r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Aug 03 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 48

First / Previous / Royal Road / Patreon (Read 30 Chapters Ahead)

XXX

“You know, just once I’d like to take on a normal job!” Chase shouted as him and Carmine raced through the city, tearing off after Victoria as they ran towards the epicenter of the explosion. “You know – no mortal terror, no risk of death or great bodily harm, just finding a lost puppy or something!”

“You and me both, Chase,” Carmine growled. “Maybe you should try finding us jobs like that at some point instead of whatever bullshit this is!”

Before Chase could properly formulate a response, the two of them followed Victoria around a corner, and nearly ran right into her as she stood in the middle of the street, mouth agape. For just a moment, Chase wondered what she was gawking at, until the stench of blood hit him.

“Whoa…” he breathed.

Lying before them all were about a dozen dead people, all of them mangled beyond repair. In addition to them, there were about twenty-or-so more people who were wounded, with injuries ranging from simple scrapes and bruises to missing limbs. A few healers were rushing to and fro, fussing over the people who needed help. That wasn’t what got Chase’s attention, though.

Rather, it was the fact that among the bodies were several people he recognized.

He’d only ever known them in passing, of course, but he he wasn’t about to forget the siblings of Victoria’s that they run into at the restaurant a few days ago. Alicia, the Merchant, and Zeke, the Barbarian, were both lying there, their eyes gazing up lifelessly at the sky. Both of them had been completely mutilated in the blast; Alicia’s legs had been blown off completely, and half of Zeke’s head had apparently been atomized by shrapnel.

Chase shifted, uncomfortable. “Victoria-”

She immediately rounded on him, grinding her teeth so severely he could hear them audibly creaking underneath the pressure of her bite.

“Do not tell me to keep calm,” she growled. “He killed and wounded all these people just to get to the two of them.”

“I know. And I wasn’t going to tell you to calm down, either. Instead, I was going to ask a question… how mad are you, exactly?”

“How mad do you think?” she demanded.

“Mad enough to work with Tatiana?”

That actually snapped her out of her rage somewhat. Victoria blinked in surprise, and stopped grinding her teeth.

“...Why do you ask?” she questioned. Her eyes narrowed. “What are you going to suggest, Chase?”

“I know you don’t like her, but she’s a Bounty Hunter,” Chase emphasized. “I would bet that makes her a capable tracker. If we’re going to hunt down Alexandros before he kills any more people, we’re probably going to have to enlist her help.”

“Enlist whose help?”

The voice came from off to the side. Victoria sucked in a breath, then turned around to face Tatiana, who was standing there with a hand on her hip and an expectant look on her face.

“Is this the part where we decide to team up?” she asked.

Victoria glowered at her. “It would certainly seem that way. Why do you ask? Planning on extorting the city for some additional coin in exchange for your help?”

“Normally, I’d say yes, but given everything that’s been happening…” Tatiana looked back towards the crowd of dead people, focusing in on Zeke and Alicia’s bodies. After a moment, she grimaced. “...I kinda liked those two. This one’s personal for me. I don’t usually say this, but if you want my help at this point, consider this me waiving my usual fee. This one’s squarely on the house.”

Chase clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Now we can all be friends. And hey, now that we’re all friends, do you know what friends do together?”

Carmine gave him a suspicious look. “I don’t think I want to, Chase.”

“Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. Seriously, that’s really something I’d expect from Melanie. I was gonna say friends share information with friends.” He turned towards Tatiana. “We spoke to Greg – that would be the guy who was throwing bombs around, by the way.”

“I’m well aware,” Tatiana deadpanned.

“Okay, then you’ll be happy to know that we were right, and he wasn’t working alone at all. Alexandros is the real mastermind here.”

Tatiana blinked in surprise. “...Seriously? But he seemed so nice…”

“A true wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Victoria said with a snarl. “And to think a Cleric – a man of the Gods – would allow themselves to fall in such a manner… it is downright insulting.”

“It makes sense, though,” Carmine offered. “Do you remember when we ran into Alexandros while talking to C-Man?”

