his friend Akuma ran to his room too the potty from under his bed and placed it on his head to cover his flame hair and still be able to protect his friend during the night. The trio all slept in Balsar's room and in the next morning met for breakfast.

During her night excursion Laedina had found evidence of 5 more orc camps within a five mile radius of the dungeon. She also had set fire o yet another portion of the forest. Gideon told the group what had happened that night and while brainstorming the reason of the intrusion they arrived to the conclusion that it could have only been due to the diaries and it was very unlikely that the guards were involved since if they were they had simply broken the door and arrested Gideon. The question now was of who knew of the diaries, obviously them and the only other person was the librarian that told Gideon the language they were in. Now almost certain that the either the previous owner of the diaries or someone interested in the research within was looking for them Gideon decided to ask around town if it had seen any mages, while Balasar went to the library to research architecture and Laedina looked for a new bow.

Balasar discovered that the architecture of the dungeon was human meaning that the building must have been post plague of shadows since most of the human architecture in the continent emerged after the destruction of the elven one during the plague. During this it is revealed that Balasar witnessed atrocities incompressible top most human minds and was subsequently converted to religious practice.

Gideon and Akuma meanwhile began by asking the barkeep if he had seen any mages nearby. He replied that the only he knew of was the hooded woman in the back of the tavern which coincidently only came in when the group was there too. Gideon tried to speak to her but she tried to run which prompted Akuma to tackle her and in turn be tackled by the guards himself. As he struggled with the guards the woman spoke to Gideon in abyssal and despite not speaking abyssal Gideon understood it and asked him to meet her later and the time was arranged for 3h from that moment. After the time being arranged Gideon vouched for Akuma and he was released by the guards.

Meanwhile Laedina was window shopping for a new bow. She noticed a stall that seemed to sell a variety of bows and arrows, including what seemed to be two highly valuable gold incrusted ones. She pondered stealing them but noticed a guard nearby and held off that idea. The stall was empty so Laedina nocked on the table a couple times. An elf man came running from a nearby flower stall, Laedina inquired about the price of the bows which ranged from 1000 gold all the way to 40000. Laedina obviously did not have that kind of money so she prepared to leave, the man tried to sell her on some magic fire arrows but she told him she would be back later with more money.

The group met again at the tavern, where they discusses each one of their findings, including the upcoming meeting with the mysterious woman and Balasar's trauma. Laedina asked Akuma if it was true that he fought Stinger and asked if he wanted to fight him again. Akuma responded that he did not wish to fight Stinger again but would fight someone else. Excited Laedina said she would find him and adversary. Balasar also asked Akuma if the coals he ate were like nourishment to him or if he just need to absorb it to keep alive. Confused Akuma answered "Its food."

Akuma and Gideon met with the strange woman in front of the Karmia administrative building. The woman was leaning against the side of the large structure and seemed scared as Akuma and Gideon approached her. Has Gideon began inquiring her about her actions Akuma performed a kabendon on her which did not help her frightened status. Gideon warned Akuma to back off and so he did.

The frightened girl then explained that sometimes she had urges to do stuff and she didn't really know why. That was the case when she spoke abyssal to Gideon. As she explained her condition she became increasingly agitated and began speaking abyssal once again. Akuma the suggested that she was under demonic possession a idea Gideon brushed off. Gideon then suggested that they moved to the tavern.

Back at the tavern Gideon took the girl to his room and asked Akuma to stand guard at the door. Inside the room the girl spoke to Gideon in abyssal but to all the questions he asked she kept repeating they were not for him. Finally Gideon gave in and answered that he could not summon "him" voluntarily he came out when he wanted too. In that moment the room filled with fog and Gideon disappeared being replaced by an elf man with long black hair and red eyes. The elf placed his hand on the women's head and with a faint scream she fell to the floor.

On the other side of the door Akuma saw the smoke coming underneath the door. He knocked and asked if Gideon was ok, but there was no anwser. He then heard a faint scream and a sound like a body hitting the floor. Akuma opened the door and saw himself face to face with the black haired elf. Without Gideon in sight Akuma assumed the elf to be hostile and attacked, however as his punch connected the elf faded away revealing Gideon. But it was too late and Akuma decked Gideon in the face.

Worried about his friend Akuma violently shook Gideon until he came to. He then demanded an explanation, Gideon briefly explained that like the girl he had someone else inside him that sometimes spoke to him and gave him strange abilities. That was why he spoke primordial like Akuma. Apparently the creatures that were possessing both Gideon and Tanya here trying to prevent something from happening, something bad.

Meanwhile Laedina looked for an opponent for Akuma, at first she tried to get people to fight him for one gold piece. After some failed attempts she was able to persuade the absolute most menacing man in existence to fight Akuma for the promise of 20 gold if he won. With the fight arranged Laedina proceeded with the rest of the preparations, which consisted of placing a oil drenched rag in some flowers so she could set it on fire later.

The fight between Akuma and Leommund (the large man Laedina recruited) took place at 9pm in front of the tavern. Both Akuma and Gideon met with Laedina in teh arranged place and Akuma asked how strong was the man he was about to fight. Laedina described him by placing her hand way above her head and saying that he was that tall and really muscular. Gideon was immediatly worried but Akuma assured him that it was not about winning or losing but about the fight itself. Gideon responded it was absolutely about winning to which Laedina reposted that its actually about the fight and that he should make it as flashy as possible. As usual the fight gathered a enormous crowd, and once again people began betting. As "Magma Fist" Akuma was introduced people rushed to place their bets on him after his great performance in the previous night. However as Leomund approached they quickly changed their minds as the man was much larger than Akuma. Gideon however did not let them change the bets and the fight soon began.

Both opponets charged at each other and while all eyes were on the battle Laedina took a bit of a flame and set fire to the rag she had previosly planted. The flower stall caught on fire which prompted the guards and the stall owner to rush and try to put it out. While this happened Laedina stole a magical bow and all the fire arrows in the stall. Making her escape to the woods afterwards. Meanwhile Gideon once again tried to pickpocket some of the guards, unfortunately he was caught. However due to his masterful use of deception he was able to trick the guards into believing he wasn't the one robbing people. The battle between Akuma and Leommund still raged with both opponents dealing heavy blows to each other, Akuma however was able to deal a powerful combination if strikes which took Leommund down. The crowd erupted in cheer as Akuma emerged victorious once again. Gideon was fast to announce his victory and while everyone was focused on Akuma Gideon stole a ring from one of the commoners and planted it on Leommund, in order to incriminate him for his crimes.

