Harker thought about what to do. Something really was up with Roland, and he doesn't feel comfortable just letting him risk his life in spying on Victoria while also dealing with whatever this was.
Should he ask to send him back to the ship? No, Roland would never agree to that. Plus, no one else thinks something was up beside Harker, and they won't believe him without proof.
So the best thing he could do was to keep Roland close and watch over him until he could figure out what's happening.
It would be a bit hard to juggle that with spying on Victoria and maybe An Xin, but Harker grew accustomed to having to deal with several things at once. And when he needed to be in two places at once, he just had to divide himself.
Though he was a bit more hesitant to do that after what happened to Hanker. Speaking of that clone….
He wished he could get Roland to open up more about what happened between them. He chose not to pry, but his curiosity was getting the best of him.
"This way." Roland's voice broke him out of his reverie. "They're group is headed this way. We should keep watch and find the nearest crew members we could replace as soon as we spot them."
They went on their travels, and Roland seemed alright besides the fatigue and occasional yawning. Soon, they had spotted many footprints in the snow, and knew that they were getting closer to their target.
They soon approached a settlement of camps. They were built pretty quickly for a size like this, but that's not the most baffling thing. The settlement….
Was in a field with tall grass, tall trees, and fine, summer weather. Sitting on top of pure ice.
The group looked at this in confusion. How did this place even exist? It was probably something magic related, and it's not because of Victoria because Legion's skills had nothing to do with those. Wendigos bring winter too, not summer. So how….
They hid behind one of the bushy fig trees as someone went out. It seemed to be one of the bodyguards, taking a pee in an area filled with bushes of flowers, like a garden. Right beside were plots of root crop, and vines that grew grapes.
Despite the cold weather, every leaf shone with a healthy luster, and so did every fruit, tree bark, and crop. Meanwhile, snow did not stop falling endlessly around the settlement, and if it weren't for that, it would have been difficult to travel on pure ice. It was like a paradise, this garden within the snow.
Two lady scientists suddenly appeared with a device, and cursed when they saw the man pissing. "Hey! Ms. Seward said we shouldn't desecrate Eden in any way until we find it."
The man frowned. "What? Isn't it natural for any animal to excrete waste? This wouldn't be desecration, it's just a natural phenomena."
The women gave him scornful looks. Another scientist came, a very scrawny guy with frizzy white hair that doesn't seem to be washed for weeks.
"What did the findings say?" He asked the girls. "We need to find the Malum as soon as possible."
"Where trying, Sir. But the readings change every time. It's possible that the Malum was slowly moving from the currents, or the ice is interfering with the signals." One of them said,
"Well, this would be easier if we could just burst through the ice. But you know what happens when we desecrate Eden." The man said. "The Ice Giantesses are also just watching over there. We don't want them to catch us half-assing our jobs now, do we?"
He gave the guard a pointed look, and the guard shrugged. "My job is mostly just to pick up food, so I'll get to it now."
He approached the fig tree near the one where Harker and the others were hiding. Luckily, the three scientists were too busy finding this 'Malum' to notice them. Harker moved quickly….
And used the Succubus skill to draw him towards them.
"What the hell…?" The guard mumbled as his body moved on its own, and soon….
He looked at a pair of green eyes. He soon collapsed, and Harker lifted him up. However, instead of just taking his hair….
Harker took a large bite off the man's shoulder!
All his three companion's eyes widened at this. But Harker didn't even pay attention, as he patched up this deep flesh wound with the black worms of zombified cells. It wasn't only to heal him but so that if the guard wakes up, Harker would also be aware of his movements.
He soon transformed into this man. "I'll bring those three over here too. You guys take your pick of who to transform into."
Joan was the faster one to break off the shock of seeing Harker just take a bite on a man. "I'll take Miss Redhead over there. Always wanted to be a redhead."
"What about your wendigo curse?" Mina asked. "You don't feel like eating this man whole after having a taste of his flesh?"
"I do, and it's so much stronger now that you've mentioned it. But I can handle it." Harker reassured her.
"That's great character development for you, Hark." Roland patted his shoulder. "Never thought I'd see you grow a pair for once."
Harker frowned, but he wasn't angered by that statement. He instead became even more concerned, his paranoia over Roland's occasional weird moments like this getting worse.
They soon had the three scientists come over and replace them. The bodies were taken by Roland's own team of bodyguards, who tied them up for some questioning once they woke up and will be taking them to their own settlement. Not that far off to 'Eden', but also far enough to not be caught so quickly in this blizzard.
And so, their group had successfully infiltrated in. The first step was to blend in, which was actually easy. Most of the people in Eden paid attention to themselves, and the Ice Giantesses were too far away to have caught the whole switcheroo. They were also busy watching over something else instead, something far ahead…..
Near Eden, there were tall pillars made of ice. They formed a circle, all 13 of them cut in such a clean way that would have been hard if not impossible in a place like this. In the middle of the 13 pillars was a bed of ice.
Harker could spot that there were drawings on the ice with his superior sight, but he was too far away to distinguish them. All he could really see…
Was a circular shape, with a circle in the middle. It had wings. Majestic angel wings, not demonic bat wings.
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