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Their preparations for leaving are far from what Nathanriel would have ideally wanted. Which is to say much of anything at all. Granted they don't exactly have much in the way of funds, but heading out without any food or supplies in a direction towards a town that he doesn't know how far it is away or how difficult it'll be to get there. But Angylia is very insistent about them leaving before her father's people can catch up to them and so the four of them head towards the east exit to the town. And when they arrive at the gate, they see a strange looking human seemingly having been waiting for them.

"And you are?" Angylia asks as they approach, her hand moving back to grab the cross that is her weapon.

"Claden Weldforge. I've taken it upon myself to make sure that your group is limited in the scope of evil that they are allowed to carry out."

"Is this because of that Byron guy?" Nathanriel asks.

"No, I have merely heard from the church that a group of demons had invaded our town are were running amuck and were then allowed free reign over everyone. On behalf of the safety of every decent and pure hearted human and lesser-human I will make sure you will not terrorize a single soul."

"And you're going to stop us, how exactly?" Kresta asks, a bit of lightning sparking up on her fingers.

"I'm not afraid of your little tricks. I have faith on my side and can handle any demon with this!" he pulls out a small jar of some fine, crystalline powder. Nathanriel cocks his head at it and licks his finger before sticking it into the jar and getting some of the powder onto his finger, mortifying the human in the process. He then sniffs it a moment before finally sticking it into his mouth and sucking the powder off.

"So you're going to stop us with salt?"

"How? That's supposed to be purifying salt. It should burn you just by touching it," to verify his point he grabs out a small handful and throws it at the others. None of them seem at all in pain from the act, more annoyed than anything.

"Purifying salt. You do realize that holy salts only work on the evil, right?" Angylia asks, cocking her head to one side.

"Yes, and all demons are evil!" Claden responds. "I just haven't quite figured out what nefarious way you've managed to defend yourself from the salt."

"Can I kill him already?" Kresta asks.

"No, we're still in town," Bob says. "Last thing we want right now is to attract the guard, especially after that last incident. For now we're going to simply have to endure him until we get far enough that we can take care of things without issue."

"Tell everyone you're letting him join the group," the voice in Nathanriel's head informs.

"Well, I guess that settles that issue then," Nathanriel says before shouldering his sword and just casually walking towards the exit. "He comes with us."

"Are you sure?" Angylia asks, skeptical about his decision.

"Yup. Voice in my head said to let him join us. So there we have it. And I'm not going to be fighting that zeil over something that ultimately doesn't matter. If he betrays us, we kill him."

Bob and Kresta nod at the mention of hearing the voice and go at ease, focusing instead on making sure all their gear is ready for the long trek ahead to Xinth. Claden just looks at the whole exchange in abject confusion.

"What's going on? Voices?"

"Oh, right. Well Nathanriel is a Child of Fate," Angylia responds.

"Those still exist?"

"And why wouldn't they?" Kresta demands. "It's not like Fate isn't around anymore. He still has to occupy his time somehow, right? So, if you truly want to follow us just know that doing so will mean you will be another pawn in Fate's games."

"And you are all okay with this?"

"More ambivalent than anything," Bob responds. "I have some reservations, but being one of Fate's Chosen hasn't really been all that much of a major issue since the great wars a thousand years ago. If anything, the odds of me finding the cure to my curse is far greater travelling with one of Fate's children than if I were to travel by myself."

"You're under a curse?" Claden asks. "What kind of curse?"

"Oh, I'm actually a human. I was just cursed when I was a small child and turned into this form."

"And yet I know for a fact that you have access to summons," Kresta states skeptically before simply rolling her eyes and addressing the human again. "Though if I may ask, why are you wearing a Demon Hunter's garb? Aren't you a bit old for dress-up?"

"I am too a demon hunter. I am not playing dress-up. And I am fully capable of bringing the lot of you down if I felt the need."

"And yet you threw purifying salt on us, despite the fact that three of us are demons and thus should be extremely obvious just from looking at us whether or not it would work on us. But I suppose to be fair, you being an incompetent Demon hunter is a lot more believable than him being cursed."

