Chapter 252: Trouble in the WoodsNew10 hours ago
Jacob, Stiles, Scott, and Derek spent the morning shopping.
First, they hit the school supply store. They bought notebooks, pens, backpacks, and everything else a student could possibly need. Derek piled his cart high with premium supplies for Isaac. Since Isaac had no family left to look after him, Derek quietly took it upon himself to ensure the kid wouldn't be lacking anything when the school year started.
Then they moved on to clothing stores.
This was where things got interesting.
Jacob and Derek walked into every store like they owned the place. They flirted shamelessly with the girls working as shop assistants. The girls giggled and blushed and fought over who got to help them. Jacob bought half a dozen expensive outfits, trying each one on with the help of three or four girls. Derek, who was quiet and brooding—which somehow made him even more attractive to the girls—bought a few expensive outfits as well.
Stiles and Scott stood a few feet away, watching the entire spectacle with envious eyes.
No one served them. More than one shop assistant walked over, gave both Stiles and Scott a critical look up and down, shook their heads in unison, and immediately turned on their heels to join the small crowd of girls eagerly competing to serve Jacob and Derek.
Stiles slumped his shoulders, looking thoroughly depressed. He shouted, "Seriously? Not even a hello? I'm a catch!" He cleared his throat. "I mean, I'm a paying customer too."
Some of the girls started to feel guilty, but Jacob winked at them. "Girls, don't worry about those two poorly dressed ghosts."
Those girls didn't need to be told twice. They immediately started helping Jacob and Derek choose more clothes, completely ignoring Stiles and Scott.
Stiles looked down at his cheap clothes. "Maybe we should start buying expensive clothes too. I mean, we have the money now. Jacob gave each of us a lot of gold from his wyrm's hoard. I sold my share with Cogman's help for five million dollars. And you not only have the gold, but your mom is super rich now—and let's not even talk about your daddy."
Scott glared at him. "Hey, don't call him that."
Stiles said, "Anyway, we should buy some nice clothes."
Scott said, "Alright, but I don't have the money on me now. I haven't sold my gold yet, and Mom barely gives me any money after that biker chick incident. I barely have enough money now to buy some cheap clothes."
Stiles said, "Ask Jacob to give you some."
Scott said, "Mom forbade him to give me money. She said I need to learn the value of money."
Once Jacob and Derek finished shopping, Jacob asked the girls to help Scott and Stiles find some nice outfits—which they did with reluctance.
Jacob and Derek waited while four of the girls helped Scott and Stiles choose a few outfits. Both Stiles and Scott looked happy now—especially Stiles, who was grinning like an idiot as the girls helped him.
Jacob covered the bill for himself, Stiles, and Scott, leaving the girls a generous tip that lit up their faces.
Derek paid for himself. He didn't lack the money.
Jacob took them to a luxury boutique afterward. On his treat, he bought everyone high-end designer watches. Jacob bought himself a Hublot Big Bang, Derek a Rolex Submariner, Scott an Omega Speedmaster, and Stiles a vintage Rolex Daytona. He also bought watches for all his wives, as well as for Arya, Talia, Natalie, Victoria, and Shireen.
By the time they finished, it was early afternoon. They went to a burger joint for lunch.
---
Meanwhile, Cora and Talia had left Deaton's clinic at noon. After having a quick bite at a diner, they decided to visit their old home.
They were walking through the woods hand in hand. The familiar scent of pine and earth filled the air. Talia's eyes swept over the familiar woods with nostalgia.
But as soon as they neared the clearing of the ruined Hale house, their heightened senses picked up the sound of people.
"Do you hear that?" Talia whispered.
Cora nodded. "Yeah. Someone's here. I hear voices and digging—shovels striking earth."
They moved quietly through the trees until the old burnt house appeared in front of them—and not far in front of it, a group of people.
Talia's eyes glowed red. "Witches and wizards. And if I'm not mistaken, that's where Derek told us he buried Laura—which means they're necromancers."
Cora's eyes glowed golden. "How dare they dig up her grave. Let's go kill them."
Talia and Cora stepped out from behind the trees.
The moment they stepped into the clearing, the necromancers noticed them.
One of them—a woman—said with a greedy smile on her face, "Wolves. And there's even an Alpha. Their corpses are mine."
Another one—a man—said, "You can't have them both. You can only get one." Then he looked at Cora with greed. "The little one seems to be a virgin. She's mine. You can get the Alpha's corpse."
The woman opened her mouth to speak—but whatever she meant to say died in her throat. A wolf made of crackling lightning burst from Cora's palm and streaked toward her with impossible speed. The woman's eyes went wide with horror; she didn't even have time to scream. The lightning wolf struck almost instantly. There was no electrocution. No convulsing. Her body simply exploded, torn apart in a flash of white-hot light.
The five remaining necromancers panicked. Instantly, dark energy was unleashed from their hands and sank into the ground. The ground split open, revealing cracks filled with dark energy from which a horde of fifty foul-smelling ghouls crawled out—creatures with grey skin and ugly appearances.
The necromancers sent the ghouls charging at Talia and Cora, while they hung back and hurled dark spells at them from a distance.
Cora reacted instantly. The moment the dark spells flew toward them, she raised her hand, creating a glowing, translucent Quen shield around herself and her mother.
The spells slammed into the barrier—and rebounded. They ricocheted back into the ghouls, melting few of them into a foul, dark red sludge that sizzled on the ground.