While Akuma celebrated his victory Leommund got up and congratulated Akuma on his victory. Hew confessed that he did not expect to lose and asked where Akuma had trained. Akuma answered in a monastery in Sunvalley and when Leommund inquired where that was Akuma erroneously responded "South" and Gideon corrected him by stating "East".

With the battle over Gideon and Akuma head back to the tavern where they met with the rest of the group except for Laedina who was currently hiding in the woods. Tanya was already awake too and after Akuma requested a large bowl to put his hot coals in they all met to discuss their next steps.

While the group discussed the mysterious nature of these creatures that possesed both Tanya and Gideon, Akuma loudly ate his coals and used it to try and patch up some of his wounds. With a severe lack of information on what to do next the group decided to head towards the woods tomorrow to hunt some more orcs. Tanya decided to stay with the group and slept in Gideon's room while Gideon slept in Akuma's. She opted not to join the group in the orc hunt.

In the following morning the group set out for the forest where they met with Laedina. Akuma proudly presented his new scar to her and announced that he had won the fight she arranged. Then the group followed Laedina trough the forest towards the first orc camp. The camp was not far and was surrounded by makeshift walls made of sharpened logs. Laedina could sense four orcs inside and created a plan to set fire to strategic places around the camp to lure the orcs out and kill them. She distributed torches to Gideon, Balasar and Stinger and instructed them to each set fire to a specific part of the camp. Meanwhile Akuma completely ignored the plan and tried to climb the gate of the camp, when that failed he climbed on to a tree and jumped inside. As the fires were set and the orcs rushed to try and put them out by filling barrels with water an pouring it over the fires. Akuma now inside the camp rushed one of the orcs and engaged in a fight. The other orcs seeing an intruder quickly rushed towards Akuma as well, surrounded Akuma was overpowered by the four orcs and went down. The orcs quickly turned their gaze towards Gideon who was hiding in some bushes nearby. Laedina, after making sure that the fore she set spread to the forest climbed onto a tree and began shooting at the Orcs with her new magic bow. Stinger, after the wall of the orc camp was sufficiently weakened rushed inside as well. Balasar remained outside trying to break open the gate. While two orcs remained engaged with Gideon the other too rushed towards Laedina. She, however was perched on top of a tree on the other side of the walls and was able to freely rain arrows onto the orcs while remaining unarmed. On the other side Gideon was able to fend off the orcs long enough for Stinger to reach him and help. Balasar was able to reach Akuma after breaking open the gate and heal him. Akuma got up and helped Stinger finish up the two orcs before rushing to Laedina to help. As the battle evolved the ground began shaking with the thunderous sound of footsteps. Laedina finished up the one of the two orcs, the final orc seeing his comrades dead tried to escape but was cut off and killed by Balasar. With the orcs dead the group reveled in their victory. However the happiness was not long lived as the thunderous footsteps got closer and closer and a gigantic fire hound jumped from the forest onto the camp. Gideon was the one closest and unfortunately was hit with the full might of the hounds attack. The young mage began to loose consciousness which prompted Akuma to scream and rush towards him to save him. However instead of going down Gideon was enveloped in mist and in his place the black haired elf appeared. Akuma and Balasar which were closest to the creature engaged her with Stinger and Laedina attacked it from a far. The creature took heavy damage from the groups attacks, enraged it reeled back and breathed fire onto Balasar and Akuma. Although Akuma was immune to fire as the magical flames enveloped him a piercing headache tore trough him, for a brief moment it seemed like his skull would split in half but Akuma was able to get it under control. The fight continued and with the beast surrounded the group was able to fell it with the final blow being dealt by Balasar. With the beast dead Akuma rushed towards the elf shaking it violently and asking him repeatedly to return Gideon. The elf calmy responded "you know he is still here right" before disappearing into a mist and returning Gideon. Akuma was relieved to see his friend and hugged him which burned him a bit.

With the fight over the group regrouped to celebrate and count how much money would they earn. The corpse of the hound surely would be the most profitable of all. For a while Akuma found it difficult to gaze at the demon as he tried to forget the splitting headache he had felt. But as the group talked about making fireproof clothes out of its skin Akuma joined and expressed its need for a hat. After some trouble in deciding how would they transport the body back in town the group settled by putting onto a table and sledding it around. As they prepared to leave another group of adventurers appeared. They were led by a blond man in full plate armor and besides a cleric and a mage they were followed by Leommund and Bow Store Man. The latter eyed Laedina heavily as they arrived. Gideon greeted them happily and said that this camp was already cleared but that there were others that they could go to. The blond man, spoke in an accent and told them that its would be simpler if they just took their prizes. Akuma stepped up and told them "There is no honor in stealing another's glory" which Gideon wrongfully translated to "Yo Mama is a hoe". The blond man drew his sword and as a battle became clear Akuma turned to Leommund and said "When i fought you, you seemed to have honor now that I see you steal another's glory I see I was mistaken."

This seemed to shake Leommund as he tried to argue with the blond man, the name of which was Rousseau, to not fight however when he threatened to attack Leommund he backed out. The fight began with an attack from Rousseau, already wounded Akuma wasn't able to defend and went down once again. Rousseau then turned to Stinger. As Stinger and Rousseau fought Bow Store Man moved to get a clear shot of Laedina while shouting for her to give him back his bow. To which she replied it wasn't his. The mage and the cleric stood back and while the cleric missed his spell the mage prepared to cast fireball and instructed Rousseau to leave out of range. Gideon whoever cast a spell mimicking the mages voice and told Rousseau to not leave since she was about to buff him. This was enough to confuse him and he stayed engaged with Stinger. Balasar moved in and healed Akuma, however due to his injuries Akuma was temporally blinded. Rousseau witnessed Akuma get up and told him he would get to him shortly remaining engaged with Stinger who was holding his own. Laedina and Bow Store Man continued their fight. Then unable to keep the spell under control any longer the mage girl casted fireball onto Rousseau, Akuma, Balasar and Stinger. Rousseau and Balasar went down and the splittimg and Akuma's splitting headache came back this time stronger. Once again he was able to force it to stop but barely. With Rousseau down a blinded Akuma attempted to strike a killing blow stating that "Honorless people deserve no mercy". However due to his blindness he missed his attacks. Bone Store Man stopped attacking Laedina and moved in to try and save Rousseau. As he dragged Rousseau away Akuma tried to strike him once again and missed. Gideon the spoke to Leommund, "For someone as strong as you I thought you would be a real man seeing you do this is very disappointing" trying to appeal to his consciousness. Leommund was clearly affected looking down at his body and stating out loud "What is the point of having this body if I cant do anything." He then rushed to Rousseau and once again pleaded to leave them alone. Rousseau said that if they just give them the heads they would be gone. Gideon responded that they would but Akuma screamed that he rather die. Rousseau, Bow Store Man and Leommund retreated towards the cleric that healed Rousseau but Stinger followed suit and downed Rousseau once again. Seeing the groups relentlessness and Leommund's unwillingness to fight the cleric and the mage decided to retreat. Gideon asked Stinger not to harm Leommund which he acquiesced but he refused to let the cleric take Rousseau's body. Laedina began moving in and attacking the cleric which made them more adamant to retreat. A blinded and enraged Akuma followed the sounds of battle to the closest enemy Bow Store Man and began attacking. He however could not run as fast as his comrades as Gideon casted "clown hat" on him.

