Chapter 58: Rage

“Who the fuck are you?” Redlia asked, looking back briefly to see Adam had disappeared already. Everyone was watching in stunned silence.

“Hey now let’s not do anything-” Utarou was shut up by Redlia crushing his head.

“W-what?! Who are you?!” Bluelia retorted incredulously as she jumped back from the table.

“I’m the bitch who came back from the dead after that shit carted me off to the church. Now why the fuck do you have my face?” Redlia screamed, jumping down from the table and punching Bluelia’s head off.

“Calm yourself missy!” Barney exclaimed, getting up but being pulled back by May, narrowly avoiding being punched in the face.

“H-hey! Calm down!” The two Bluelias shouted as they ran in separate directions to avoid getting punched.

“How the fuck are you doing that!?” Redlia screamed, stretching her fists into hammers and trying to crush both of the Bluelias.

Henrek finally stepped in after processing what had just happened, standing in front of Redlia as the two Bluelias reformed together on the other side of the room.

“Oh you’re trying to save her? Fuck off and let me kill the bitch.” Redlia screamed, only shutting up once Henrek hugged her.

She blustered and stuttered for a moment before pushing him off.

“Are you alright?” Henrek asked seriously as Redlia composed herself.

“Yeah yeah I’m fucking fine, what’s going on?” Redlia hissed as she looked around, glaring at Utarou as he reformed with the expected lust in his eyes.

“Hehe, looks like the Church is good for something after all, let’s see what kind of gap moe this monster girl has to offer me-” Utarou began before being crushed into the floor again by Redlia.

“Fuck you, Henrek what the fuck happened?” Redlia demanded, glaring at the wary Bluelia.

“I… I am not sure. Utarou said he brought a feral piece of Julia to the church and you just appeared from nowhere.” Henrek sighed as he slowly returned to his seat, as it seemed Redlia had finally calmed down somewhat.

“Pft, alright I guess that makes sense… Those fuckers in Avoitica said Utarou brought me there, used some fuckass notebook to change me,” Redlia growled, sitting on the table carelessly.

“Do you remember violently sucking my sweat on the road then?” Utarou asked as his head unsmashed itself.

“I barely remember anything between that fucking toast and waking up to some dirty-looking Elf looking at me.” Redlia explained.

“Elf?” Barney asked.

“Fuckers are in Avoitica, they did something to me that made everything… clearer.” Redlia sighed.

Bluelia could only watch from afar, wondering why this spin off of her was getting all of the attention.

Though considering the violent outbursts she was ready to let her carry on.

“I basically had this weird dream, you shoving me in that pot, going on the road, being in some lab or something. Then boom, everything returned to normal.” Redlia explained, her tone shifting to something sadder than the passionate rage she’d just been displaying.

“I remember you fucking scooping me up though, well fucking clear.” Redlia shouted, pointing at Utarou aggressively.

“Should’ve dumped you in the river…” Bluelia muttered as Utarou blurted out some defence to himself.

“I don’t remember you existing.” Redlia hissed.

“Hey hey, calm down… We just agreed that you’re all Julia.” Henrek groaned.

“Whatever.” Redlia scoffed.

The tension was thick in the air again, suddenly the squad had acquired a Julia who had an extremely solid answer as to who the real one was.

And a Julia who would punch anyone who disagreed.

…

“Fufufufu, so this is where you get your mana from~?” Penelope asked Aitkens as she was taken through the grandmaster’s hall, along with Pinklia and Emily.

“Can’t tell ya.” Aitkens sighed, a phrase he’d gotten very used to saying whenever Penelope was around.

The walls were a kind of refinery, pumping a glowing liquid through various machines to power them and create more of the glowing liquid from some combination of materials.

It was incomprehensible but Penelope was doing her best to comprehend it.

“E-excuse me, where are we going?” Pinklia asked meekly, she was still terrified of accidentally earning herself a spot on the Errata.

“Can’t tell ya-, waitaminute, I can.” Aitkens laughed apologetically as he turned to face them.

“We’re heading to the Priormaster, the man in the clan who knows the priors better than anyone else.” Aitkens explained.

“Oh yeah? What’s he like?” Penelope asked. Aitkens paused, considered if he could answer the question then responded.

“Somethin’ of an old bastard.” Aitkens laughed, opening a large doorway to reveal a workshop with the aforementioned old bastard at its center.

Hume, the Priormaster, was shouting a thousand orders a second at his apprentices while slamming what was left of his fist onto his chair.

He looked old.

Old.

Pure white hair, warts, boils, a missing eye, missing teeth, missing fingers and a missing leg.

He wasn’t missing any hair however, if anything age had only given him beards in places you wouldn’t expect.

“AITKENS! What the bloody hell have you got for me this time!?” Hume shouted, grabbing an extremely thick monocle to get a better look at the two ladies he’d brought with him.

“We’ve found evidence against the First Prior.” Aitkens declared, nodding towards Emily who gently ushered Pinklia forward, with Penelope quickly following as she marvelled at the ridiculous variety and complexity of magic and machinery around her.

“WHAT?! No ye haven’t.” Hume dismissed immediately.

“Julia if you could please.” Aitkens requested, Pinklia obliging nervously as she revealed her Skill Tree.

She still hadn’t spent a single skill point and had amassed quite a few, though the rate that she was gaining skills out of nowhere still hadn’t slowed.

Hume looked at it intensely, the various apprentices had also slowed their work.

“BLOODY HELL! DON’T BE STOPPIN’ YA WORK KIDS! GET BACK AT IT!” Hume shouted, grabbing a small pistol from his side and shooting it up to startle everyone back to work.

The apprentices continued working, wondering what could possibly happen to the First Prior.

Hume continued to stare.

And continued.

He breathed in for a moment, but let out a cough, then a fart.

Then continued to stare.

For thirty uninterrupted minutes until Penelope couldn’t hold herself still anymore.

“Excuse me, how long is this-”

“DON’T RUSH ME WOMAN! Do you know how many priors there are?!” Hume shouted.

“No! Please tell me!” Penelope exclaimed, quickly grabbing her notebook.

“NONE OF YA BUSINESS!” Hume shouted, before continuing to stare at the skill tree, new skills occasionally trickling in every twenty minutes or so.

Pinklia was too terrified to do anything but try and not anger the old dwarf.

Emily handed Penelope a note.

“Master Hume has many things to deliberate, if you’d like, I can fetch you and Julia dinner and chairs, I believe this first session should end in three hours.” Emily wrote.

“W-what?!” Penelope gasped.

“SHUT IT! I’M THINKIN’!” Hume growled. Penelope nodded and quickly wrote Emily a note.

“What do you mean first session???”

“I predict that Master Hume will need 800815 sessions to fully update every prior.”

Penelope looked at the note.

Eight hundred thousand.

Eight hundred and fifteen.

Each session lasting multiple hours.

It was an absurd length of time.

Penelope only had one question.

“Won’t the old man die by then?”

“Most likely, his apprentice will take on the role, I’ve accounted that this handover will take about 10 sessions.”

“Won’t he die?”

“Most likely.”

“Then we’ll die as well?!”

“Almost certainly.”

Penelope felt a pit growing in her stomach.

They couldn’t stay obviously, they’d have to escape.

Penelope could only laugh at the thought.

“Of course we were going to end up on the Errata… May as well make it worth the trouble.” Penelope smirked as she looked at Emily and the abundance of mana stored in these underground halls.

If Penelope was going to get on the dwarves grudge list, she wanted to make sure it was a grudge worth keeping.