Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"I...I can't go on any longer! Everything...everything hurts!" Gasped Celia, flopping onto the ground with a thud as she struggled to catch her breath, a slightly dazed look in her eyes, her body battered and bruised all over.

"How...how fucking long have we been up here? Have we...have we always been up here? Will we be up here for the rest of our lives? Will we die here? Does a world outside of this place even exist? Or was that all in my head? Why are we here? Just to suffer?" Uttered Lexia with a loopy look on her face, more than a little delirious from the exhaustion.

"It's been six months, I think...and there's no telling when we'll be done, at this point I'm just taking each day as it comes, thinking about how much longer we're going to have to stay up here makes me all depressed," Sighed Raven wearily.

"I don't know, I like it up here...it's hard to breathe and we get tired faster, I'm almost constantly sore and aching, not to mention how cold it is...ahh, it hurts so good," Remarked Colt with a content smile, staring up at the sky as he lay sprawled across the dirt.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but...I actually kinda envy you right now. Having a masochistic side would certainly make this brutal training a lot easier, and you've definitely been complaining the least out of all of us," Mused Raven wryly.

"You have it pretty easy too...your body has way more stamina than ours do, after all, so it takes a lot more exertion to wear you out. Also, you're resistant to the cold. Hm...hey, doesn't that cloud look like a dick?" Mused Lexia, as she pointed up at the sky.

"Come on, you need to snap out of it-...hm? Oh, it actually does," Responded Celia as she glanced up and spotted the cloud Lexia was referring to.

"Wait, how do you know what a dick looks like? When would you have seen one?" Frowned Colt, before narrowing his eyes at Raven, who immediately shook his head.

"I came across a porn magazine during one of our missions, before Raven joined us...there were photos of naked guys, not just girls. Naturally, I was curious, so I flipped through the pages," Admitted Celia sheepishly.

"I probably would've done the same if I came across a porn magazine too. Also, getting back to Lexia's complaints, while I do have more stamina than you guys, I've been using Stamina Transfer and Stamina Recovery on you guys so often that I'd say it evens out," Pointed out Raven.

"Fine, I guess that's a fair point...," Muttered Lexia with a sigh.

"Well, look on the bright side, at least we have a toilet up here," Remarked Celia with a wry smile.

About a month into their training, Tacitus and Aster showed up and installed a toilet up on the mountain top. Aster used his Magic to carve out a small cave, before drilling a long, narrow tunnel in the cave.

Tacitus placed the toilet above the small tunnel, which served as a sort of pipe for waste to be flushed through. Once it was installed, it just needed to be manually filled with water and it worked perfectly.

"Tch...while that was a relief, it also meant that we no longer had a reason for them to come take us to the hideout for an hour everyday, we haven't left the mountain even once since then," Huffed Lexia as she sat up and took out a bottle of water from her Storage Ring.

"And those two only show up every four or five days to replenish our supply of food and water, and bring us fresh clothes and stuff. I could really use a proper bath," Sighed Raven in response, before adding, "And speaking of the hideout, I wonder how much progress they've made by now? It was starting to look pretty good the last time we saw it, I wonder if they're close to completing yet?"

"I hope so, I'm getting real sick of this place. That said, while it has been really tough, we can't deny that it's also been effective...we've definitely gotten stronger since we began training up here. The altitude and thin air has helped us improve our stamina and strengthen our bodies, and it's also helped us refine our Auras since the near-constant state of exhaustion and fatigue means we've needed to concentrate more to keep our Mana flow stable when casting Spells. As a result, we've all each mastered several higher level Spells and widened our arsenals significantly," Pointed out Celia objectively.

"Yeah, that is true. My Spellcasting has undeniably improved, not only have I learned new Spells, but I can cast my Spells a lot faster now," Nodded Raven in agreement.

"By the way, how come it's only the four of us up here? Why aren't Aster and Tacitus training here too?" Inquired Lexia with a frown.

"Last time they came, Aster said they'd join us soon. They've been busy with both upgrading our new hideout and also gathering information about the Knights," Raven informed her.

"Yeah, that's probably necessary...after everything we've done, the Knights would definitely be trying to come up with countermeasures against us, and we don't want to be blindsided by whatever that may be," Nodded Celia thoughtfully.

