God Complex - Vol. 1

XXX. Shanghaied-Part IV.

Jun saw the dark skinned woman behind the counter reading a piece of paper while she took a sip from her glass.

A picture of some sort of tunnel with two thick lines on the ground could be seen in black and white on the paper she was reading.

He looked to his left and saw some type of sitting area of sorts with a big oval table in the middle. Men, and maybe even a few women, conversed with one another or played with cards around the oval table.

On the walls there were pieces of paper with drawings of various faces. Large, bold words that read "BOUNTY" was written on the top of each paper in Common.

It started to make Jun wonder what type of building this was really. As it also didn't help that all the people in the sitting area also wore multiple types of swords and weapons on their bodies, along with various masks and hoods to cover their faces.

A loud slam was heard over at the wooden counter and Jun looked over to see the bloody bag Arkshan was carrying on the counter.

"Zodiz's head." Arkshan reached into the bag and grabbed long, bloody blonde hair and pulled a corpse-looking head out. It looked like a woman's but the skin looked putrid, like it was already in the later stages of decomposing, but it didn't smell dead.

It left a soft scent of fir trees and cherry blossoms that hung thick in the air, the humidity in the building amplifying it even more. Just like the woman Jun had met that had told him to go into the forest to her cabin.

Wait, if she...and that... Jun ran for the wall as he tried not to retch at his realization.

He practically had made out with a corpse demon last night.

A crumpling of paper was heard which caused Jun to look up from his disgust to see Arkshan putting a piece of paper on the counter next to the head. The zodiz's head had its eye's sewn shut along with its mouth. Pitch back liquid covered it and was pooling around it.

"I knew you would sail through the bounty!" The woman said as she looked at the demon's head. She then dropped her voice low, like she was muttering to herself mainly. "You always do...like usual..."

Jun decided to just to overhear their conversation while he looked at the various curios that were on a nearby shelf that filled the whole wall.

He saw various skeletons of exotic and unknown creatures to him. Vines with a plethora of colors that ranged from sickly yellow to beautiful lilac. There were eyeballs in a jar, more vials of random contents, and trinkets that laid amongst the shelves.

It was cool as it was disturbing.

"So where's the few thousand maila?" Jun heard Arkshan ask in an irritated voice. A nervous laughter broke out from the woman.

"Ah well...about that..."

A long, thick silence fell between her, Arkshan, and even amongst the other peoples in the room.

Jun looked over his shoulder to see what was going on, but he was greeted with the end of a long tail.

The tail looked like a snake's with patterns of various shades of browns with a white belly. It towered over Jun as he looked up at it in silent fear. He wanted a break from dealing with creatures of epic proportions.

"Um...hey..." Jun said weakly, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

"...there is no money..."

More silence ensued and it didn't feel any better than the previous one. This one was actually even more uncomfortable and had an air of menace to it.