Meanwhile Gideon moved in to help a Balasar who was bleeding out, however he failed to stop the bleding and called to Akuma. Instead Stinger came to his aid and was able to stabilize Balasar. Gideon the shouted at Akuma to "Resume demon time." and Akuma kept his pursuit. Akuma caught up to Bow Store Man and kept attacking, Laedina quickly joined firing fire arrows onto him. Although blinded Akuma was able to hit some strikes which made Bow Store Man increasingly scared of the group. In a panicked attempt to escape he tried to grapple Akuma (a deadly mistake), however Akuma trained grapples all his life and even blinded was bale to subdue Bow Store Man. Now firmly in Akuma's grasp he was unable to Run and Akuma kept attacking as Laedina approached. With Laedina now by his side and hearing her bow tensing up Akuma immobilized Bow Store Man making him look directly into Laedina as she fired a fatal arrow onto his chest and Akuma whispered in common, "Honorlessness never repays". Laedina then finished off the man with her knife and looted him. Afterwards she led Akuma back to camp. Once everyone was reunited Akuma asked Gideon to translate before dropping to his knees and bowing down to the group, apologizing for being so reckless and that he would be better next time. Gideon translated correctly. Akuma then offered a fist bump to Laedina and although she returned it she stated that he should go with the arson plan next time. Laedina seemed to grow close to Gideon saying that they should burn more stuff together, Gideon did not like the way she worded that bur agreed.

In the other side of the camp and enraged Stinger began smashing Rousseaus body to pieces while screaming "Murderers, Murderers". Taken by surprise by this sudden action the group rushed to him and Gideon was able to calm him down. Stinger then explained that the people that killed his family bore the same tattoo has Rousseau and he showed a piece of skin he had cut of which had a snake head tattooed on. The group briefly discussed the cult situation and decided that they should investigate. With Akuma stating "Revenge wont bring your family back but will stop them from hurting anyone else." before pledging to do anything he could to help. As they prepared to leave Balsar cured Akuma's blindness and he was sad to be informed that he had no new scars. The groups then looted Rousseau's body and found a small fortune of 50 gp. That day had been tremendously profitable and an excited Laedina said to Gideon that they should murder people and burn stuff together more often and although Gideon did not like how she worded it he agreed. After gathering all their loot the group head back to town where Gideon flexed their demon kill on everybody while Akuma physically flexed. The carcass would be enough for 3 jackets and another small piece of clothing according to the tailor and the butcher and Akuma was very excited at the possibility of having maching jackets with Balasar and Gideon as well as a hat for himself. Balasar and Gideon also sold Rousseaus armor and bought a new chain shirt for Balasar. While Akuma went back to the tavern to eat Gideon bought a rose and tried to seduce the girl selling flowers before realizing she was 14 and quickly making a retreat. He the visited Tanya in her room to see how she was doing, she responded that the urges were better and Gideon talked about his own experiences before realizing he had a rose in hand and explaining that its was not what it seemed like and making it disappeared with magic. Tanya seemed very impressed by this.

After he finished eating Akuma decided to train and he began a new training regimen where he would do so blinded since he detested the feeling of feeling weak by merely being blinded.

### The cult arc

After the encounter with Rousseau and his group and the revelation that the former belonged to the cult that murdered Stinger's family as well as the one who traumatized Balasar. The group began prowling for answers about said cult. The morning after the encounter with Rousseau Akuma woke up extra early to find a broom stick, he then woke up Gideon and forced him to hit him with it while he was blindfolded. Gideon at first refused but Akuma explained that he felt weak for not being able to fight without seeing and he needed training, Gideon then gave in and helped Akuma.

At breakfast the group decided to investigate Rousseau's house, for which they had a key but had no idea where it was. After some brainstorming on how to discover where Rousseau lived without drawing too much attention to themselves the group decided to pretend to be looking for Leommund to stage another fight with Akuma and maybe he would know where Rousseau lived. Before they could do that however they had one stop first, the butcher. After delivering the carcass on the previous day the butcher had cleaned all the meat and taken all the skin off the demon. In total there was about 50kg of skin and much more meat. The butcher accepted a deal in which he could keep all the meat in exchange for his services and as such the group took the meat practically for free. The next stop was the tailor, with the amount of skin they had he could make about 4 jackets and so Akuma, Gideon, Balasar and Stinger all would get one. After conveying the description of each one of the jackets to the Tailor and paying a fee of 40gp for the labor the group made one final detour to the woods to find Laedina before finally moving forward with the plan of finding Rousseau.

The group after questioning some guards quickly got pointed to the residential district where they found that all houses and all streets looked the same. After questing some guards again for Leommunds location and Gideon boldly lying about his name for no reason. The group got pointed to a particular street. Once there Akuma screamed Leommund's name which made many people come to the windows to inspect the noise. Stinger was preceptive enough to locate one of the mages of Rousseau's group peaking trough a window. Gideon approached the house and offered money in exchange for information saying that they did not want to hurt anyone. After some insistent knocking from Akuma the mage girl Stinger spotted came to the door. She was wary of the group and kikcly ushered them to leave stating that she knew nothing of Russeau and his affairs, going as far as dumping the rest of his clothes and belongings on the street. Realizing that that must have been Russeau's house Gideon used the key they looted from him and the door unlocked. Akuma slammed the door open and the group entered much to the shock of mage girl. After the group made it clear that they just wanted to investigate Rousseu's connection with the cult and leave the girl showed them to his room where two large barrels layed at the bottom of the bed. Akuma broke the barrel lids revealing that they both were filled with clean bones, and although they could not ascertain if the bones were human Balasar warned that bones this clean were usually used for rituals further reinforcing Russeau's connection with the cult. Mage girl also told them that he would sometimes take the bones and leave but she was not sure where. Laedina also on her personal investigation showed her the picture of her father and asked if she knew him. The mage girl replied that she did not know his name but that she had seen him before usually hanging around one of the mods. With this information in hand Laedina set out to make a list of all the current mods and investigate each one. As the group prepared to leave the cleric also arrived. He ~~immediately shat his pants~~ seemed nervous when talking to the group and after Stinger inquired him if he knew about the cult he denied having any connection, Stinger however could sense that he was lying and threatened him. Then he admitted that Russeau had tried to recruit him and although he did not became an official member he would take regular trips to Keld to deliver the barrels with the bones. The group's path now seemed clear if they wanted to know more about the cult they would have to leave Karmia and travel to Keld. Fortunately among Russeau's possessions there was a map of Keld and the Cleric was able to point them to the place were the cult was usually camped. The group also inquired about Leommund since he was nowhere to be seen, the mage girl informed that after the forest encounter he was done and they had not seen him again. Apparently he had come to them after his fight with Akuma desiring to be stronger and Russeau took him to his room, when they came out he Russeau said he was part of the group but besides that they did not know anything. The group hoped to meet Leommund again as he could have valuable information. Before leaving Stinger threatened the Cleric to never associate himself with the cult evet again of he would kill him.

