Chapter 400: Mounting the Dead
Brigid tugged on the fresh clothes Cassian had pulled from his space ring—women’s clothes, of all things. The fact he even had them made her cheeks burn with embarrassment, though maybe not as much as the quick, heated screw they’d just had in the freezing river. Her body was still buzzing, steam rising off her skin against the cold.
Cassian slipped into his own clothes, looking plenty satisfied. "So... you’re telling me this is the first time those things have been out of your god’s temple in, what, millennia?"
"Yeah," Brigid said, nodding eagerly. Her lips curled into an excited smile as her eyes shone. "Things are getting serious now. Soon, all of us will be one with my lord. Doesn’t that excite you?"
Cassian raised a brow, trying not to make a face. Her over-the-top excitement gave him second thoughts, but he wasn’t about to pick a fight with the woman he’d just slept with—even if she sounded like a walking cult pamphlet. He gave a small, awkward laugh and said, "Well... not exactly. But hey, good for you, I guess."
That didn’t dampen her excitement. She nodded eagerly and added, "Once you free me, I’m going to devote myself fully to my lord. May my great lord arrive on this forsaken world faster..."
"Yeah, yeah..." Cassian cut her off, clearly done with the topic. "Enough about your lord. Let’s just get moving."
That finally took the wind out of her sails a bit. She made a grumpy noise and muttered, "I don’t wanna walk all the way there..."
Cassian pointed up at the sky, where massive birds wheeled overhead, their wingspans stretching like treetops and mountains. "We can’t fly, unless you feel like being breakfast for one of those."
Luckily, the birds were too big to notice them—or too full to care—but Cassian knew if they stood out, the things might not pass them by so easily.
Brigid scrunched her nose, pulling her cloak tighter as she stomped through the shallow grass. "Fine. Walk it is. Guess I’ll just save my legs for worshipping later."
Cassian side-eyed her, lips twitching. "You really don’t stop, do you?"
"Devotion doesn’t take breaks," she shot back with a smirk, though her steps already slowed. "Unlike you, I don’t just roll over and nap after the fun part’s done."
"Right," Cassian muttered, scanning the treeline, hand hovering near his sword. "Because ranting about your lord is the real stamina test."
She snorted, tossing her wet hair behind her shoulders. "Keep mocking, heathen. When my lord descends, you’ll be begging me to put in a good word for you."
Cassian ignored her jab, scanning the riverbank. Animals scattered, bolting from the water in a panic. "But you’re right—on foot, it’ll take too long. Might even be days."
His eyes caught on a massive shadow further off—a sleek black feline, horns curling from its head like a twisted bushbuck. Dangerous, yes, but big enough for two to ride comfortably. Cassian smirked. "What about that? Think you can slap a spell on it, make it less likely to tear us apart if we catch it alive?"
Brigid narrowed her eyes at the beast, lips curling. "I can work a spell, sure—but it needs to sleep first, permanently. The less damage, the better, or it won’t last long as a mount."
Cassian just grinned. "Easy enough. Toss a fireball or something—get its attention." And with that, he vanished from her side.
Brigid’s jaw tightened. She had her doubts. The creature was clearly a three-star beast, the kind that could shred any first-circle warrior no matter how talented. Killing it outright with brute force was nearly impossible—subduing it alive was another nightmare altogether.
But honestly, what did she care if he got himself killed? She could handle the beast on her own. The only problem was it might not be intact enough to ride afterward. With a lazy flick of her wrist, she tossed a simple fireball at the creature’s face as it bent to drink. The blast scorched its eyes, making the beast rear back with a furious shriek—
—only for steel to punch straight through its neck before it could even lunge.
Brigid blinked, surprised, as the beast collapsed into the river, blood mixing with the current. Cassian stood over its body, sword dripping red.
She let out a sharp laugh, shaking her head. "Figures. No wonder that asshole sent you here. Not a single first-circle warrior in the cult could move that quiet—not even close."
Cassian only smiled at her while she crouched beside the massive tiger-like carcass. Bigger than any beast she’d seen up close, its body still twitched faintly as the river carried its blood downstream.
"By the way," Brigid said, eyeing him with a crooked grin, "how’d you even pull that off? Does your killing domain double as an assassin’s domain too?"
Green mana circles flared to life around the corpse, humming in the air. Raising the dead was the first spell she’d ever learned—the foundation of her craft, passed down from the butcher’s grand discipline.
"Can’t go around revealing all my trump cards just ’cause we slept once," Cassian said with a smirk. "No offense, of course."
Brigid’s own smirk tugged at her lips as the magic circle shifted. The beast’s body began to decompose at an unnatural pace—blood drying, its once-glossy black fur paling to patches of gray. "None taken," she shot back. "If one night isn’t enough to pry out your secrets, how about a few more?"
"Can’t say no to that offer," Cassian said, watching the dead beast start twitching—and, oddly, making guttural noises from the wound in its neck. He smirked. "But just to be clear... does this deal involve anything about this morning? If so, I don’t mind answering questions, even if it means spilling my deepest, darkest secrets."
Brigid let out a snort as she finished her spell, fully animating the corpse. It lurched upright, towering at least two feet taller than before.
"And which secrets would those be?" she asked, eyes narrowing.
"Right now? Just burying my face in that big ass of yours," Cassian said with a grin, glancing at the newly enlarged beast.
Brigid ignored him entirely, leaping onto the creature’s back. "Yeah, yeah, just get on," she said, steadying herself. "Let’s see if we can pick off some low-level soldiers before reaching the camp. We need info before we walk straight into the camp, you know?"