Heart of Demise.

(30) Lady

The first thing I noticed was that there was a strange button, one that my fingers comfortably slotted in. It wasn't easy to push, but when I did, that was when the cleaver's blade split into many parts.

The way the cleaver transformed was by spacing each chunk of the blade from the other. A metallic line, one reminding me of a wide zipline, went through each piece of the blade and kept it as one single object. It was an absolute pain in the ass to carry, let alone carry single-handed, so I decided to pull the thing back into a single blade.

With that out of the way, I now needed to get used to its weight. I swung it around a few times, going for left and right swipes, and noticed that it was very taxing on my arms. I could only pull off a few successful swings without getting sore. 

Overall, it wasn't consistent. It wasn't a very reliable weapon at all; at least, not with my lanky arms. But it wasn't impossible to use. It was still very deadly.

Next, I had to test the first thing this device did when I saw it; its extensions. I transformed it back into its multi-bladed mode and swung it a few times, even thrusting it once for good measure, but not once did the blade ever extend.

I was stumped. I didn't have a clear-cut way to use this thing at its full potential and I was already getting weird stares from Rivver and Kyrelle. I had to figure this out fast.

And then, an idea came to me; Teddy.

Teddy was, of course, a Skellite. And a Skellite was the former wielder of this weapon, right? He would be my best shot at figuring this thing out, so I quickly ran up to him and asked–

"Ay mate, I'm no fighter. I have no idea how to operate that thing."

"..."

I didn't even get a chance to ask. But hey, at least he didn't waste any time. Still, this stung. Now we were on the road, occasionally running into various alleyways to avoid oblivious hunters, and I wasn't making any progress.

"Well, I guess I could figure it out on my own."

And so, I tried. I tried two-handing it, and that didn't work. Next, I tried to manually extend the blade, and that almost got me a gash. Next I–

"Ay, hunters!"

Crap. Guess I had to set that aside for later. I eyed the nearest dark passage I could fit my skinny body into and bolted toward it. I ended up at the same one with Rupert, and the both of us anxiously waited for the hunters to pass by.

"Ay, you hear that there are outsiders?"

"Why of course. Lady Goldhood has been notified."

"And yet she isn't doing anything!"

"Maybe she's just waiting for them? Oh, isn't that magnificent!"

They chuckled to themselves. God, even after the fifth time, it made my skin crawl. When their chattering was out of my ear-shot range, I went out of the alleyway and sighed.

"Goldhood this, Goldhood that. You'd think they'd be talking about some god, but no. Just some mental."

We continued traveling. I already had some ideas about what her power might be, with hypnosis being at the forefront of them. Everything about her power matched the description of hypnosis, which was... well, hypnotizing people. I'm sure it wasn't as simple as that though.

I was a little anxious, naturally; what if... what if we fell victim to that power? Hell, she didn't have to get many of us. All she needed to do was get Rivver and we'd all be dead in a flash.

That's actually really scary. I looked at the furry creature; she was my friend, of course, but now that the threat– no, the mere idea of her power being turned against us is present, I needed to make sure not to be afraid of taking extreme measures.