Chương 69: Epilogue IIII (END OF BOOK ONE)

After helping Soryn back to bed, she left without taking the Boon he'd offered, she only had one slot left and she had plans for it. He'd tried to refuse when she'd left one of her two A-rank Die behind with him, but she was not above taking advantage of the fact he could not walk. Hazel was quiet as they made their way back to where their dorm was. The Coven was set up as its own sort of compound, which had everything they'd needed in one location. It was like a small town neatly arranged into a city block.

Where they had everything from a grocery store and an armoury available for use. The air outside had gotten crisper, but she didn't complain. They passed by a multitude of support workers who worked the various jobs so Witches could focus on what they did best: killing monsters. She'd met most of the thirteen Witches that made up the Coven but she didn't see any on the walk over. It must have been a busy morning.

Their apartment was on the second floor of the building, and for Grim, this was the first time she'd set foot in it. The place was well lived in and not especially tidy, although it looked like there'd been some effort to clean that had been abandoned halfway through. She wouldn't fault her too much for that, she knew how busy Hazel had been. There was a living room with a small couch in it, a kitchen with all the essentials, and two bedrooms side by side.

"I'm surprised, I thought the walls would be covered by now," Grim said. Hazel was quiet, "I was waiting for you."

"Yeah," Grim nodded.

"Well, we're both here now. Like what we wanted."

"Like what we wanted," Hazel repeated. *"Grim, Hazel, meet Blacklight. He's gonna be your official mentor for the next year or so, where he goes, you go. He's also recovering from an injury, so the worlds he'll be raiding will be around your level. While you're not obligated to do as he says, we're all equals here, he's been at this a very long time and if he's telling you to do something, there's a very good reason behind that," Amberlite said from behind her desk.

Her office was disorganized with papers stacked high and forgotten about, weapons and armours infused with Boon energy were displayed prominently in display cases. Blacklight was a fairly tall man with chin-length black hair that hung straight down his face. His eyes were focused, while the rest of him appeared relaxed. Compared to the other witches she'd met, he was severely underdressed, sporting only combat fatigues and carrying no weapons.

Although Grim would never assume he wasn't armed, from what she'd seen, if a Witch didn't carry a weapon, they were the weapon. It was slightly concerning, considering the fact that he looked very unhappy to be here.

"Why does she not have a prosthetic? Have we no shards left after funneling them all into your boy?" he asked, a judgement thrown into his question. Her aura flared out for half a second before reigning itself in, "How many times do we need to go through this? A vote was held and it passed. We'd have done the same for you, we did do the same for you. Grim can explain the issue if she wants, but unless there's something else you actually want to say to me? Discussions over."

Grim, seeing her chance to slip into this conversation, said, "We tried but there's uhh a bit of a curse on my soul, a Boon, it's got a bunch of my memories, and from what I understand? My soul's memory of having an arm is sealed, so uhh, doesn't work." Blacklight's mouth hung open before he closed it and stomped towards the door, "Fucking ridiculous." His body turned an incorporeal black as he walked straight through the door, instead of opening it.

"Are you sure we can't go back with Tomebound? She seemed… nicer," Hazel asked. Amberlite shook her head, "Too dangerous. The work you two were doing was only possible because neither of you are killable, permanently that is. Everyone else is too far advanced and needed where they are, he's all we've got." Grim sighed, of course she'd get the prick. Whatever, she had plenty of experience at this point dealing with them.

"It's fine, when do we start?" Grim asked.

"Three months." Grim scrunched her eyebrows, "What? The doctor gave me the all-clear, why so long?"

"You just came off six months in the infirmary, and from what you told me, you didn't have all that much experience to start with. No. You need some time to get your strength back, and we need to train you properly this time. Three months will hardly cut it, but the truth is we need you both in the field as soon as possible. You did well getting this far, but you're lacking, truth be told."

"Noted," she said, she wasn't happy to hear it, but she appreciated her not mincing her words.

"Meet Blacklight at the training ground tomorrow, 07: 00 sharp. He hates when people are late." Hazel side-eyed Grim at the mention of the early start time, worry etching into her face.

"Understood," Grim said. Amberlite sat back in her chair, her hands clasped in her lap, "Dismissed." * It took her the rest of the day to work up the courage to call him, she'd agreed to the Witching after all, it had been her idea, her plan in the first place, but… he knew. She imagined the resentment she'd feel would fade, but not while the memories were still fresh, not while every night she went to sleep she was back in that place.

Not until she'd worked up the courage to see Natalie's family and return her dice. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. How could she forgive someone who'd let her get fed to a beast? She wasn't sure, and she felt slightly insane at how much everyone seemed to not care. There was a difference between knowing you were being sacrificed and finding that out as a fun little surprise. Fuck.

She got up and left Hazel and the phone in the living room while she went to the bathroom to wash her face.

"Are you okay?" Hazel asked from the other room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need a minute," Grim said as she dried her face harder than necessary, trying to wipe something off that was deeper than skin level. She didn't hesitate as she sat back down and dialed the number, it rang, going through several pauses before there was the click of someone answering right before it would've hung up.

"Grim?" Phil asked.

"How'd you know?"

"I only gave the number of this phone to you," he said.