"Anyway, less talky, more walky. I really don't want to still be here when my father's men arrive," Angylia comments, practically pushing a few of them towards the exit. The rest of them do so and they take to the road, heading east.

"So how bad is your father?" Claden asks after a amoment.

"Ugh, don't even remind me. It's not that he's a bad person. It's just he's lived for so long and has told me the reason he's survived is because of how meticulous he is about all his plans. That if you're not strong enough to force your way, you need to become smart enough to think your way through. He is cold, he is shrewd and he is calculating. And he had my entire life planned out for me in the way that would be the most advantageous for him and our people. He didn't take all that kindly to me not wanting to simply go along with his plans and sent some people after me when I ran away. And that's how I ended up in that pit, that I got captured by them running from my dad's men. And even he didn't have the muscle to simply extract me out of that pit. Not without bringing an entire army across the border and likely getting me killed. But killing the few of you to get me back home wouldn't be considered that bad a situation. To him, all that matters is the big picture, and me having friends is never a part of that big picture."

The group walks in silence for a moment or two before Bob tilts his head as if listening to something. Nathanriel looks over and half wonders if perhaps he also can hear that annoying Voice. "What?" Bob asks, making it more clear it's far more a conversation than one giving the other orders. "Oh, okay, if that's what you want." Bob then turns and looks at everyone else. "You all might want to step back for a bit. One of my summons want out."

Everyone backs up and gives him a decently sized space around him, sticking to the side of the road. Bob closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before doing a series of gestures before placing both of his hands onto the ground and then pushing his will into the road. A second after the ground begins to rumble a bit and rocks begin to seemingly grow out of the road as they get larger and larger, all seemingly connected to one big form. Eventually the entire thing coalesces into one large creature, about three times the height of any of them and about five to size times as long, all made from a very rocky surface. The head swivels around to look at the individuals. Most of the others are just staring at it in wonder. Claden, on the other hand, brings up a cross to try and protect himself from this new potential threat.

"So you are the friends that have started taking care of my little Robert. I am called Momma Menn. It's a pleasure to meet you," the large creature states in a deep, slow voice that seems to come out more from the core of its form than from the mouth itself. "So where are we going now?"

"Xinth, I believe," Bob responds.

"Ah, Xinth. Used to be a very pretty place back in the day. And then the humans came. Ah well. I know the way to it well enough. Come along, children. Momma Menn will take good care of you. Though you really should be eating more, Robert. You look all but skin and bones."

"Well, being in a fighting pit isn't the best for getting quality food."

"And you must be the ones that have freed my little boy. I thank you for that. Anyway, let me stretch out my muscles for a bit. Hop on and I'll get you to where you're going soon enough," she says.

Bob hops on without a second thought. Nathanriel and Kresta take a second or two but do go about climbing on. Angylia takes a moment or two, not so much because of any uncertainty but rather because her outfit doesn't really lend well to people below her and an insistence on going last.

"Well, are you going up or not?" She demands of Claden.

"What is that thing?" Claden exclaims, pointing at Mamma Menn.

"I am not a thing, little human child. I am Momma Menn. Do get on, I am so anxious to be able to get moving again after so long."

With Claden still showing reluctance at going up, Kresta growls slightly before the deer demon jumps down, grabs the human by his robes and unceremoniously throws him up towards Nathanriel. She also does the same for Angylia, much to her protests and then jumps on again.

"I apologize for their slowness, Momma Menn," Kresta says. "You may proceed."

"Thank you my dear," she says slowly and then begins moving. Though there is a definite jolt when she first starts moving, the ride becomes a lot smoother. With each step she rocks slightly to one side or another, but as the change is gradual, after a moment or two everyone just gets used to it. Most choose to sit down for the ride as Momma Menn slowly increases her pace until she's easily moving at a pace that is more than double what they would have been able to do beforehand.

"So I know you want to get to Ossal and all," Angylia starts, "but can I ask a favor and have us take a small detour to see the cross?"