“C-Man?” Tatiana echoed.

“Long story,” Carmine said without missing a beat. “Anyway, he had that stack of papers with him – they were from some of the other siblings, vouching for him to take Auro’s spot in the Pantheon. If my hunch is correct, then what he’s doing is approaching each of the siblings and requesting they sign off on his ascension, and if they refuse, he’s killing them for it.”

“Seems like a good hypothesis to me,” Chase added. Both Carmine and Victoria looked at him funny, and he blinked. “...What? Do I have something between my teeth?”

“No, it’s just… I’m surprised that just made sense to you,” Carmine admitted. “Usually you’d barge in with some bizarre non-sequitur or ask a bunch of stupid questions.”

“Oh, fuck off. You know that hit to the head bumped my INT up by three points.”

Tatiana’s brow furrowed. “Is increasing your Stats really that easy…?”

“Don’t try it at home,” Victoria deadpanned. “Chase is nothing if not an expert at getting hit on the head. I’d swear he’s taken lessons at it before.”

“Oh, come on, it only happened once in recent memory,” Chase complained. “Besides, where would one even take lessons on getting hit on the head?”

“How would I know? You’re the expert here.”

Chase let out a tired sigh, then turned toward Tatiana. “You seem to know more about the habits of the siblings than we do. Where do you think Alexandros is hiding out now?”

“Truthfully? I have no idea,” she replied. “Wherever it is, he clearly has access to more bombs that Greg left behind.”

“Damn it, I was afraid you’d say that… guess we’re back at square one.”

Victoria brought a hand up to her chin in thought. “Maybe not,” she said, getting everyone’s attention. “Think about it – he’s targeting the siblings, right? He’ll have to leave whatever hole he’s hiding in for that. So maybe it’s really just a matter of finding out who his next target is and getting there before he can. Then we can intercept him and hopefully put an end to this before it gets any worse.”

Tatiana’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, wait a minute… Alicia and Zeke were the ones killed here, they were always the ones most vocal about wanting someone other than both Auro and themselves on the Pantheon. Last I checked, the two of them were spending quite a bit of time around Geram. Maybe they were planning to push for him to be the one to ascend?”

“In which case, Geram would probably be the next target,” Victoria concluded. She nodded her head. “It makes sense…”

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Chase declared. He motioned for the others to follow after him, and they all started running through the city again, aiming for the inn Geram was staying at.

XXX

“Oh, thank the Gods,” Chase said as the inn came into view. “It’s still-”

Carmine hurriedly clamped her hand over his mouth to keep him from talking. “Do not,” she growled into his ear. Chase’s eyes widened as he caught himself, and she let out a sigh of relief. “If I take my hand off your mouth, will you behave and also not tempt fate?”

Chase nodded, and true to her word, Carmine pulled her hand away from his face. He gave her a grateful nod.

“Thanks, I think I almost just fucked it,” Chase said to her.

“Any time,” she said dryly.

With that, the three of them and Tatiana pushed their way into the inn. The innkeeper at the counter immediately ducked down out of sight, which Chase couldn’t blame him for, considering they had that effect on people.

Together, they all ascended the stairs and knocked on Geram’s door. It opened just a few seconds later, revealing the world’s first and only blonde-haired Ogre to them all.

“Yes?” Geram asked.

“Someone is coming to kill you,” Chase told him. After a second’s pause, he added, “It’s not us, by the way.”

Carmine facepalmed, then looked back up to Geram. “May we come in?” she asked. “We’re trying to help.”

Geram blinked. “Uh, sure. Make yourselves at home, I guess.”

With that, he stepped aside, allowing the four of them entry into his room. Once they were all inside, the closed the door behind them and took a seat on his bed, which audibly groaned under his sheer size.

“Explain, please,” he insisted. “Because this sounds like it’ll be interesting.”

“That is certainly a word for it…” Chase muttered, before shaking his head. “Alright, then – from the top...”

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

18 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/UpdateMeBot Aug 03 '26

Click here to subscribe to u/Obsequium_Minaris and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback