The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

condition of the bodies, there was no way of knowing what was from who, so they were placed with as much reverence as we could manage, then they were covered in naphtha from the warship.

I stood to one side, listening as Decin led the funeral. He spoke of the dead with long familiarity, reminiscing about fights, families, and what good people they’d been. I stood for a long while as he spoke, the thought that nobody ever said that the dead were assholes occasionally running through my mind as people stepped forward to speak, and then I realized they were all looking to me.

I stepped forward, clearing my throat, and frantically running the last few seconds through my mind, realizing I’d missed my cue.

“I…I wanted to say…” I said, trying to cover my mistake. “I wanted to say that I was sorry I never met you. I’m sorry that you were lost before I could help you. I don’t know if you can hear us, if you’re comforted by the things that have been said, but there’s only one thing I can offer you to help. I’ll make the same offer to your families that has been made to your shipmates; if they want to, they’ll be allowed to come to the Tower. I’ll protect them as best I can and give them the chance to be all they could be.” I looked to Decin, who nodded once, and I began.

I cast Firebolt, the simplest version of the first spell I had learned, firing a small patch of ground in front of the bodies that I’d deliberately left clear and had soaked in naphtha. It impacted with a solid ‘whumpth’ as the flames burst to life, spreading rapidly, and flooding the corpses.

We stood there for almost an hour, nowhere near enough time to reduce the bones fully to ash, but short of a much hotter fire, I’d been warned by Decin it would take the entire day or more to destroy them fully.

I gestured to Oren and Decin, and they got their people moving, filing slowly onto the ships. While we’d stood vigil, the final Golems had finished charging and had been set to work by Sarge. The items we felt we could use had been loaded onto the ships, and the Golems had closed off the ruins with the large slab of stone. I walked over to Sarge with Oracle and waited while the people made their way onto the ships.

“Bane?” I said quietly, and the tree beside me moved. Bane slipped silently into view, and I sighed. “Honestly, mate, you don’t need to guard me here. What do you think is going to attack me? Horned bunnies? Squirrel Knights?”

“I won’t know until they try,” was his only response, and I shook my head, turning to Sarge.

“Watch over the pyres. If they start to spread, then put them out; if not, then leave them to burn out on their own. Bury the remains of the crew together but show them respect. As to the goblins and the trash, cover it with whatever you need to. I want the fires completely out in twelve hours if they’ve not finished on their own, and the pyres covered. and then lead the others to the Tower as quickly as possible. Once you arrive, you are to report to Hephaestus and take on whatever duties he assigns. Do you know where the Tower is, and do you understand your orders?” I asked and Sarge turned slowly, scanning the horizon through the trees until we could both see the Tower. He pointed at it, then turned back to me and clapped his fist to his chest in salute. I returned the salute and walked over to the piled goblins and crap, casting a second firebolt.

This one, I slammed into the middle of the pile, blasting some of the bones flying. The fire spread out, noxious fumes beginning almost instantly from the mixture of rubbish, unwashed goblins, and the flammables we’d piled in there.

We backed away quickly and went to join Oren on the raised deck of the Agamemnon’s’ Pride, and he got us lifting off quickly, everyone happy to get away from the fumes.

It took another four hours for us to get back to the Tower. Decin flew alongside, occasionally exchanging insults with Oren about his speed and ship handling abilities. It didn’t take long until the tone was lowered to his ‘handling’ of himself and his wife as well, and I couldn’t help but smile. The sound of friends exchanging good-natured insults and abuse was universal, and I was damn glad about that.

When we were on our final approach to the Tower, I confirmed the orders I’d given Oren earlier, at which point, he walked to the side of the ship and shouted over to Decin, going through details with him. They dropped Flux and his people, the new Complex Servitor Golem, Oracle, and myself off on the twenty-sixth floor before taking off again and flying down to ground level to land outside.

The parade ground looked much better than it had; it’d been cleared and cleaned, all the various refuse and debris was gone, and the twisted wreck of the old doors, which we’d virtually destroyed by shoving the remnants of Oren’s ship into as a trap, had also been cleared away.

Instead, two huge doors were slowly growing out of the surrounding mass of the Tower, and a smaller door was forming off to one side. I headed inside, smiling and waving at the various people milling around on the floor, counting down until…

“Is that…”

“It be mine!”

I’d been waiting for them, wondering who’d spot the new Golem first; no surprise that they’d both started off at near the same time.

“Now you listen here…”

“No, you listen! Do ye know whut I could do wit’ that? You would’na even know how to use it properly!”

“That’s enough, the both of you. The ships are going to land outside the Tower on the ground. I want