Despite their new goal the group could not move on to Keld as Laedina was compiling a list of all the Karmia moderators and investigating each one to see of she could find her father. This investigation took three days and during this time Laedina also contracted a lockpick to break into Bow Store Man's Bow Store and steal the valuable bows inside the display case. Meanwhile Akuma kept up his blinded training, Gideon researched about extraplanar creatures, Balasar researched demons and demon cults and Stinger lurked in the darkness.

After some time the group reunited again. Laedina shared that she had discovered that her dad was friends with the mod Jonathan Kirk and was a Ladian Empire noble. With this information Laedina proceeded towards her second goal, to steal the gold incrusted bows in the deceased Bow Store Man's bow store. In order to do so Laedina had to break open the two glass cases that contained the bows. Not being an expert at lockpicking (since it was not fire related) Laedina sought to employ the services of someone more versed in the criminal arts. As it would turn out this someone was a ten year old boy. While apprehensive at first due to the boys age Laedina finally accepted to employ his services. Although she refused to pay the initial fee of 1Gp even after the boy explained that he needed the money to eat by stating that "You can eat rice or something". Instead the agreed price for his services was 2Sp. With a way to open the locks secured Laedina now only needed a distraction. She returned to the tavern were she explained the situation and Akuma promptly offered to fight someone once again as distraction. Laedina, still unsure of the boys skills, asked if nay of them could pick locks. After a negative answer from everyone she took Stinger with her to break the lock in case the boy failed.

Stinger and Laedina met with the boy outside the tavern, Stinger was also unsure about Laedina's hire but proceed with the plan anyway. Gideon went around town once again asking for someone who was willing to fight Akuma. The man he hired was even larger than Leommund to the point were Akuma jokingly said "Could you find someone smaller?" to Gideon upon seeing him. As the crowd gathered around the fighters and Gideon did is usual job as an announcer and bet broker, Stinger and Laedina prepared for the heist. The security around the square had been tightened however, maybe because of all the recent robberies as well as the mysterious disappearance of one of the store owners, but who really knows.

The fight began with the gigantic man charging at Akuma attacking with both his sword and his fists, Akuma dodged his attacks and countered with his own, being able to toss the man to the floor. Enraged the gigantic man got up and hit Akuma with two strong sword strikes. Using this opportunity Laedina took some of Akuma's fire and set light to the Tailor shop. The guards acted fast , maybe because its not the first time this happens, and moved in to stop the fire. Taking advantage of the distraction the began ran to the Bow store and began working on the locks. In an attempt at furthering the spread of the fire Laedina shot a fire arrow behind the store, however this revealed her position to the guards who immediately ***sussed her out.*** Laedina tried to divert attention from herself by pointing towards Balasar who was standing nearby but the guards were not fooled and began arresting her. Gideon noticed the conundrum and moved in to help but Laedin told him not to that it was fine and she would be out soon. Meanwhile the fight between gigantic man and Akuma continued. Akuma took some heavy blows as the gigantic man relentlessly swung his sword. Despite being on his last legs and Akuma gathered his strength in a final attack combo. Taking advantage of the wide swing of the gigantic mans sword Akuma gripped his arm and threw him over his shoulder, the man attempted to get back up but Akuma caught him with a left hook to the head and finalized with a flying knee directly to the face shattering his nose. The gigantic man fell back defeated as Akuma raised his hands and victoriously screamed "Magma Fist". While this happened the Bow Store Heist still developed. Now alone after Laedina's arrest Stinger began antagonizing the guards in hopes of distracting the long enough for the but to finish his work. Although the plan almost got him arrested Stinger was able to distract the guard long enough for the boy to make his escape with both bows simply finishing his interaction with "Sorry I am having a bad day and walking away".

The boy hid among the crowd from Akuma's fight and was greeted by Gideon and Akuma. Akuma mistakenly took him for a fan and attempted to give an autograph (aka writing gibberish on paper). Gideon however upon seeing the bows he carried immediately assumed the boy to be the one Laedina had hired. After discovering that the boy was only promised 2Sp for the job, and being slightly horrified at that, Gideon gave the boy 2Gp instead which made the boy ecstatic has he now could eat meat. The group took the boy into the tavern where Stinger payed for a meal for him and Gideon inquired a about his life, how had raised him and where did he live. After a rather cheerful retelling of a depressing life story where the boy never met his parents and had basically lived and been raised by the streets his whole life Gideon felt a thug in his heart. This led him to pay for a room for the boy who grew increasingly happy as he now not only would eat meat but could sleep in a bed. After making sure the boy was fed and safe the group decided to head to the jail to see Laedina.

In the jail Leadina attempted to get herself free by name dropping Jonathan Kirk and confidently stating that her father was friends whit him and would get all the guards banned. Although this was able to get some reaction if the guards they refused to let her go and set her time in jail for three weeks with a bail of 100Gp. Some time after her imprisonment the rest of the group arrived at the prison, and using fake names to register in they were allowed to see Laedina. She was a asleep in her sleep and seemed calm about her situation. Gideon explained that they were able to secure the bows and that they should be leaving for Keld soon to continue investigating the cult. Laedina told them that they could go ahead without her since she still had unfinished business in Karmia. She still had to further investigate Jonathan Kirk and get more information on her father. Gideon agreed that maybe that would be the best course of action and that they would sell the bow in Keld and return to split the value once she was out of jail. Visibly saddened for parting ways Laedina inquired about how the bows looked before saying goodbye to Gideon. The group left the prison and outside Balasar expressed how he felt that leaving Laedina imprisoned seemed harsh and cruel, Gideon tried to defend his position by stating that Laedina was ok with it but eventually came to agree that leaving her was not right. The group then pooled 100Gp and went back in to pay for her bail.