"Not to mention, they're likely scrambling to recover their forces after we eliminated most of the Third Squad's top ranked Knights, and we'll need to know as much as we can about any new Knights they've enlisted into their ranks," Added Colt, as he scratched up his cuticles with a small rock.

"That's probably a significant reason why we've been training so hard up here...at this point, the Knights are likely well aware of what each of us are capable of, so we need to get as strong as we possibly can so that the information they have on our abilities is rendered useless.

I have to admit, it's been tough, continuing to leave my sister in the hands of the church for so long...but getting impatient and rushing into it won't accomplish anything. So, for as long as this training continues, I'll give it my all until it's finally over, so that when that time comes, I'll be strong enough to save her," Stated Raven with a gleam of determination in his eyes...

Meanwhile, in Amethyst City...

"Well, this isn't good," Mused Aster with a grimacing smile.

"That's an understatement...this is no small obstacle, it's gonna be a real pain to deal with this," Responded Tacitus with a frown.

The pair had been surveying each of the cities, towns and villages over the last half year or so...they had originally planned on joining the others to train up on the Pearl Mountains a lot sooner, but after noticing some unusual movement from the Knights, they decided to continue their surveillance for a while longer.

And over the last week, they finally realized what the Knights were upto, after spying on them using the stealth Barrier Spell Tacitus had created...and sure enough, the Knight were putting up countermeasures against The Irregulars.

Specifically, they were setting up a network using Teleporters and Teleport Spells, to enable themselves to quickly provide backup to any location if and when The Irregulars showed up.

"Teleportation Magic is pretty rare, and Teleporters who can use long-range teleportation Spells are even rarer, there aren't nearly enough of them to post one in every city, town and village. But there's not much we can do about their Teleport Spell Cards...based on how supply of regular Spell Cards has been dwindling in the last couple of months, it looks like those who are responsible for making Spell Cards have been primarily focused on creating Teleport Spells that teleport the users to a specific location. Speaking of which...don't suppose you've figured out how to make those yourself yet, have you?" Inquired Aster wryly.

"No, I'm still working on it. Teleporting to a specific location is extremely complex and difficult, creating even one such Spell would at least take several days. So, with that in mind, it'll take a while before they've created enough such Spell Cards. But either way, this is going to make things a whole lot more difficult for us...even if we make a move before they've fully finished setting up this teleportation network, just one Teleporter who's mastered long-range teleportation would be enough to completely derail our plans," Pointed out Tacitus with a grimace.

"Yeah, they're definitely taking us seriously...every Knight we've seen have been carrying walkie-talkies. They've likely been instructed to alert their respective outposts the instant they spot any of us, after which the outpost will contact an outpost in a different location and request backup. If we mess up, we'll likely only have a matter of minutes before the requested backup shows up," Surmised Aster with a look of concern.

"It's undeniable that we have made an impact...even the members of the Third Squad have been more vigilant lately, even they can't ignore the fact that their Captain and three First-Class Knights were eliminated by us.

What's more, the Commander is a shrewd one, there are a lot less Knights in the places we've already hit, she likely surmised that we won't target the same places twice. Which is mostly correct...we still need to eliminate the Viscountess of Garnet City, but it's unlikely that we'll target Ruby Village and Amber Village again."

"Yeah, there was pretty tight security around Viscountess Garnet's mansion, even though the overall number of Knights in Garnet City have definitely been reduced. And Ruby and Amber Village each barely have a dozen Knights assigned there now. But forces have been bolstered in the other locations, and especially in the places that are at the top of our list of targets. It seems they've managed to determine which locations we're most likely to target next, and have spread out their forces accordingly," Nodded Aster with a frown.

"If that wasn't enough, the Knights are also guarding the churches, instead of leaving that task up solely to the Inquisitors like before. They know that we're targeting the churches, and while they have rebuilt the ones we destroyed, corruption in those locations has significantly reduced.

But this is only a temporary solution to our ultimate goal...most of the Knights and Nobility likely think that they can just go back to normal once we're dealt with. If that happens, it'll only be a matter of time before everything we've accomplished is undone...and the thought of that really pisses me off, what with the amount of effort we've already expended," Sighed Tacitus apprehensively.

"Then we'll just have to make sure it doesn't happen. But with these countermeasures being put into place, our work will be cut out for us. It'll be tough to take down another church if the Knights are able to call for immediate, high level backup. Before we even think about making our next move, we'll first need to figure out a way to deal with these countermeasures..."