Headstrong

CHOMP.

The dagger was torn from Samantha's hands, disappearing down Jkn-ala's gullet.

The fregog cocked her head back as she swallowed the dagger, having to gulp three times before it finally went down. When it did, she grimaced distastefully as she finished applying her medicine.

"Glogn steel," she spat. "Nasty aftertaste. That's going to stick around all day."

"What are you doing?" hissed Samantha. Whatever the demon was rubbing on her, it was extremely painful.

"Helping," replied Jkn-ala dismissively. "Is that not obvious?"

"After the aesh knocked you unconscious, we killed him and came here for medical attention," the Guard explained. "Miss Jkn-ala here is treating your wounds."

"The aesh are dead?" asked Samantha.

"The ones in that street," shrugged the Guard. "That Tier IV was still fighting the Arch-Mage when we left, and the Empress is still fending off the Tier V."

"Lay back down!" demanded Jkn-ala. "You're letting the medicine leak!"

Samantha hesitantly settled back down onto the table, her head turning to the other three Journeymen as she tried to distract herself from the stinging pain of the demon's poultices.

"How long have I been out?" she asked.

"Less than an hour," Venden replied.

"And everyone else?"

"Dead," Cait said bluntly.

"The entire city?" gasped Samantha.

"No, no," Fate shook his head. "Just the ones fighting with us. The Master had to use his failsafe."

"We threw almost two dozen people at that aesh…" Samantha mumbled. "And in the end, only five survived?"

"The Empress ordered the extermination of the aesh for a reason," the Guard told her. "Although it seems that her subjects were not as meticulous as they could have been."

"The important thing," Venden started, "is that the worst part is over. Or it is for us low-Stage nobodies, anyway. We just need to mop up the imps and let the more powerful Mages handle the rest."

"If they fail, there's nothing we can do anyway," Fate said grimly.

That statement stewed in silence for a bit.

"Done," Jkn-ala announced, allowing Samantha to sit up.

"Thank you, Ms…?"

"Jkn-ala," the fregog told her. "And your money is thanks enough. Now, onto the human with the hole."

Stepping over to Fate, she looked down at his chest, prodding it gently with a finger.

No response.

"Does this Skill of yours numb pain?" Jkn-ala asked.

"It dulls it," Fate said. "But it's still there."

"That makes this easier, then. Lay down."

Fate leaned back, the fregog moving over to peer into his wound with the dim light of the apartment.

"Your organs appear to be in one piece," she mused. "I assume it's this Skill of yours again?"

"Mhm."

She sniffed the air. "You drastically altered your physical make-up, didn't you? Tell me what you changed. If I don't know, the treatment may have the opposite effect from what I intended."

So Fate explained to her what Inverted Loop had changed, as well as his understanding of how it worked. Even the Guard listened in bewildered silence as Fate recounted his near-death experience and subsequent revelations.

When he finished, only the fregog looked unimpressed. "An interesting idea, but one that may have unforeseen consequences," she chided.

"Unintended how?" Fate asked curiously. Truthfully, he didn't know what kind of complications this would bring him.

"For starters, pain exists for a reason," the fregog stated. "It warns you when you're doing something stupid or dangerous. But now, you have no such insight.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this also complicates having children. If your sperm's default form is one of death, then how can it create life? How would it interact with an egg?

"Then there's your intangible organs. You said that blood and food turn intangible when passing through your organs and stomach, which means poisons could do the same.

"Do you know how hard it would be to operate on a poisoned heart when you can't touch the heart itself? It'd be almost as hard as finding a poison that could put you down.

"Neither one is impossible, is my point, but both are difficult. But while one requires a skilled doctor, the other one can be solved with money."

"I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it," Fate sighed. "Not like I can reverse what I did."

Jkn-ala just muttered under her breath as she applied her various concoctions on Fate.

Within minutes, he was back in top shape.

He pushed himself to a sitting position and pressed a hand to the new skin on his torso. It felt exactly like the rest of his ski, with the same give and temperature. He could feel it as normal as if it was always a part of him.

"I didn't replace your meat," Jkn-ala told him upon noticing his wonder. "I tricked your body into doing it for me. I wasn't willing to place bets on how artificial human flesh would react to this 'inverted loop' your body is running on."

"Thank you, Jkn-ala," Fate said sincerely.

"Just get out of my house."

The door slammed behind them, earning a wry smile and a headshake from Venden.

"She's always like this," he explained. "We should count ourselves lucky she helped us in the first place, what with her hatred of humans."

"You can talk about that later," the Guard told him. "We have a duty to fulfill. Judging by the sounds throughout the city, there are still dozens, maybe hundreds of imps still terrorizing this city. Until they're all dead, we can't go home."

"Does anyone have a weapon I can borrow?" Samantha asked. "The fregog ate my dagger, and I don't know where that short sword went."

"We left it behind," the Guard said, pulling a sword out of his ring and handing it to her. "Use this."

Samantha thanked him and took the sword, and the group of eight set out to take back their city.

As they marched down the streets, passing hundreds of corpses in various states, Kravoss asked Fate a question.

'I doubt this is all they have,' the Dracok said. 'The aesh are headstrong, but from what we've seen, they aren't stupid. So, the question is…

'How many of them are there?'

Fate didn't know. But he had a feeling the aesh wouldn't keep that secret for long.