Soul Merger

The meal they had was a poor charcuterie board, but it was filling, and it required no work, which was about as much effort as Alissa was willing to put into things right now. She thought she'd shaken off most of yesterday's trauma, but as evening was falling her energy was slowly dropping as well.

She settled for watching the others from her chair near the stove. Akari was eating a lot more than the woman usually did when she wasn't possessed. The cost of being a monster tamer. They'd have to help the woman out with getting funds for the increased food. Of course Clara was eating just as much, and she was doing fine so it shouldn't be too big an issue.

Rosalina meanwhile was busy teasing the angel. That seemed like it should be heresy, but well that was Rosalina for you. The harpy, no, Kotori seemed to find it all very amusing. Fili meanwhile was in full research mode. Though the woman did give occasional worried glances in her direction which was kind of her.

After a bit Rosalina grabbed herself a chair and looked over the group. "Well as much as I hate to ruin the good mood we've finally found, I imagine now is a good time to hear your stories. If you're willing to tell them."

Raiel nodded. "Fortunately our story is not as horrid as it might have been if we had been stuck there longer. I'll gloss over speculation on details we don't need to hear. To start with I formed in a local dungeon after my last death and started to look for people who needed my help."

Alissa found herself blinking in confusion. "After your last death?"

"Most people only get one of those," Clara added as she settled on the floor. "Mind explaining?"

"You really need to study these things," Fili sighed. "Lesser angels reincarnate until their soul is damaged or they become part of a merge. Though we're not sure about the timeframes."

That seemed like cheating to Alissa. It was a lot easier to be self-sacrificing if you just came back. But she had to admit she'd abuse the hell out of that system if she had the power to.

"The timeframe is unpleasantly long," Raiel said. "But yes. I incarnated where a noble warrior had fallen to defend their sibling from certain doom. After placing their body near the stairs to make it easier to find and bury, I started searching the labyrinth.

"It was then I found Kotori and her flock." Her face fell. "Or rather Kotori's previous spirit. Despite being smaller than her kin she was the one who flew forth to defend the others. I used my will to alter her soul so she wouldn't be hostile, which allowed me to join the group."

Alissa glanced over to where Kotori was still picking at crackers. The harpy didn't seem to mind at all when Raiel talked about killing her past self. Or perhaps she didn't care because it wasn't her 'self'. Just the body's previous owner. And wasn't that weird to think about.

Raiel continued her tale. "In any case I'm not much of a fighter, and I had no interest in harming humans. So I helped them move to an area further away from the labyrinth entrance. However, they were uneasy. I believe the Rampage was already in the making at the time. I started to look into matters, but apparently my presence had been noticed.

That got Alissa to sit up, and she saw the others were paying closer attention as well. Clara asked the obvious question. "You think the slavers were after you and not a harpy?"

"It seems likely," Raiel said. "We were not close to where humans usually tred. And they were prepared with defenses and binding spells designed for angels. Not that it mattered, given my power is just bright light and some healing."

Her face fell and Alissa couldn't help feeling for the woman. "The harpies stood no chance. Six delvers were more than a match for the small flock. I was healing Kotori here when they captured me, and I guess decided to take her as well."

"I'd have clawed their eyes out if that stupid mage hadn't gotten lucky with an ice dart," Kotori muttered. "Almost got the fire mage too."

Alissa blinked. That was an interesting combination. She fished out the fake IDs they'd picked up from the fallen adventurers. "These look familiar?"

"Ah!" Kotori hopped over and picked up one. "That's the fire guy, yeah!" She cocked her head. "But why do you have a picture of him?"

"Because he's dead," Alissa replied. "And now I think we know why they were using fake IDs." It was possible to convince random delvers to do a lot of stupid stuff, and it would be very easy to hire a random crew to do live capture runs. However any crew worth their salt would demand some prep time. So if you needed a delver team on call to run off and grab whatever your rich asshole clients wanted on a whim, hiring a bunch of dumbasses who'd managed to get kicked out of the guild was a good plan. It explained a great deal.

Fili frowned. "That might explain why there was a demon there too. They've probably been looking for the group to find out why the monsters were agitated."

"That's unfortunately just speculation," Rosalina said. "Demons don't make sense. They're worse than angels when it comes to being crazy. They're just better at hiding it. No offense, Raiel."

"None taken," The angel replied. "I'm aware of my flaws, even if I'm unwilling to change. In any case from there we were taken to their hideout. I'm not sure exactly where it is, other than by the lake. They had quite a number of victims there, but we were set aside to be auctioned off." Alissa felt mildly ill at that, but the angel fortunately didn't expand on the matter.

"We languished there for three days. But then their mistakes caught up to them. A succubus formed and started a breakout. We staged our own escape during the chaos." She sighed. "Sadly like most karmic retributions the innocent were punished alongside the guilty."

"Wait" Alissa sat up again. "What do you mean formed? They didn't catch a succubus?"

Raiel looked back to her, golden eyes sad. "Succubi require not just lust, but sadism and despair. Those things don't commonly mix in labyrinths. No, the only place with enough magic, free souls, and the right resonance are hellholes like that prison."

"Fuck." It was a disgusting idea, but it made a certain amount of sense. Succubi were incredibly dangerous, and even disgusting trash had basic survival instincts. What was more likely? That every twisted monster brothel eventually had the incredibly stupid idea to capture a succubus, or that one just formed to cause havoc one day? "And from there the escaped monsters attacked some labyrinth outposts, overwhelmed them, and instant Rampage."

