Chương 6: Emissary of chaos

(... Now that Lia is finally asleep there's only one thing to do.)

With quite an excited expression on his 'face', Alex continued monitoring Lia's breathing for a few more seconds until he was completely sure she was sleeping. Finding that to be the case, Alex slowly started inching away from her until he reached the door of the overturned carriage which was currently their temporary base. Glancing at the small gap between the metal door and the carriage frame, Alex clearly saw the cursed sunlight leaking trough as it left a small line on the dirt below.

(From what Lia told me chaos is this all powerful ting which will do just about anything as long as you pay a 'price', moreover my body which I can change at will seems to be constructed almost entirely of that power… Then this should be possible.)

Focusing on one of his fingers, Alex noticed how the pure black skin which covered it gradually started to change, but unlike the times he had done it before there was a bit more resistance.

(Come on now, I've already come so far, so this last change shouldn't be that much of an issue!)

From what Alex felt himself and what Lia had told him, Alex's current appearance had become extremely close to that of a human. Although he was still covered in dull black skin, he was no longer an amalgamation of bones and black goo, even his unnatural amount of eyes had been reduced to a single completely red pair which sat on his otherwise completely featureless face. The word featureless was perhaps the best way to describe Alex's current appearance, other than his red eyes there was nothing else, the rest of his humanoid body was simply covered in a smooth layer of black goo which reminded Alex of a latex gimp suit. The change he was trying to accomplish now had to do with his skin, but instead of focusing on the appearance, Alex tried to alter its characteristics.

(Here we go… Test #1.)

Finding that he had archived the change that he wanted on only a single one of his fingers, Alex slowly brought that finger to the small line of sunlight which crept through the thin gap. As soon as he touched the light Alex felt a now familiar burning sensation on his finger, but unlike before it didn't seem like the black goo which formed his finger was evaporating.

"Lia! I'm sorry to wake you up but you have to see this!"Being woken up by her master Lia was immediately cleared of all drowsiness as she struggled not to let her tail wag around too much, opening her eyes she saw the noble and holy form of her master, a strange emissary of chaos which had saved her life and for some reason called himself Alex. Looking at her master's 'expression' Lia noticed that he was extremely excited about something and as such she immediately sat up on her knees and paid full attention to her master as her fluffy ears peaked up straight.

"Yes, I am awake Master, what is it you require of me?"

"Don't worry about being all fancy, just look at this!"

Stil clearly excited about something, her master took Lia by the hand and almost dragged her to the other end of the overturned carriage, only slowing down when he reached the door which led outside.

"Now watch this."

Holding up his hand, Lia watched how it subtly changed, but before she could congratulate her master on achieving even greater control of his body, something happed which made her scream out in horror.

"Master don't!"Failing to stop her master's hand Lia could only look on in fear as he reached out towards the thin light of sunlight which leaked through the gap between the door and its frame.

(How can I ever atone for this!?)

As her master was ignorant about the world it was Lia's responsibility to enlighten him about it, failure to do so would cause her great shame. It was her own failure that she hadn't informed her master about his intolerance to sunlight, she had naively believed that he had already figured that out.

"See I can 'touch' it without issue now, although it took close to 200 attempts the pain was all worth it!"

"Huh?... M-master, have you become immune to sunlight?"

"Firstly my name is Alex, secondly yeah that's what I wanted to show you. Is it so strange that I can do such a thing? You said it yourself Lia, chaos is an all powerful force. In that case it shouldn't be that had to do a thing like this no?"Ending his sentence with a 'smile' as the razor sharp teeth became visible through a gap on his face, it was clear that her master wanted to be praised, still Lia found herself unable to do that as she was in a state of shock.

"... Is it really not hurting?"

"No it isn't, here look at this."

Perhaps sensing that she was in a state of disbelief, Lia's master once more demonstrated his greatness by opening the door to the outside, basking himself in what should be deadly sunlight without any harm coming to him.

"Master you are amazing!"

"Am I really? That's nice to hear Lia."

While scratching the back of his head in embarrassment her master's other hand somehow found its way to the top of Lia's head, gently petting it as to share his happiness.

With Alex now able to resist sunlight he decided that it would be wise to start moving once more, even after he killed those people who had come after him Alex couldn't shake the feeling that their comrades would try and seek him out for revenge. Using some of the rags left inside the carriage Alex made a pair of crude cloaks but cutting and stitching together the pieces with chaos for both himself and Lia so their identity couldn't be grasped at a glance, after all, Lia was some sort of criminal and Alex was still some kind of unholy looking monster. Travelling on foot Alex resorted to carrying the still not recovered Lia as he ran along the dirt highway in the opposed direction of his cave and within a few days of travel they reached a town.