"Ah." There was a silence between them as they both didn't know where to start, Hazel was content to let her take the lead, seeing as how they hadn't gotten along last time they were together. Phil sighed, "I warned you."

"Fucken Saints, you did, the hell was that? You know how many people I watched die in there? How many are gonna end up as those creatures now? They're ALIVE, Phil. I could feel it. That was, Saints, I don't even have the words."

"But you made it."

"Made it? I only got out of a hospital bed a month ago. I fucking died, Phil. Would you like me to explain what hell looks like? It's still quite vivid in my mind from when I was there."

"You… died? How did you come back?"

"Long story, Phil. Hazel did most of the work."

"Saints, that means she's back?"

"Hi Phil, been a while," Hazel said.

"Too soon, some would say. You know my workshop's still trashed from your little episode." Hazel squirmed a little as she cringed, "That was definitely partly my bad and I am really sorry about that."

"You can show how sorry you are when you're cleaning it up," Phil said.

"But we can talk about that later. You couldn't have called me any sooner? I knew you lived, but I thought you'd been sent to the crater, I haven't been able to find a word out about where you'd gone. What the hell happened?" Grim spent the next half hour filling him in on the events of the past six months, with him chiming in only to ask clarifying questions. At the end, he knew just about everything that had happened.

"Saints. Sister, huh? I can't quite say I'm convinced, but I can live with it for now. What's important is that while you were enjoying your beauty sleep, the world wasn't. Found out some things you're not going to like." She was already exhausted from the conversation so far, but she pressed on, this was the main reason she'd called in the first place, "Tell me."

"The gang you were involved with when I met you? Dead," Phil said. Grim scrunched her nose, "Okay? I mean, they were criminals, right?"

"Murdered in their homes, too quick and clean to be anything but professional. The investigation into Lifeline? Cancelled and reassigned. That portal world you almost killed yourself in? Someone cleared it and the area's been paved over. There's a convenience store there now."

"Okay? So, what are you saying? Do you think someone knows?"

"I can't say for certain, but someone's cleaning up after you, and that's not all."

"What else is there?"

"I wasn't sure until you brought up what happened with Petra, Chloe's sister, right? But both you and Jeremy getting a limit break on an E-rank die? Impossible. Unless there was a link." Grim's mind whirred as she thought through the problem, what could be the link between them? Was he saying her demon was like what Petra did to Chloe?

"But nothing like that's happened to him?"

"Do you know that for sure?" Truthfully, she'd never asked. Beyond their one escapade into a portal world, they hadn't had much of a relationship, something she was regretting now, "No, I don't, so what? You think Jin and Louis are involved?"

"Jin and Louis didn't exist thirty years ago, Grim. Their paper trails are all there: elementary, university. Their credentials all checked out, but I talked to a few people in those classes? In their supposed neighbourhoods? No one's ever heard of them."

"That can't be right, they… they raised me? Like, sure they weren't perfect, but like, they were what? Fake?" There was a pause on the other end of the line and the sound of saliva moving as Phil opened and closed his mouth, "I'm not sure, but if you want to find out? You're going to need to talk to them." Grim set the phone down and rubbed her eyes, "Saints, why me?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. Get some sleep, we'll talk later once you've had a chance to think." He hung up before she had a chance to reply. She groaned and leaned back into the couch as she closed her eyes. Grim felt a pillow hit her lap, and she held it to her face as she screamed.

"On the bright side…" Hazel said before trailing off. Grim glared, "On the bright side of what?"

"I'm not sure. I was really hoping something would come to me." She groaned, not bothering to reply to that, instead changing the subject, "Should we advance to C-rank or roll the dice?"

"Hmm?" Hazel asked, confused about what they were talking about. Grim reached into her jacket and pulled out the A-rank Die before tossing it to Hazel, who only just barely caught the stone. Its aura glowing a brilliant yellow.

"What should we do?" Hazel tossed it from hand to hand as she thought, "It would probably get us halfway to B-rank honestly, but at the same time, when would we be able to get another A-rank die? We can get more D-rank shards easily enough." Grim smiled, "That's what I was thinking. Do you want to roll it, or should I?" The stone landed back in Grim's hands as Hazel shook her head, "No way. I only watched it die, I didn't help. It's all yours."

"Okay," Grim said.

"Here goes nothing." Her dog tag warmed slightly against her skin as the system opened itself up in her vision. NAME - EMILY RANK - D AGE - 19 BOONS [FRIENDLY SHADOW] [CEDE] […] Notifications(1) Dog tag "GRIM" is equipped, permanent effect is activated: [ENHANCED CHOICE] Rolling A rank Boon.... OFFENSE DEFENSE UTILITY RANDOM That was new.

She hesitated for a second as she thought through her options, she really didn't need more utility, defence would be useful, but she was really missing something she could do damage with. WARNING: Further sub-categories will negatively impact the strength of the Boon. She read the warning and saw a new heap of menus appear as options, letting her further customize if she wanted it to be ranged or not, a blend of the different options, or even let her customize something to her liking.

All of it would take a hit to the power of the Boon as it sapped energy from it to force it into her specifications. The benefit of the dog tag was clear to see, but she didn't know if it was worth the cost, either in obtaining it or using it. She'd take the risk this time. Rolling A-rank offensive Boon. …...... You have received a A-rank boon. [SHALLOW GRAVE] End of Book 1.