"Okay I'd do it," Nora accepted out of pressure from her own conscience. "But on one condition."
He straightened his back, "Name it."
"You put the heart on him so he can start healing. But you can keep his body until I'm back."
"Am I supposed to just take your word for it?" Oris seemed sketchy. "How does this work, fill me in. Do I sit here and watch you betray me? Oh how do stupid people do it?"
"He's my boyfriend. I'd come back for him. It was the natives who killed him, which means I'd lose him to the void if I were to double cross you"
Oris gestured two females at the corner with a finger and they began walking towards him with a portable vault which they both carried from both sides.
He rotated the tiles on the combination lock and in a second it clanged open soon as the numbers matched. Inside was a bright green light, the color of grass, which reflected from a small globe.
He delicately put his two hands in and carried the globe like an ostrich's egg, he then raised his head and stared at Nora, unexpectedly he laughed scornfully.
"You can't afford to betray me," he pressed his laugh and placed the globe on Oscar's chest.
The globe immediately became transparent as soon as it was made to rest on Oscar's being. It seemed his body had absorbed the glow.
Nora was a bit fazed. Even Oris couldn't hide his shock.
"Hmm, he emptied it out in one touch," he stared at Oscar's body with suspicion then lifted his head back to Nora, "Now we have a deal. Remember this, if I smell betrayal, the natives will smell his flesh. "
"Understood," she replied.
"The map you used to find me. Use it. You may leave for the journey. Good luck," Oris dismissed her.
Nora smiled as soon as she backed him. She had cooked up a plan. She headed for the exit.
But the grin soon faded when she met a dozen dead men waiting for her outside to assist her on the mission. They said no words, they simply followed her while she headed the way reading a map.
After a few hundred steps an idea clocked Nora's mind and she turned around to the men that followed her, "If you're gonna come with me at least make yourselves useful. Carry me."
"Those are not our orders mam," one of them which seemed to be their leader responded.
"Oh you're their leader? Considering your king wants the Aconite in no time and I'm getting tired of reading a map and using my legs. You might want to carry me or I'd have to tell him that you were the cause of our delay," she walked to them and spread her arms.
Their leader nodded sequentially and they carried her like royalty, forming a chair with their hands. Nora's grin reappeared.
Basically it was impossible to tell time in the underworld as they neither had day nor night. So the men walked like still infinity, none of them stopping to rest or fainting due to fatigue. They were dead after all.
"Hold," Nora yelled and jumped off them for the first time in a thousand steps. "I think we're near."
She looked further down the terrain which reflected a burning red glow that projected even on the darkness of the skies.
"Goodnight guys," she immediately covered the whole place with dark fog and walked away from them in hasty steps, covering the area all around her with pitch black. "Thanks for the free ride."
"You traitor," their leader stood firm in the fog while his men struggled audibly to find their way out of the blackness.
"King Oris will kill your boyfriend. He'd feed him to the dogs if you don't stop with this nonsense."
Nora giggled evilly, "Who? Oh he's not my boyfriend. I lied."
"You what!"
She could hear him boiling within himself.
"I'd tell you how this goes. Oscar recovers and kicks your king's ass with his powers and goes back to wherever he came from while I steal the Aconite for myself. Me 2, your king 0."
Nora walked away while he kept yelling in the fog, his voice slowly fading away as she went on with the burning glow magnifying.
She finally got to the site and was struck by surprise, one she didn't see coming.
The map had led her to a large hole ten feet into the ground that had a pond full of lava in the middle. But Nora was more certain that this was it, of course it was the place why else were there an army of men fighting the dogs and riders who guarded it while simultaneously fighting themselves.
As their numbers emptied more and more strange new groups jumped into the hole and fought whoever they saw. It was a massacre. The men slaughtered by the natives were gone forever while the ones killed by other men respawned ten inches from where they were killed almost immediately.
Nora gasped, "Order is gone. If everyone wants the Aconite, this is gonna be a wasteland with thugs and outlaws ruling over us, even the natives won't stand a chance against them. Who wants to live his life doing good to die and be ruled by the worst of men? Good will die in the mortal realm. People will perish."
"I have to get the Aconite before anyone else does," Nora slid down the walls and landed in the hole where she was immediately attacked by a skinny old man with a bone.
From out of nowhere, Oscar landed on him and exploded, pushing Nora who hit the wall hardly while everyone else near them shattered in pieces.
She stood up and looked to him in shock, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I got my powers back," he walked to her aggressively. "Oris told me everything. You left me for dead."
He swung at her, Nora dodged his punch and moved three steps backwards.
"Whatever Oris told you is a lie," she defended.
"You don't think I know that?" he asked nonchalantly while charging towards her with rage.
"Then what are you doing!" she yelled out in confusion mixed with a little frustration.
Oscar halted, "You made me get crushed under those large stinky dog feet."
"Another time," Nora turned to the massacre happening right in front of them. "I'm busy."
Oscar acknowledged it and calmed his horses, "Oris is coming for you."
"Let him come," she responded casually.
As the men started to fill their little spot on the battle field again Oscar exploded blowing them away while simultaneously knocking Nora off her feet.
He chuckled.
"Dude!" she exclaimed and picked a fighting stance staring at the people already in combat just to stay alert. "Why didn't you leave? You got what you came for."
"I don't know how to leave. Besides, I'm not leaving my girlfriend behind," he looked at her and smiled.
"You heard that."
"I heard the whole conversation. I didn't die," Oscar pulled out his chainsword. "Enough talk, let's see how many we can kill. And yes, somehow I didn't lose it."
He ran into them and started swinging his sword, running on their heads with agility and randomly blowing up at will. And all this while, he had that killer grin on his face. Almost like the battlefield was his own alternative to alcohol as it made him forget his problems and pick up new ones that feared the edge of his sword.
Nora soon joined him, gliding through the air with her fog and formed little daggers at the back of her palm which threw punches with, punches that bit like a sword.
She finally made her way to him and yelled on top of her voice, "Oscar, everyone on the field is immortal. We need to focus on getting the Aconite."
While she spoke, another army of men entered the hole with loud battle cries. It's been merely a week since order was destroyed, and the men had already formed gangs.
At first he gave a silent treatment as he was busy cutting through them; man, dog, or rider. But then he jumped to her, "Where's the Aconite? Isn't it supposed to be hanging somewhere around here?"
"Inside the pond," Nora told. "It's inside the lava."