Once back at the tavern the group gifted one of the magic bows to Laedina keeping the other to maybe sell in Keld. Once again the group was faced with separation as the majority would be leaving for Keld while Laedina would stay. The group shared goodbyes with Laedina emotionally stating that she "used to be all about solo fires but after being with them she wanted to do group stuff." As Leadina left the tavern the Gideon told the boy, who still hanged around them, that they would be leaving town for a while but would comeback with a lot of gold and would share it with him. The boy was surprised that there could be even more gold than two gold pieces and Gideon was so emotional that he gave him an extra two gold, resigning himself to got to bed afterwards. Akuma told him that "Compassion was a beautiful thing." to which he replied "Fuck you Akuma." As Gideon went to his room he took some time to talk with Tanya explaining that they would be leaving town soon. Meanwhile Akuma teached the young boy how to throw a punch.

In the following morning as promised the group left Karmia for Keld. The trip by carriage would take them 7 days. Around halfway trough the trip a man approached their camp. He mentioned he was also on the way to Keld and asked if he could join the group. Although wary of the stranger at first the group allowed him to stay and travel with him, with Akuma keeping an eye on him all throughout the night. The rest of the trip occurred with no incident and soon enough the group found themselves in the gates of Keld.

The guards searched them for contraband but since they didn't find anything they let the group in without incident. Once inside the city the group split, with Akuma and Gideon going to the market to sell the bow, Balasar and Slim Mantis the temples and Stinger just took a look around town. On their end Akuma and Gideon were able to sell the stolen bow for 2000 gold although Akuma tried to increase the price with an offer for 100 000 gold. Gideon then tried to drop Akuma off with Stinger to go to the library, much to his annoyance, but Akuma kept following Gideon. In the library Gideon and Akuma met Balasar and together they searched the books for answers on the "demonic possessions" suffered by Tanya and Gideon, but weren't able to find anything. Akuma tried too but unsure what to look for he merely looked for interesting images and had to be stopped by Gideon from ripping one of the pages of a book.

Once their task at the library was finished Gideon went with Akuma to the coliseum to sign him up for a fight. The coliseum actually had various kinds of fights one could sign up for, and Akuma tried to convince Gideon to fight with him in a duo fight. Gideon refused and signed Akuma up for a tournament in two days time. Sad about not fighting alongside his friend but happy to fight nonetheless Akuma asked Gideon if he thought he had any chance of winning to which Gideon responded with "No.". Akuma thanked him for his honesty.

Once all group members had finished their tasks they met once again and decided to investigate the cultist base they had known about from Russeau's party. The cultist base was not far from Keld, it was surrounded by a wall much like the orc camp they had raided previously. This one was better built however and seemed sturdy. Gideon went first to scout ahead casting an invisibility spell on himself. Inside the camp there were 5 shirtless, shredded men. They were tending to various affairs such as eating meat and standing around looking to the void. There were many tents around and by the talk of the men Gideon was able to understand that there were more people but they had been sent on patrol and should be returning soon. Once he had scouted all he could Gideon returned to the group and relayed the information. The group decided that it would be best to attack now and attack fast before the patrol returned. Taking inspiration from Laedina (R.I.P) Gideon decided to set part of the camp on fire to distract the warriors within. The group moved to the entrance of the camp. As they approached the entrance Akuma said to Stinger "Take right I take left". The group then launched an frontal assault on the camp. The group quickly found themselves outmatched as the cultists were far stronger than expected. Gideon's plan also fell short as the fire he set failed to spread trough the camp. Akuma was knocked out twice, and Gideon was knocked out as well brining put his alternate persona. As the fight dragged on the leader of the cultists emerged from his tent and angrily hurried his underlings to finish the fight. As they failed to do so he decided to join the fight as well. Now clearly outmatched the group sensed the impeding defeat and consequent death. As panic set in a carriage was heard arriving, both the cultists and the group assumed it to be the patrol coming back. However a a thick purple fog clouded the area and a familiar voice hurried them to retreat. All the members did, with the exception of Balsar who stayed behind and kept fighting. As Akuma exited the purple fog he recognized Leommund from Karmia, although the former was heavily scarred both in face and torso. He hurried the group to flee but Balasar remained behind. Gideon's alter ego casted a spell which illuminated a path from Balasar to them but he failed to react to it. Akuma asked Gideons alter ego for his two potions and said that he would like Gideon back when he returned before diving into the fog for Balasar. Akuma found his comrade unresponsive and both him and Leommund had to join efforts and physically carry him out of the battlefield. While this happened Gideons alter ego was being interviewed by Slim Mantis.

Once save aboard Leommunds carriage Akuma walked up to Gideon's alter ego and demanded him back. Gideon's later ego refused asking Akuma what he would do if he did not, Akuma punched him the face. The entire group was tossed into shock as "Gideon" began bleeding. He did not stop taunting Akuma and kept mocking his requests to bring Gideon back. Akuma punched him again and again. Stinger stood up and drew his sword putting it against Akuma's neck. He ignored it having his gaze fixed on "Gideon". Finally in "Gideon" said " You are good Akuma but not good enough, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke being replaced by the true Gideon. Which was immediately horrified at his bloodied nose and vomited over the side of the carriage. Akuma dropped Gideon and sat in the carriage.

After some time they arrived at a clearing were the group began setting camp. After camp was set Leommund explained what had happened to him after their last encounter in the orc camp. To better contextualize that he also explained that after losing to Akuma he sought a way to get stronger and to do that he joined Rousseau's group to hunt some orcs. Quickly he realized that Rosseau was in other dealings and Russeau himself invited Leommund to help him promising to make him stronger. Leommund accepted and together with Russeau he made the regular trips to Keld to deliver the bones. He was never fully integrated in the cult and did not bear their mark but he helped. After Russeau's death he was summoned to the cults base and the leader said he would be the one to replace Russeau and wanted to fully integrate him in the cult. Leommund refuse as he noticed the cults shady dealings and did not want anything to do with it. The cult leader did not take this well and attacked Leommund stabbing him trough the stomach and burning his face, hence his new scars. Leommund was able to escape alive bearing the shame of another defeat. After that he sought to take down the cult.

Which brings him to today and helping the group escape. He told them thar they were all strong and the boss was stronger still and that they should not go in without a plan. After his speech was over Akuma pulled Gideon aside to talk to him in private.

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After their conversation Akuma and Gideon returned to camp and Gideon went to sleep while Akuma stood guard.

The night passed without incident with Leommund keeping Akuma company for the first hours of the night before going to sleep himself. The next morning the group gathered around the fire place to have breakfast and discuss their next steps. Gideon overslept however and Akuma snuck into his tent and screamed to wake him up. Which almost gave Gideon a heart attack and made Akuma laugh a lot.

Around the fireplace the group discussed a plan to take down the cult. The first obvious conclusion was that they could not take them head on and as such they pondered on what other actions to take. Parallel to that Akuma, Leommund and Slim Mantis all were enrolled in the tournament that would take place tomorrow. As such they would need to wait after that to make a move. Leommund further stressed how strong the cult leader was and that it would probably take all of them to even make it a fair fight. Akuma pointed out that before they could get to the leader they had to fight the underlings who were strong as well, meaning that they would never reach him at full strength and either they should fight them in different times or dispatch the underlings the cowards way.

The group discussed this for quite a while and although no plan of engagement was officially defined they decided to set watch on the camp and see what they could learn. As such Akuma, Gideon and Stinger left for the camp and stood watch. Trough their investigation the group learned that the leader of the group never lost a fight, and probably other stuff as well but Akuma was too excited with the perspective to fight someone who never lost to care.

At the end of the day back at camp Akuma expressed how exited he was to fight the leader since he had bever lost. This prompted Leommund to ask Akuma if he had ever lost a fight with the exception of the day before. Akuma replied that he did. During his years in the temple he would get beaten constantly by more experienced and stronger students but those losses made him stronger. Akuma believed that as long you are alive and with your honor you never truly lost. Leommund was satisfied with the answer and soon the group decided to go rest in order to prepare for the tournament the next day.

The morning rolled around and the group left for the city in order to prepare for the tournament. The participants, Leommund, Akuma and Slime Mantis went ahead towards the coliseum since they wanted to be there early and Akuma wanted to watch all the fights. Gideon promised to be there to seem him fight and wished Akuma luck ~~by kissing him on the lips.~~ Once he arrived at the coliseum Akuma came to the horrible realization that without Gideon he would have to speak common, which bothered him immensely. To him speaking common was like breathing out sandpaper, but he managed to get by with few words one of the being "magmafist" which was immediately recognized. Once inside Akuma was led into a fighter area where other fighters were warming up and expecting their fights.

The first fight was between a man wielding a spear and a man wielding a fiery sword. Although the spearman put up a though fight the man with the magical sword prevailed in the end.

The second fight was between Akuma and a young lady in full armor. Akuma landed some solid hits wich enraged the woman who also hit Akuma claiming he was "A very bad man". Akauma then comboed the freaking shit out of her and hit her with a flying knee to the face causing her to pass out in the spot before claiming "I am not a man." The crowd cheered for Akuma.

The third fight was between Slim Mantis and a hooded man. The hooded man tried to run while throwing dagger at Slim, but soon he ran out of space in the arena. Cornered he tried to run past Slim who stabbed him in the back winning the fight.

The fourth fight was between Lemmound and a woman with ~~HUGE BAZOOKAS~~ a very revealing armor. The fight was long since both fighters were able to dodge each others attacks, the woman seemed to grow increasingly flustered as she insulted Leommund trough the fight. In the end Leommund was triumphant not only in his fight but also in winning his contestants ~~pussy~~ heart.

The first fight of the second round was between Akuma and what seemed to be like a man made of stone. As the fight progressed Akuma noticed that instead of bleeding or bruising like a normal human would his foe's skin simply seemed to crack and crumble. Akuma was able to take him down and hit an arm lock but instead of his arm breaking it simply detached form his body witch later crumbled into dust. Surpirsed Akuma looked around for answers but everyone seemed as shocked as he. Akuma then gave the detached arm to the announcer and left the arena. When Akuma returned to the fighters area a lady came to him and told him not to worry that she had built that man and that we wasn't even really alive.

The second fight of the second round was between Skim Mantis and the woman who spoke to Akuma. Slim this time around tried to maintain his distance and used his ranged spells to his advantage unfortunately this wasn't enough and the woman was able to close the gap and overwhelmed Slim in melee combat.

The third fight of the second round was between Leommund and the fire sword guy from the first round. As the battle began Akuma had a weird feeling about the fight as if something was not quite right. Still he disregarded the sentiment and kept watching. Both fighters traded heavy blows, but Leommund left himself open after one of his attacks and was stabbed trough the stomach but his opponent. As the magical blade pierced Lemmunds belly it erupted into flames. Gazing at the flames memories of a past life rushed to Akuma, visions of fire and death... As he understood what was happening Akuma panicked and tried to leave the fighters aread onto the stands. "Gideon" he though "Gideon can help me" as he made it to the stands his body was wracked in pain as his form grew and his skin cracked, the symbol on his stomach glowed and stent streaks of pain across his chest. Akuma fell to his knees but the form that rose wasn't Akuma anymore. Cracks ran across his skin glowing as of molten lava ran across them , his teeth were like fangs and he now rose taller than Balasar. A fiery aura surrounded him and from that aura a sword materialized onto his hand. Looking around him the creature whispered "Finally" before shoving Gideon out of his way and jumping into the arena below.

The announcer tried to stop him but the creature decapitated him with a swift swing of his sword. He moved to Leommund who had hos back turned to him still focused on the fight despite his wounds. When he turned around the creature sliced trough his stomach making Leommund pass out. As Leommund's unconscious body fell to the floor the creature ran its hand trough Leommund's wound and smeared him blood onto his own face. It then moved on to Leommunds contestant. Gideon looked in shock as Akuma's alter ego rampaged. Seeing Leommund unconscious he jumped onto the arena and gave him a potion. Meanwhile guards and other contestants intervened in the rampage with three guards and the woman that defeated Slim jumping into action. Although outnumbered Akuma's alter ego was able to take down the fire sword wielder and injure the woman before being bested. As he feel to his knees and his body began fuming and shrinking he proclaimed "I will be back, he cannot hold he forever." As he was about to transform back into Akuma Gideon and Leommund made use of one of the fog spells to cover the arena in fog. Then Leommund retrieved Akuma's unconscious body and fled while Gideon used illusions to make it seem that Akuma was right beside him.

Leommund took Akuma far away from the confusion while Gideon tried his best to divert attention. Once safe Leommund gave Akuma a healing potion which made him spring into consciousness once more. Immeditly Akuma grabbed Leommund and asked if Gideon was safe. Leommund answered affirmatively, but when Akuma asked him if he had hurt anyone else he told him the truth. During his possession Akuma had killed at least two people. Furious at himself Akuma punched the floor several times before regaining his composure. After letting Akuma vent out his frustration Leommund, told him to maintain a low profile. That although he thought no one suspected him it would be better not to bring attention to himself. As such Akuma remained hidden while Leommund checked in on the situation near the coliseum.

