In Loki's Honor

Captain Ninefingers was a [Dread Pirate]. He wasn't a [Dread Pirate] before. No, he ranked up from a lowly common [Farmer]. He was a farmer on his father's farm but his name wasn't Ninefingers. He was called Almond, a stupid name. His life wasn't bad until that wretched sister was born. Retarded, her birth defect meant she would at best be a drooling idiot. A waste of food anyway.

His father told him a few days after the girl was born. "That is no fruit of my loins!" He confided. "That woman you call mother committed adultery, I tell you, Almond."

His father was a good man. Even with the living proof of her crime, he didn't cast her away. But the stupid baby, it didn't even cry like other babies.

One day, a merchant came and his father decided to get rid of the damn abomination. The girl was traded for food, medicine, and warm clothes.

A few days later, like a curse, the girl comes back. She shows up on the snow with a bag of money.

"That's the Devil's money," his father said. "Almond, the farm is yours. I'm going away. I can't stay here anymore. I'm going to make people believe I'm dead. Take care."

His father went away. When news came, he feigned indignation and sorrow but those were a distant second to the hatred he felt toward the abomination that destroyed their family.

The curse was just beginning. The tax collector came, they became slaves. Curses, curses, curses. For almost five years he rowed that damn boat. He was stronger than others, [Farmers] had good Strength scores. He demanded food from the weak, promising to help them row. Failing to row as a galley slave was a death sentence.

One day, opportunity struck. Pirates attacked the galley, and Almond attacked the galley. He killed his oar-mates and leveled up. He killed pirates and leveled up. He dueled the pirate captain and won by a hair's width. He ranked up and chose the Class he has today. [Dread Pirate].

He lived his life. Not knowing if his family lived and not interested in looking for them, Almond became Ninefingers. Feared, respected. Months ago, he found his soulmate. A daring woman, a [Pirate Captain] of great skill and power.

A few days ago, she went to raid the open waters and now she came back. News that she brought a guest quickly reached his ears. When he heard the description, his blood boiled. He summoned her.

When the girl showed up in front of him, he couldn't believe it. Fate delivered the cursed baby on his lap. The retarded face he so hated. In a way, she even looked a bit like Mirabelle, his eldest sister when she was her age. No doubt.

She opened her arms wide and came to hug him. He knew what to do. He bought a perk for this very moment.

Bitter Betrayal (ultra-rare): When striking an unsuspecting target, you gain a massive exponential bonus to damage and instant death chance based on how much the target trusts you. You gain no Experience for the kill. Should the target survive, the trust will become a {Curse of Hatred} with the same strength.

He had other perks to enhance instant kill, surprise strikes, and bleed damage. She wouldn't survive. That stupid grin was the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes and plunged the dagger in her heart.

"Almond, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Melyonen shouted.

I felt weak and slid down. The murder dagger was in Almond's hand.

Ninefingers used Bitter Betrayal. You lost all your HP. You have a punctured heart. You are bleeding. You are dying. Endurance test (modified by Luck) passed. Instant death averted.

You received the Curse of Hatred [Ninefingers] (ultra-rare) curse. Your love and trust in Ninefingers became bitter hatred.

No! Apricot's entire being quivered. The pain of having her mind and feelings twisted and turned the other way was worse than a punctured, bleeding heart. I forced down and focused my mind not in surviving, but to hanging to the only pure thing in the Death Princess' whole existence. Her unconditional love for her family. I boxed that hatred, I boxed that curse. I used {Meditation}, {Resist Social Influence}, and Apricot mental nature to keep that thing contained.

You have 0 HP. Activate Cyst Hibernation?

I can't die before making amends.

The cyst formed around me, a clear gel oozing from my body and covering my equipment and me. I lost track of the world as my notion of time slowed down to a thousandth speed.

"She's the reason for all my family's misery, Mel," Ninefingers answered. "What is this crap?"

The abomination was covered in a hard, opaque amber shell. Ninefingers struck with his dagger but he couldn't even chip the damn thing. When he looked at the damage notification, his damage was reduced to zero. But she was dead. Dead. His family was avenged.

"She's the one that saved me and your two unborn children!" Melyonen screeched.

Ignoring his wife, Ninefingers called his henchmen. "Get this thing out of here and toss is on the sea," he pointed at the body-shaped blob. Too bad even her gear was covered by it. She seemed to have some nice things.

He turned to address Melyonen's histrionic crisis. "What's done is done, Mel. Two children? What a blessing."

The woman didn't answer to reason. Ninefingers had to keep her restrained to quarters.

Six months later, he knew. It wasn't a blessing. It was the return of the curse. The children had the same retarded face as his sister. His face twisted into a rictus of anger at the blatant betrayal, Ninefingers decreed.

"You are an adulterous woman. No way these wretched abominations are the fruit of my loins. You will be chained and sent to the brothel. Be glad I don't want to kill either you or your illegitimate children. Begone from my sight."

Captain Ninefingers was a [Dread Pirate]. He wasn't a [Dread Pirate] before, but now he'd embraced his Class in its entirety.

Inside the Cyst, Nenandil and I slept. I still had a punctured heart, I was still dying and bleeding. But at one-thousandth of the speed and I had nine hundred of damage resistance. I wasn't conscious but the damage log messages showed bleeding ticks every thousand seconds for 0 damage.

I wasn't aware of my surroundings. Unconscious, I fought to keep Almond's betrayal and the curse I received bottled.

But time passed. Inside this cyst, I would live for more than a million years before I died of natural causes. But the world moved on, inexorable.

The night of the three full moons, which happened only once every twelve years and in the winter solstice came. It would mark my eighteenth birthday. That night, all moon-bound and therianthropes in the world shifted. The pull of the moons in their full glory was just too much. The soft cyan light that shone on the world forced me to shift. And my regeneration kicked in. I healed my wounds, at one-thousandth of the normal speed.

But I healed. My fat reserves went away but I was hale. Maybe hungry but hale. All the Cyst needed now was favorable conditions to release me.

An earthquake struck. The earth shook and a tsunami formed. Water fled the coastline and the pirate's bay dried. The cyst broke and I woke up.

Nenandil called.

On all fours I ran. I climbed the vertical cliff face as easy as if it were a polished hardwood floor. I reached the plateau where the pirates grew food and looked. The tsunami was massive. It came and crashed through the V-shaped crags, breaking the stones and causing avalanches. It lost potency but that the tidal wave had in spades. It crashed down and flooded the pirate's haven, destroying the ships and killing in droves.

I looked with my cat's eyes. I saw not all of them died. Some pirates, the ones that lived in the upper parts of the crater, were spared the ocean's wrath. The cliffs in the passage rumbled and crumbled. The cove was now a saltwater lake, fed by underground channels. No ship would enter or leave that lake.

Then I saw Almond. Dressed like a distinguished and fearsome pirate captain, he surveyed the destruction. At that moment, I knew I'd failed to box the curse. It ran wild. The Death Princess had a target. The target had an {Assassin's Contract}. All was well. Except for Apricot's screaming and bleeding heart.

And I was on the hunt.

I watched him boss his men around.

He barked orders but didn't get his hands dirty. Like a professional [Assassin], I lurked and waited. My target went to sleep at night. He had a lot of women in his house. Of Melyonen, no sight. He fucked, he drank, he smoked, he slept. I was on the roof of his room all this time, camouflaged and waiting. I dropped down from the ceiling, my rear paws still clinging up. My fangs approached his neck. And I bit.

Assassination Successful. Contract fulfilled.

You killed level 61 [Dread Pirate]. You gained You gained 4,355,754 Exp (37,210 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 5.05 favored enemy).

Curse of Hatred [Ninefingers] (ultra-rare) was dispelled. You killed your target.

I returned to the ceiling and waited. Hours later, one of his women felt the blood pooling next to her and woke up, screaming.

Apricot was screaming inside too. With the curse broken, I felt the weight of what I'd done. I killed my brother. My own flesh and blood died to my own fangs. I fled to the cliffs and wept. Then I remembered. Melyonen the babies.

I put a contract on her and tracked it. When I sensed she was in some kind of motel in the upper crater, I canceled it. I went straight as an arrow to find her and ask about my nephews or nieces.

What I found was terrifying. Melyonen was emaciated and sedated as if she was on crack. She was working in a tavern connected to the motel, wore a brass slave collar, and the whole place reeked of sex. A whorehouse, a brothel.

I waited until she finished her night job and withdrew to her chamber. There I found something that got too close to my own reality. Two girls, hiding in the dirty rags of a cell, waiting for their mother to return. In them, I saw Cerise and me.

They had the same kind of face I did. They had the same affliction. A genetic disease. Melyonen shared some food she brought with them and sung them nursery rhymes. The girls slept. I shifted to my human form and turned chameleon off. I was naked but I didn't care. It was almost too dark to see anyway.

"Melyonen," I called. "What happened?"

"Who's there?" She asked, scared. Her reaction was to cover her girls, to protect them.

"Apricot. {Heroine} and [Assassin]. Demon Slayer and Death Princess. I live."

I dropped down from the ceiling and hugged Melyonen, my sister-in-law. She was family. I loved her and my nieces.

"You're alive!" She started to cry. "How's that possible? It's been four years!"

"I'm a tough bitch to kill," I snickered but I was on tears as well. "What happened back there, sister?"

"Almond used a perk on you. It is called [Bitter Betrayal] nd deals damage based on how much you trust him."

"I see," I replied. "I lost all my HP at once and got stuck with a {Curse of Hatred}."

I held back my words immediately. I couldn't talk about my curses. When I saw that Melyonen was unaffected, I sighed in relief. That one wasn't my curse anymore. Which meant I could talk about {Dumpstat X} too.

"If you are here, it means he is dead," she said bitterly.

"He is. I killed him a few hours ago. This whole place will go to hell now. I did a terrible thing, Melyonen. I killed my brother."

