Viktor's back protested with a sharp crack as he straightened, the two-or-three-mile walk having taken its toll. Night had fallen completely—around nine or ten o'clock by the look of the stars scattered across the darkening sky.
The manor loomed ahead, a crumbling monument to neglect and desolation, but he'd made it.
They'd all made it.
Behind him, Kaida was being pulled along by the glowing purple chain, and she wasn't taking it well.
"Oi, can't those slimes melt this thing into them?" she asked, frustration thick in her voice as she yanked forward, testing the chain's resistance like a caged animal.
Viktor glanced back at the two gelatinous creatures perched on his shoulders—Rusty and Rustina, the purple and pink slimes that had somehow become part of his motley crew. "You can try it."