"That would be my guess," Raiel said. "I kept Kotori close so we could make a better escape. We avoided most of the slaughter, until we found the boat. After killing the guards on the boat and the customer who had been hiding there, we escaped downriver."

Kotori pouted. "She didn't even let me finish looting the building. We totally found the boss' office, and all I managed to grab was a book and a bag of cash."

Raiel turned to the harpy, her white wings opening in surprise. "You said those were supplies!"

"Money is supplies," Kotori replied. "You kept going on and on about how money can be exchanged for things when you were trying to civilize me."

Alissa couldn't help but snicker, while Clara gave a loud laugh. "Well. Let's grab those supplies. Where'd you stash them?"

"In the room with the wheel thing on the top of the boat," Kotori replied. "I stuffed it in the locker there after killing the guy so I could drag the body down."

Hearing the girl cheerfully talking about murder made the thing less funny, even if the guy had deserved it. But still it was worth grabbing. At least that's what Alissa wanted to do, but her body really wanted to stay in the chair. Annoying.

She was about to push through when Rosalina seemed to notice her conflict. "You should rest Alissa. You're still recovering. Akari, Kotori, and Clara can gather the goods."

"Of course," Akari said. "Let's go find what your ingenuity got for us Kotori."

The three headed off as Alissa settled back down. "Sorry," she said to Rosalina. "I want to do more but I still feel messed up."

"I'm surprised you were able to walk without assistance today," Rosalina replied bluntly. "I wouldn't plan on it tomorrow when I finish the treatment."

"Joy." Alissa looked to Raiel. "I don't suppose your healing works on souls? It'd be nice if this mess helped me out a little." Instead of being a painful reminder.

Raiel shook her head. "Sorry that's beyond me."

Fili coughed. "You're a pretty weak angel aren't you? Sorry it's just..."

"Yes." Raiel gave a weak grin. "Angels' powers are based on their conviction. And I never had much of that. I dislike killing, which means I can't draw up much strength to fight. It's not something that helps me achieve my desires."

"And what are your desires?" Alissa asked. She had a guess but she wanted to angel to spell it out.

Raiel sighed. "To defend the young. It's something I desperately want to do. But I fear I'm not very good at it."

Well that was vague, but understandable. Alissa couldn't help feel this angel was pretty young herself. Maybe that was why the girl was such a mess. Too bad everyone else had to live with it.

Fili nodded. "Maybe I should have you help Rosalina out. At least after we work over some of our information on angels. My friends and I are going to have a lot of questions for you!"

The angel's response was cut off by Kotori bursting in. "We got it~" she sang out. With a flap of wings she jumped next to the table and dumped a legit bag of cash out. The harpy mimicked the *Cha-ching* of a cash register. Alissa wondered where she'd heard that.

Alissa leaned forwards and saw most were small denominations. "A bug out bag?"

"Quite possibly," Rosalina said. "That might have actually been the boss' room. Or at least someone with a fair amount of money and sense."

"Well that's arguable," Clara said as she stepped in with the book. "Not sure if using dual ledger bookkeeping for your illegal slave brothel is smart or very dumb. But given we have a list of clients and suppliers, I'm leaning towards the later."

Everyone blinked at that. "They kept detailed receipts on a massive criminal organization?" Fili asked incredulously.

"How else would they know where their money went?" Akari asked with a snort. "I am familiar with organized crime. If that book was found he was confident that either he could suppress it or he was dead so it didn't matter."

"Our criminals aren't usually as powerful as yours," Rosalina said. "Probably for the best admittedly. Still it leads to a fine question. What should we do with this?"

Kotori preened. "Hunt them down and let me eat their brains?"

Alissa grimaced. "They do all deserve to die. But hunting them solo is a bad idea."

"Perhaps give it to one of the factions hurt by this Rampage?" Akari asked as she sat back down. "They'd likely want to take action on it. I imagine there's a great deal of bad blood given the damages."

"It'd be called a forgery by the criminals. Probably just get us into a guild war," Clara replied. "We'd need to find a neutral party who wouldn't just cover the whole thing up." The large woman sighed. "Can't think of any group that'd do that. Releasing this info would cause a mess. Most neutral groups would try to clean matters up behind the scenes to keep the body count down."

"I could print it," Fili said hesitantly. "My friends who work on the monsterpedia have a print shop. They could make copies, while the original goes to the Tower."

"Wouldn't the Tower try to hide it?" Akari said. "They're a very conservative faction from what you said."

Fili shook her head. "If we just gave them the book it would disappear. But if there are copies out already they'd stand by our reprints just to keep their monopoly on monster taming and creation. As well as to protect the reputation of the Tower."

"Fili, that'd make you a target," Alissa pointed out. "I love the idea but-"

"It's fine," the mage said with a weak grin. "I'm already a target given I have an eyewitness bonded to me. Might as well get in the first shot right?"

The difference between the two dangers was night and day, but Alissa got the feeling the mage wanted to do this anyway. "Alright. Well if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask."

"After tomorrow," Rosalina added. "Because tomorrow both of us get to enjoy one of the worst days of our lives."

Ah right, the soul surgery. Alissa deflated. "After tomorrow."