"I don't see too much an issue in it," Nathanriel says. "I wasn't really given much information about how long I had to get to Ossal, only that I needed to get there to prolong my life. If it says we need to rush once we get to Xinth then that's another matter, but for the time being I seen no reason why we couldn't make a short pit stop. What's so special about the cross anyway?"

"It's a very special cross, one that Seraph himself had a hand in crafting. It theoretically is able to pierce the barrier so that any evil that touches it would be burned, regardless if they are demon, human or even animal."

"So tell me, Demon Hunter. What does your order think of the cross?" Kresta chides.

"That it is the epitome of human ingenuity," he responds confidently.

"Human ingenuity, ha!" Mamma Menn laughs at the statement.

"Just what all do you think happened during that night in Xinth?" Kresta asks, incredulous.

"There was a demon hiding amongst the people, pretending to be a man of the cloth. A saint of a man came in, charged by Seraph to change the lands and bring peace and order. He came into Xinth, exposed the demon filth by creating that cross, bestowed to him by Seraph himself and brought order to the town."

"Wait, you actually think the Champion of Seraph was a human?" Bob laughs.

"Let me ask you this then, if the pastor was a demon, why would the cross have to be enchanted?" Kresta demands. "If he was a demon then any holy artifact would have been effective if he was truly evil." Claden struggles to come up with a response but doesn't come up with anything. "The reality is that Seraphs Champion was in the same situation I was in when these two showed up, but this time Seraph showed up to protect her while she made the cross to prove she wasn't evil and that the pastor was."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Well, it's close to the truth," a new voice speaks up, causing Nathanriel to stand up and grab at his sword. Coming seemingly out of nowhere was another Kinal, this one wearing fairly minimal armor, relying more on small bands around his arms and legs and a longsword in a sheath by his side. "But I wouldn't call her the Champion of Seraph to her face. If anything she was more Fate's Champion than Seraph's."

"But she was instrumental in taking down Fate."

"Well, yes, but Fate wasn't stupid. He knew what was being done to him and wanted to be free of it. So he chose one of his own to pick her up and carry out an obvious quest. Fate was clever and knew his puppet master would stop him if he was obvious about what he was really doing. So instead he set them on the quest to gather the Dinii to save his puppet's country and all the while kept subtly pushing her until she had had enough and went after him directly. Then Seraph stepped in to help ensure she had the means to take him down."

"Why are you all at ease right now?" Nathanriel asks, confused by how he's the only one that has stood at alert when this new person showed up.

"Because Momma Menn is a good judge of character, and if she hasn't made any real response to him then he is not a threat. Besides, I may not be perfect at it, but I can still tell when we're outmatched. I doubt we'd last five seconds if we went after him," the deer shrugs.

"I'd say it's more that Momma Menn knows I won't attack someone on her and has then chosen to completely ignore me out of spite. Considering what all happened the last time we saw each other. Couldn't take me on when she was alive and sure as Felarii couldn't beat me as a summon. So she's pretending I don't exist."

"Wait, you said that Seraph's Champion was one of the Dinii?" Claden asks.

"Please tell me you don't think the Dinii were also human," Kresta sighs.

"Of course not, I just didn't think that," he trails off.

"Yes, she was one of the seven Dinii," the white kinal states. "One of the seven demons wielding demon weapons that ended the Great War once and for all. They were an extremely large contributing factor for the formation of your little order."

"Really? I hadn't heard of that."

"The Great War is largely attributed to starting as a result of the Enslavement, which was only made possible by a demon. So in large part the Great War started because of a demon, then it was a demon that took control over Fate and escalated things dramatically. And then it was a group of demons that ended the great war. A large majority of the human countries were fighting in the wars--almost all of the ones in this area to be precise--but no human made much of any difference in the grand scheme of things. Add to that twenty years later when you presumably have the same situation play out in regards to human involvement with the Demon Egg Curse incident. Humans were tired of letting demons be the only ones able to affect major events, so your order was founded to try and fix that."