In the coliseum the situation was chaotic to say the least. In order to avoid suspicion falling on himself and Akuma, Gideon had created a whole spectacle inside the coliseum. First he made a copy of Akuma by his side and drew attention to give Akuma an alibi. Then amidst the fog he created and illusion of the creature that had attacked at the same time he mimicked the sound metal clashing as he pretended to attack the creature. Then me made the creature explode and stabbed himself to mimic a battle injury. Not satisfied with this he overplayed his injury as life threatening to the nurses while "rizzing them up" at the same time. Once Leommund got to the coliseum he himself was confused but seeing as everyone seemed calm he called Akuma over.

Akuma rushed to Gideon who was wounded confuses as Leommund had told him he did not hurt Gideon. Gideon then explained he had stabbed himself to sell his story. The group then quickly made their way into camp where Akuma finally explained his situation to them as he had done to Gideon nights prior.

Akuma had a previous life, a life from which he had only small glimpses of, small moments forever engraved in his memory. In this life he was not Akuma, he was a monster. Killing and burning everything that stood in his way, without compassion, without honor. Then something happened and the thing he was before was locked away. Even so Akuma can feel it trying to come back, trying to take control. He feels it when he sees magical fire or when something inside him urges him to pick up a weapon. That is why he fights barehanded.

Akuma further explained that something like this had never happened that usually he could keep him under control but recently something had been off and even before the fight started he had a bad feeling about it. He kneeled and apologized to everyone and promised to try and be better and control himself. He then secluded himself to meditate and think. As he meditated by punching a tree Gideon's alter ego came to him.

Although Akuma, by Gideons request now trusted the elf it did not mean he was not apprehensive towards him still. However the elf came not with malicious intentions but with advice. The elf told Akuma that one of them would win in the end, either Akuma or the thing that he once was. And if Akuma kept running he would surely lose. Akuma asked if getting stronger would help him beat the creature, but the elf told him that their strengths were connected and for Akuma to think on what he could accomplish if he harnessed that strength. Akuma then asked if Gideon would win his battle in the end, since Gideon and the elf were in same situation as Akuma. The elf said that he hoped so and that he had no desire to win. Even so Akuma warned him that if he won he would not live to see much. The elf also promised Akuma that if he lost he would kill the other guy for him. Akuma thanked him for it and extended his fist for a fist bump which the elf accepted.

The following morning the group had to once again decide their next moves. Faced once again with the realization that they could not beat the cult by force, Gideon offered to into town and buy some poison to poison the food or drinks of the cult. Akuma wanted to join him but the group decided that it would be best for him to remain low profile and stay in the camp, although he complained Akuma eventually gave in and remained at camp training while Gideon, Stinger and Leommund went into town.

Once in town Gideon went to buy poison. To do this he went to the potion shop and asked for un-healing potions. After some cover dialogue the potion seller sold Gideon 300gp worth of a deadly salt like poison.

Meanwhile in the camp Slim Mantis took the opportunity to interview Akuma. He asked Akuma if he knew what he was and if he new of more like him. Akuma answered that although he knew his nature he never saw anyone like him. Slim also question if he knew how is kind came to be to which Akuma answered that he did not know how he was brought onto this world. Slim finally asked if Akuma died but had the chance to comeback and merge with someone in the group if he would do it and if yes who we would merge with and why. Akuma though about the question and finally answered that he would rather die and not comeback as all warriors must face death someday. Slim did not seemed satisfied with this answer but asked no further questions. Akuma then asked Slim to train with him which he did until the resto f the group returned from the town.

With the poison in hand, the group only had to think of a way to administer it. After sure veiling the camp they knew that from time to time a big party of warriors would go out only to return some days later with food and drinks. On those days they would usually have a party. The group assumed that the food were spoils of the raided villages and the parties celebrated their battles. The party posed a great time to poison all the cultists and it was agreed that on the following party they would poison the food. Howver Gideon expressed his worries about the poison being detectable. Because if they tasted the poison in the food they would stop eating it and not be poisoned. Gideon then came up with the plan of drinking the poison himself to see if it had any taste. Fortunately he was stopped by Akuma who convinced him to try it on an animal. As such Akuma went into the forest and brought back a small deer to which they fed a bit of water laced with poison. The deer drank happily without noticing any abnormalities and although Akuma removed the water after the first few sips the amount ingested was deadly already. After a couple of minutes the deer began violently vomiting and defecating and although Akuma did his best to help he could not save it and the deer died. Akuma then burned his body to avoid further contamination and used the experiment to point out how blatantly retarded Gideon's idea was.

With their doubts cleared the plan was ready to be set in motion.

The group waited for around 3 days until a big party of the cultists left and then 2 more until they came back with their carriages loaded with supplies. Once they finished storing everything in the camp Akuma who was turned invisible by Gideon moved in. Now that his major debuff of being a walking bonfire was gone Akuma was actually pretty sneaky and was able to poison the all the food with a deadly quantity of poison. Once he was done some poison was still left so he brought it back to Gideon. With the food poisoned they just had to wait for the cultists to begin eating and drinking and then for the poison to take effect.

As predicted the cultist group became getting rowdy as they began playfully fighting each other, soon they also began eating and drinking. The party made Akuma feel jealous as Gideon never wanted to fight with him.

Soon the cultists began feeling the effects of the poison as one by one they all ran to corners of the camp to shit and vomit. With the cultists weakened the group decided to strike. The cultists were taken by surprise as the group stormed the camp. Weakened by the poison the group began making quick work of all of them while they begged for mercy.

Gideon tried to remind the group that they needed to leave one alive for questioning but over the sounds of battle no one heard him except for Leommund. As the group tore trough the cultists Balasar noticed that the leader was watching the fight sitting in front of his tent. When Balasar noticed him he encouraged him to continue saying he would not interfere. After Balasar finished his adversary he walked up to the leader and tried to attack, the attack landed but the leader ignored him and moved in on his own man to finish him off.

Leommund tried to stop him and although he was successful he took massive damage, Balasar joined Leommund to stop the leader but both were downed by him with Balasar being punched trough a tent. Fortunately Gideon was able to heal him. Meanwhile the rest of the cultists had been finished off by the rest of the group and all of them moved in on the leader.

The group quickly surrounded the leader with Akuma, Balasar and Stinger taking the frontlines. He proved to be a powerful adversary downing, Slim, Leommund and Akuma. However due to Gideon's efforts in the backline several fighters were able to rise again and join the fight. Although the cult leader insisted in calling g everyone around him weak he quickly saw himself overwhelmed by the group's numbers and combined effort. In a last ditch attempt to escape he grabbed Akuma threatening to snap his neck of anyone made a move on him. Akuma screamed(In common) for the group to attack him as he was not afraid to die. Gideon screamed back for them not to do that and said that Akuma was very much afraid to die. Balasar however honoured Akumas request attacking the Leader with his axe. The leader tried to dodge out of the way but Akuma held him in place letting himself be hit with the axe alongside the Leader causing both to go down.