She spat down. "Good riddance! He's the one that put me here and cuffed my neck. He made me whore myself."

"Don't you hate me for killing the father of your children?"

"Please," She scoffed. "Don't make me laugh. What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to murder every single pirate in this place. Then I'm taking you and the girls back home. Our family's home. What are their names?"

"This is Hazel, and this is Lima."

"Beautiful names. Sleep now, sister. I'm going out to murder some pirates. Do not be afraid of what you'll see."

I shifted to my hybrid form. Melyonen gasped. "You're beautiful."

I popped my claws and bared my fangs. "And deadly to those that hurt my family. I'll be back before dawn. Stay here, this place is far enough that you won't hear the screams."

That night, I murdered every single pirate in that crater. Male, female, human, or otherwise. It didn't matter. The only ones I spared were the whore slaves in the brothel.

After seeing what he did to his own children, I didn't feel as guilty for killing Almond. No. Even the System changed his name.

I gathered supplies, pack beasts, and led them down a mountain trail back to Pynkney. The journey took two months. I often went back to the crater in cat form to get more food, slaughter a goat, or some necessities like blankets or clothes.

To the women enslaved in Ninefingers' brothel I gave a gold coin each and let them live their lives in Pynkney. I hired a carriage to take Melyonen, the girls, and I back home.

The mansion guards were surprised to see me but they waved me inside. I led Melyonen by the hand. "Mom! Mom! It's me, Apricot! I'm back!"

I heard hurried steps rushing down the stairs from the second floor. Cerise and Olive showed up and rushed to hug me.

"Sister, sister! We thought you were gone!" Cerise cheered and cried at the same time.

"I'm hard to kill. How are you? Is everyone okay? Is mom healthy? Do you have news of Mirabelle and Anjou?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" Olive grinned. "Everyone is fine! Mom is working, we are fine. Mira and Anjou sent a letter last week. They are fine and Mira even paid to reach level thirty-nine and rank up her Class. She's now a [Noble Agriculturist]. But who we have here?" She glanced at the two girls hiding behind Melyonen's legs. "DID YOU HAVE CHILDREN, SISTER?"

I giggled and shook my head. "No. They're Almond's daughters. I finally found them, Olive. Cerise. I found Almond's family. This is Melyonen, a [Ship Captain]. She is Almond's widow."

We agreed on a cover story. Almond the [Farmer] was killed by Ninefingers, the [Dread Pirate]. We cast away my brother's new identity like a grimy rag. Just like some old monk did with the hero's father a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Cerise and Olive took to the girls like sugar on water. I held Melyonen's hand. "This is where you'll live, sister. I don't think you'll commit many acts of skullduggery anymore, but I promise to commission you the best ship if you ever feel the need to sail the seas."

"Thank you, sister. This is more than I could ever believe. I think I'll stay and raise my daughters."

"Maybe it is time for me to retire my daggers, claws, and fangs. Olive knows my secret, the other women in our family don't."

I also kept my transformation a secret from the girls. They would have a long and hard path ahead of them, but I could help them along. After all, I knew what felt like to live with our condition.

Secrets, secrets, secrets. I would never be able to tell them I killed father and Almond. They never learned my identity as the Death Princess, even though my notoriety soared in the coming years. I stayed mostly at home, raising and educating Hazel and Lima. I took a high profile contract or two each year, just to keep the skills in top shape.

Years passed. The girls became women, they received their System access and picked their Classes and professions. Hazel became a [Noble Ministrel], a very rare Class. Lima, an [Aristocrat], also very rare. I was Duke Ackerton's heir and we were nobility.

During the turmoil caused by Thor wiping out entire bloodlines, the Master worked hard. He secured stability by assassinating key figures and gained enough power to get himself a dukedom.

But all good things had to come to an end.

We were having an idyllic day when a System prompt appeared for me and everyone else.

The Gods offers you a Quest!

1. Slay the summoned Demon Lord.

Reward: Three perks of your choice, up to {very rare}.

Bonus objective: Kill the summoners.

Reward: Two perk of your choice, up to {very rare}.

Bonus objective: Surrender the magic core to the gods.

Reward: One unique perk of your choice.

Do you accept this quest? [YES] - [NO]

As a [Silver Slayer], you automatically accepted this quest.

A figure wearing a well-cut business suit and necktie appeared before us. "{Heroine}, we need you. The second Demon Lord was summoned and this time it wasn't an accident. You must kill it."

I had a thousand questions to ask Wyxnos. But only one mattered. "How bad?"

"He's already level one hundred and growing. He was summoned very far away from you, in the capital of another kingdom."

I looked at my sisters. They were frozen in time. "Nice trick," I idly commented. "Wyxnos, if I'm going, it is probable that Apricot will die. I want your personal promise you'll watch over them. I don't mind dying, but my family must be protected."

Yznera appeared. "They will have our blessings. Bundeus also agrees."

I stood up. "Guess it is time to kill another Demon Lord."