Shinatobe frowned at Hangaku that was staring at her with wide-open eyes. For Sakamo’s surprise as well as for Shinatobe and Tokimasa, Hangaku Mae fell on her knees and made a cross with her arms over her chest and lowered her head as she was saying:
“Great Spirit of the Wind Shinatobe! I am your humble and unworthy servant! I am Nadyian Mithym. I am a Mermaid born in Azurath that went to Earth to get rid of the Dark Mages that killed my parents when I was six years old! For the last fifteen years, I ruined their organization, killed I don’t know how many Dark Mages, and took the Magical Orbs they robbed from here so that I could eat Magic to survive on Earth and to continue my revenge!”
Hangaku Tokimasa was looking at his daughter, not believing a single word:
“No! It can’t be! You are my daughter, Hangaku Mae! You can’t be a disgusting Mermaid, that’s not possible!”
Hangaku stood up after glancing at Shinatobe that made a slight nod. Magic surrounded her, and Nadyian Mithym stared at Tokimasa with light blue hair, wearing a bra shell and her lower half turned into a Mermaid’s tail. The tail quickly turned into legs, with a short white skirt and bare foot. She grinned and said:
“I am indeed a Mermaid, Tokimasa. And by the Gods and with Shinatobe’s blessing, I will pay you tenfold the pain you inflicted on my parents.”
Nadyian then frowned at Sakamo:
“What I don’t understand, is how are you able to come to Azurath like that! Who are you, Ryu?”
Sakamo opened the closet again and took his Azurath clothes while undressing:
“Around here, I am Alex Brim. I am the Hero that inherited my father’s responsibilities, Yahei Brim.”
Nadyian Mithym opened wide her eyes:
“No way! That monk was the former Hero? For real? I knew his name, but I thought it was just a coincidence! I remember my mother telling me some stories about him!”
She then faced the dumbfounded Tokimasa with disgust in her eyes:
“My real mother, not the doormat you call wife, you bastard!”
Sakamo quickly tied his hair into his usual ponytail and looked at Shinatobe:
“Maybe it would be better if you find a place where we could take this scumbag. I know you are eager to torture him and finding out everything about the Consortium.”
While Shinatobe was jumping out of her chair, Nadyian Mithym spoke:
“I already know everything about the Consortium on Earth. I don’t know how many are they around here, but on Earth, there are only seven on my hit list, and if I am allowed to return to Earth, I will track them down and bring their heads.”
Shinatobe made a slight smile:
“You are a very vindictive Mermaid, aren’t you? I know a place, Alex, just give me a moment.”
She went silent while staring at the closet for a few seconds. She then faced the serious Alex that was watching over the wounded Hangaku Tokimasa that was seated on the floor, holding his shoulder and trying to stop the bleeding.
“I opened a passage to Ghar’s house. I was there yesterday, they are all settled already, and they are only missing a few houses that were still being built. Behave yourself, Mermaid. Things are a little different since the last time you were here! And you better explain your story very carefully, or you will find yourself next to that guy, facing his destiny and punishment.”
Alex pulled Tokimasa up and dragged him to the closet. Shinatobe opened it, and she went first, followed by Nadyian Mithym and Alex right after, with a reluctant Hangaku Tokimasa trying to get free.
When Shinatobe opened the door in the middle of the light and exited the closet in that room, Ghar was at the table, talking with four Orcs and with a big map over the table. Nadyian Mithym froze went she saw the Orcs, and Alex closed the door after pushing Tokimasa to the ground. He then looked at a smiling Ghar that greeted him with her sexy, low voice:
“Alex! The Gods are pleased with me, for sure! I wasn’t expecting your visit so soon! Shinatobe told me yesterday that you would come one day, but I thought you would take months!”
She then got up and gave him a strong hug, making his back crack:
“Ghar… too… tight…!”
“Oh! So sorry! I keep on forgetting that Humans are way weaker than me! Hehehe!”
“Who are you calling weak, you crazy Orc? Listen, I need your help with this situation. Do you have a cave or a place where we can take this guy and torture him for a few hours?”
Ghar faced the scared Hangaku Tokimasa that kept on looking around at the Orcs that were frowning at him. She nodded with a slight smile:
“You can take him outside and have all the fun you like. None of us will get upset by it, we are more than used to hear our enemies scream. We even have a few songs inspired by some screams we once heard. Who is he? He looks terrified.”
“That is the Leader of the Dark Mages. The one that escaped us, last time.”
Hearing that, Olive Andrews came from Ghar’s necklace dressed in her complete and threatening armour and squeezed Tokimasa’s neck with a metallic glove:
“This guy? Are you serious, Alex? This piece of dirt is their Leader? Oh, I will enjoy it so much to hear you scream! Ghar can use Healing Magic, so we can torture him for as long as we like, and if he is about to die, Ghar can heal him, and he will suffer some more!”