"This could be quite an issue…"

"In what way master?"

glancing at the medieval looking town which was surrounded by a wood fence Alex unconsciously leaked his idle thoughts which Lia instantly responded to, forcing Alex to explain himself.

"It seems that there's no easy way to sneak into town before nightfall, which is an issue as we need to find some food for you and we don't have any money."

It was currently late in the evening with the sky turning bright orange as the shadows lengthened, since all the entrenches to the town and the wall which surrounded it appeared to be guarded it would be hard getting inside without being noticed.

"But master, why don't we just enter normally?"

With a blank expression on her face, Lia's head tilted slightly to the side as she presented a proposal.

(Is this girl an airhead?)

Becoming increasingly worried about Lia's future Alex decided to make her realize the mistake of her words so she would not repeat it the same mistake.

"How would we do that? I don't have any ID and you were a prisoner, remember?"

"Id?... Ah, you mean a merchant's pass? We don't need that, we can just pay a fee and they'll let us inside. I even have some coins here, see?~ Also as I was captured I am no longer on any wanted posters."

Showing Alex some strange oblong metal medals which had the length of half a finger, Lia seemed to be confident in her reasoning, making Alex realize he had been in the wrong.

"Wait are these coins? Is cash not made of paper in this world?"

Although physical cash in Alex's word was already a quite antiquated concept, he did sometimes of to rely on printed currency instead of various crypto currencies when making deals with particularly paranoid parties, still, the idea of using something as common as metal to make currency seemed quite strange to him, if Alex had received a proper education growing up he would know that coins were the most normal form of currency throughout history. The fact is what Alex believed had been some meaningless trinkets belonging to the long dead driver of the carriage he had found Lia in was quite a small fortune.

"Paper? Why would you use something that valuable for something like that? Anyway, let's go, master, if we're going to find an inn we need to move fast."

"Ah, sure. Lead the way."

"Of course! Leave it me, master!"While mentally apologizing to Lia for his earlier conclusion, Alex quietly followed behind as he closed up his cloak even further, leaving only a small gap to see trough as he relied on his keen hearing to guide him.

Reaching the gate Lia was relieved to see that there wasn't anyone else waiting to entre the town and confidently walked up to one of the guards.

"Good evening, my master and I would like to rest in this town tonight."

"Ah, tavlers? Right this way."

As the guard had almost completely zoned out while he leaned on his spear it took him a second to realize that someone was talking to him, after glancing at the person in question he judged the girl in front of her wearing only rags was some kind of slave working for her master which was waiting a little bit behind. Waving his hand to get the two of them to follow him, the guard walked in the gate and sat down behind a crude desk which was placed off to the side of the side.

"Okay, what's your master's name young miss?"

As the person he was talking to was a slave there was no reason to ask for her name, since she most likely didn't have one. Still, as she was quite a looker he at least paid her some respect.

"My master's name is Alex."

Nodding as he understood that the slave most likely couldn't write, the guard filled out the log book with the name and added a note that the outsider had a slave with him.

"Okay… Then let me see your face, Mr. Alex, I need to check if you're wanted before your subordinate pays for passage."

Hearing the guards words both Alex and Lia froze, luckily the guard didn't also notice Lia's nervous expression as he was focused on Alex who did his best to hide inside his cloak.

"C-could you please not do that? My master is a mage and has already paid quite a price to the chaos, as such his face is quite…. Abnormal."

With a pale look on her face Lia desperately tried to avoid the guard having to see Alex's face at all cost, the area they were currently in detested the creature's of magic instead of worshipping them as they did in Lia's hometown. If the guard found out that Alex was a spectre there would no dought be an uproar.

"I-I see, then just a small glimpse is fine, I don't need to see the entire face."

But luckily the guard had once before had a run in with a mage which had initially refused to show their face a bit earlier in his shift, remembering that figure which had been hiding under that strange mask his face turned pale as he offered a lenient alternative.

"Okay then, just don't scream too much as you'll create a scene."

Speaking to the guard for the first time with his twisted sounding voice, Alex stepped closer to the guard which had become even paler before letting the guard see a small glimpse of his one eye beneath the cloak. Widing this eyes at that sight the guard held back his urge to vomit as he formed a stained smile.

"T-that's fine, once your slave pays you may pass."

Suddenly the guard understood why this mage kept a slave with him and used her as a proxy, if he didn't it would be quite hard to hold a conversation. With the slave presenting the perfect amount of coin the guard quickly allowed the strange pair to enter the town while Alex and Lia did their best not to shatter whatever misunderstanding was brewing inside his head.