With the battle won the group began tending to their wounded and searching the camp. Gideon first went to the Leader's tent which was the only one that was sealed. Inside he found the skeletons of adult and a baby laid at each side of what Gideon assumed to be the leaders bed roll. Disgusted and intrigued he asked Slim of he could identify the gender of the bones. Slim identified the adult one as a woman. Inside the tent Gideon also found a letter. The letter read:

My lord,

We're very close to the required amount of bones. One of my men will bring them to your location once the target amount is reached.

A mission was carried out near Midborough earlier this week, as detailed in my previous communication. Per instructions, the operation there was unaffected.

Your humble servant,

Zaou

Meanwhile Balasar healed everyone bringing back the downed Akuma. Akuma praised Balasar's conviction of striking trough him by fist bumping the Dar'zur. Akuma then joined Gideon in investigating the reaming tents and bodies while Slim, Stinger and Balasar tied the leader and the surviving cultist for interrogation. While tying the leader Slim suggested that they cut his arms and legs off if they were that afraid of him moving. This suggestion was largely ignored. While searching the tents Akuma asked Gideon how could he punch as hard as the leader, to wich Gideon responded with "You need to punch more" Akuma agreed and promised to train his punches more. Akuma and Gideon found several gold pieces, which Akuma mixed with some rocks he liked and gave to Gideon. Gideon then joined the rest of the group and brought them some bread that was being toasted by Akuma. The group found a cult tattoo on the leader which after a Arcana check by Slim was revealed to be magical in nature enhancing ones physical prowess. Gideon then corrected himself saying that the answer to stronger punches was not to punch more bit cult magic. He them invited Akuma to play "Bad guard, Good guard" with the cultist. Akuma accepted and the duo brought the cultist away from the the leader.

To begin Akuma slapped him awake, and then began asking him several questions in primordial while slapping him. The cultist panicked screaming that he did not understand. Gideon asked what was Akuma doing to which Akuma responded that he was playing the bad cop. Gideon said that he wouldn't be able to answer if Akuma spoke primordial, to which Akuma responded that he had to answer Gideon's questions not his. After some time of getting slapped around and shouted at in language he did not understand the cultist broke saying that he would talk if only they asked him real questions.

Gideon then jumped in apologizing for Akuma and began asking questions. They discovered that the cultists there were only people that were strong and enjoyed killing and that was why they were recruited. The cult promised them power and the cultist showcased this by making a piece of meat disintegrate using a green smoke secreted by his palm. He further said that there was someone that would take the bones somewhere, the second in command of the leader. However that person was dead. He had no knowledge of what the bones were being used for or what were the objectives of the cult only that the bones were being taken to Midborough.

After the interrogation Stinger said he would like to test if by damaging the tattoo the powers would disappear. To test such hypothesis, Stinger grabbed a stick form the fire and burned the tattoo until it was completely destroyed. The man screamed in agony and after the process was finished Gideon could tell that the tattoo was no longer active. The cultist got really angry saying that the tattoo did not give him any extra powers besides the mist. Gideon responded that it gave the boss extra strength. Upon hearing this the cultist became aggressive telling Gideon to shut up and trying to spit in his direction, Akuma stopped him by kicking him in the face. While face first into his own shit he kept cursing at Gideon telling him that he would keep killing women and children when he got free. After these words Akuma snapped his neck killing him. After that Akuma approached Stinger and told him that we would not let anyone else suffer like he suffered.

Afterwards the group moved on to the leader. He had been toed with ropes and was sitting on the camp floor. Once approached he openly admitted defeat and asked the group what they desired to know, Gideon asked who did he work for but the man refused to answer. He said however that they should go to midborough if they wanted to go after the rest of the cult. Gideon insisted on asking for the name of the cult leader but the man refused to say it. Gideon then asked Akuma to break his arm which Akuma did with a swift kick. In pain the man explained that he had signed a contract and he could not physically say the name of the leader.

Stinger then stabbed him trough his magical tattoo to see of the same effect would apply as to the man before. Once the tatto was destroyed the man's legs began growing stiff has his skin hardened. He then stated he would not have much time. Slim then asked if the ones above him also had tattoos and if they destroyed them they would also die. He very vehemently insisted that that would be really stupid since they would only have to destroy the tattoos to kill them. So vehemently he insisted that he kept interrupting the man as he tried to explain that he did not know if the two people above him had tattoos or not. As the stiffness expanded Gideon tried to get him to write the name of his boss but that also proved impossible. Then Slim tried to get him point is location on a map thinking that even if he didn't point to the correct location they could go there by going to the location he did not point. But he pointed to every place on the map. With the stiffness quickly spreading to his head Gideon said he had a plan but it was a bit stupid. Akuma asked for some final words with the man before Gideon did whatever he was planning on.

Akuma asked him about the skeletons in his tent, the man said they were his wife and son. Akuma asked if he had killed them himself which the man said he did. Akuma then asked why. The man responded that we would never understand because Akuma was born strong, he had been born weak and he could not let the ones he loved be associated with someone as weak as him. Akuma told him that too many men loose themselves in the search for strength and that he hoped in his next life he could do better. Gideon then fetched a sword and swung it to decapitate him before the stiffness reached him head. Right before his head was disconnected from his shoulders the man said that he was "Not sorry". After that Gideon put his head in a box and froze it with ray of frost hoping it could ne brought before someone who could access his memories.

After that Akuma went back into the tent and retrieved the bones of the man's wife and son and buried them in the camp while Stinger burned the bodies of all the cultists. Before leaving Stinger left a flower in the grave.

Back at camp the group decided to go to Midborough. Since that was the only lead they had. They also decided to stop by Karmia since it was in the way, Leommund stated that he would be happy to go back home. The group quickly disproved of his seemed willingness to leave the with Akuma saying that if he wished to get his honour back he should join them in hunting the cult. Leommund quickly corrected them saying that they did not need to diss him like that and that he would only be visiting his mom back home. Akuma then asked what was it like to have a mom, to which Leommund responded that it was nice. Then Balasar said he also had a mom which made Gideon make fun of him as a "mom-haver" and that adventuring was not work for a "mom-haver". Balasar then asked if Gideon ever had a mom which he replied of course he did but she died a few years ago and the only one who did not come from a vagina was likely Akuma. This prompted Akuma to ask what a vagina was which Gideon dismissed saying that he would explain later since it was an explosive subject.