Olive then looked at Nadyian Mithym and let Tokimasa go:
“And who might you be, girl? Alex girlfriend on Earth? What are you doing here?”
Nadyian Mithym made a slight bow and explained:
“I am Nadyian Mithym, a Mermaid. I went after that scumbag at your feet when he killed my parents fifteen years ago, and I have been killing every Dark Mage I could put my hands on, making sure they stopped coming here to kill Spirits and their contracted partners like he did with my parents.”
Olive Andrews approached her and asked, with her voice trembling:
“Nadyian Mithym… What was your father’s name?”
“He was Fraser Mithym, a Spirit of Fire, and my mother was Amara Booth, a Mermaid.”
Olive Andrews gulped and stuttered:
“S-so you can use W-Water and Fire Magic… an unusual and powerful combination… the last time I saw you, you were just a baby on your mother’s lap… I thought you were dead… You were on Earth all this time? How did you survive there without any Magic?”
Nadyian answered, wondering about Olive’s words:
“I ate the Magic of the Magical Orbs I took from his house, and then from the Dark Mages I killed. I did my best to preserve the Magic I ate so that I could kill them all. You… you knew my parents?”
Olive slowly nodded with tears in her eyes:
“Fraser Mithym was my brother. I am your aunt, Olive Andrews.”
Olive hugged her niece, the one that she thought was killed with her parents when the Dark Mages invaded their house.
Nadyian asked, between her tears:
“Oli? You are aunt Oli? My father was always talking about you, complaining a lot that you were always travelling or helping that Earl with whom you made a contract!”
Olive nodded while still hugging her:
“I am sorry for not being there to help your parents. If I was…”
“If you were, you would also have died, aunt Oli. They came while we were sleeping, and they outnumbered my parents. I woke up with all the noise and the blasts of Magic, but I was frozen in fear, unable to move. I hid under my bed because my mother always told me to hide if I was ever in danger and to wait for rescue. I saw both of them dying at the same time, my father with a spear on his back, and my mother was decapitated by a sword that bastard over there used. He and his friends collected their Magic into a bunch of Magical Orbs that turned dark, and opened a few Dark Voids to escape. I think it was what they did to arrive without anyone noticing them in the City where we were living, in Belliersia.”
Alex Brim approached after kicking Tokimasa’s legs out of his way:
“But how did you manage to get to Earth?”
“I gathered all my courage and anger and followed him. As the Magical Void was closing, I hide behind the table of his office. I saw him placing the Magical Orbs inside his safe, but before he could close it, I used my ‘Mermaid’s Voice’ to tell him to leave the safe open and to forget that he heard me. Mother taught me to use it the moment I spoke my first complete sentence, and she warned me to only use that Magic in an emergency.”
Alex frowned:
“You used your voice to make him believe that you were his daughter?”
“No, I didn’t have to. When he went to sleep, I searched his house and found out that he had a daughter of two years old. I took her place. I used my Magic to make myself a baby again, and I lived for the last fifteen years with him and his family, pretending to be their daughter while spying on him and his Consortium.”
Alex gulped and asked with his eyes glowing with Magic:
“You took his baby daughter’s place? You killed her?”
“Of course not! I am a Mermaid, we don’t kill children! I took her to an Orphanage, and I made sure she was adopted by a good family. Her father is a Police Officer, and her mother is a School Teacher! I am always near her, making sure that she is happy and safe! She is my friend! All evidence I gathered about Hangaku Tokimasa illegal activities and his friends, I sent anonymously to her adopted father! Thanks to me, he has a record of detentions and he rose up in the Police ranks! He even got a few prizes and recommendations together with a few raises!”
Alex widened his eyes:
“No way! It was Tomiko-chan? Why did you do that? Why did you take her away from her family?”
“She is Hojo Masako, you fool! If I didn’t do that, she would be dead, by now, because that bastard over there would have brainwashed her to make her join the Consortium like he tried to do with me and I would have to kill her as well!”
Alex frowned with a stern look:
“You talk about killing people way too easy for my taste, Mae. Or should I say Nadyian?”
Nadyian Mithym answered back with the same kind of frown:
“Oh, I am sorry if I upset the great Hero! How many Dark Mages have you killed, oh great Hero? Talk to me when you see your parents dying before you, and the last memory of your mother is her smile staring at you while her head rolls on the floor, as the light in her eyes fades away! I won’t rest until all of them are dead! So before you judge me, decide if you approve what they did, because you will have to kill me if you intend on stopping me for going after them!”
Alex blinked a few times and answered:
“I… don’t intend on stopping you, I just… Everything we had, was also a lie?”
“Not at first, but after you met Tokimasa, I began to think that you could be his rival in the Consortium, and I made sure to be as closest to you as I could, to figure out your part. I was not counting on falling so deeply in love, and I am glad you are not one of them. It would pain me to kill you, and I would have morn your death for years, but I would do it in a heartbeat because I don’t want for the children of another Spirit to see their parents dying because of those scumbags that call themselves the Consortium!”