"Cora, we can't let the necromancers hit us with their spells, and we can't touch them physically. I don't know where your lightning magic comes from, but use it. Take the necromancers out first. Then we handle the ghouls," Talia ordered.
Cora raised her hand and used the Lightning Beast spell again. Blue arcs of electricity violently gathered above her palm and transformed mid-air into a wolf made of pure lightning. The wolf was double the size of a normal one.
The lightning wolf raced across the clearing, blindingly fast, cutting a path through the ghouls—each one it passed convulsing and collapsing in its wake. Before the necromancers could finish their counter-spells, it was on them—three went down in bursts of crackling light, their screams cut short.
The remaining two barely managed to raise a joined energy shield. The lightning wolf slammed into it, cracking the barrier—and then vanished.
Cora didn't give them a chance to catch their breath. She used the Firaga spell and shot two fireballs at them, one after the other.
The first fireball hit the necromancers' shield and destroyed it. The second fireball hit one of them and exploded, destroying his body and killing the other necromancer standing by his side as well.
Cora turned to her mother. "Now that the annoying guys are dead, let's deal with the stinky monsters."
Talia nodded, then lunged forward in a blur of speed. She tore through the disgusting monsters with terrifying ease, tearing their limbs and heads off.
Cora saw that her mother was fine and having fun. She closed her eyes and spoke to Jacob telepathically. [Jay! My mom and I went to visit our old house and met some necromancers digging Laura's grave...]
Before she could finish, Jacob appeared instantly in the clearing with Stiles, Scott, and Derek.
"What's goin—" Derek started, but he didn't finish. His eyes immediately flashed red when he saw his mother fighting the ghouls, and he joined her, tearing them apart alongside her.
The stench of the ghouls hit Scott like a physical blow—and he doubled over, retching. The sound and smell were enough to make Stiles retch too.
Jacob took Melissa's bra from his pocket dimension and wore it like a mask. He inhaled deeply. "Ahh, now I feel much better."
Scott immediately recognized the scent of his mother. After she became a dryad, her scent had become the rich smell of petrichor—that earthy fragrance of rain on dry soil—mixed with blooming jasmine. He glared at Jacob.
Jacob blinked innocently. "What? Don't tell me you want Mel's bra too. That's disgusting—she's your mother."
Scott let out a low growl and stormed off to take his anger out on the ghouls.
Stiles raised a hand. "Can I have one, please?"
Jacob's eyes glowed red. "You want my wife's bra?"
Stiles paled and took a step back. "Nope. Forget I said anything." He backed away quickly. "I'm just—I'm gonna go kill monsters now." He turned and sprinted toward the others, joining the fight with far more enthusiasm than necessary.
With Derek, Scott, and Stiles joining Talia, they made quick work of the ghouls.
Jacob waved his hand, using his fire to burn all the corpses in the clearing. Then he cast a cleaning spell on Talia, Derek, Scott, and Stiles—and the whole clearing. Only then did he take off the bra mask and store it back in his pocket dimension.
Talia gestured toward the dug-up hole. "They were digging there." She looked at Derek. "That's where you buried Laura, right?"
Derek looked at the place where she pointed, and his eyes—which had returned to normal—glowed red again. "Yes. That's where I buried her."
The group rushed over to the edge of the pit. Looking down, they saw that the necromancers had almost fully reached the remains. The cloth Derek had meticulously used to wrap his older sister's body a year ago was completely visible through the freshly loosened dirt.
Cora looked up at Jacob. "Jay, can you take Laura's remains to Serendell? We'll bury her properly there, so no one will disturb her."
"Sure, love," Jacob said gently. He stepped to the edge of the pit, extending his hand. Utilizing his earth elemental control alongside his telekinesis, the soil smoothly parted itself, gently raising Laura's securely wrapped remains out of the dirt.
Stiles shifted his weight, looking between Talia and the wrapped bundle. "By the way... Laura was an Alpha too. Didn't she also possess the ability to store her soul inside her claws? You know, like Talia did?"
Talia let out a soft, heavy sigh, her eyes clouding with distant sorrow. "No. She wouldn't know how to do that. I unfortunately never had the chance to teach her."
Jacob frowned slightly, deciding to verify just in case. 'Nex, can you scan the remains for me? Check to see if Laura somehow managed to store her soul inside her claws.'
The familiar British-accented voice of Nex sounded inside his mind after a brief moment.
[No, Host. I cannot detect any trace of a lingering soul within the remains. She is truly deceased.]
Jacob let out a quiet sigh. 'I thought so, but I was really hoping for a miracle.' Looking at the Hales, he said out loud, "Like Talia said, there's no soul left behind. I just checked."
With a gentle wave of his hand, Jacob safely stored Laura's remains inside his pocket dimension, intending to give her a proper burial in Serendell later.
Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, looking deeply apologetic. "Sorry, guys. I shouldn't have brought it up."
"It's fine," Derek said, his voice calm. "We already knew the reality. We asked Mother about Laura yesterday."
"Yeah," Cora agreed softly. "Now we just need to take her to a safe place where no one can ever disturb her peace again."
---
Meanwhile, deep in the woods near the Nemeton, more necromancers were gathered.
The leader of the dark coven—a tall woman in her forties—was finishing a summoning ritual with her followers.
They had dug up bones of supernatural creatures from an old burial ground near the Nemeton. They arranged them in a circle on the ground, surrounded by symbols drawn in blood.
Suddenly, the leader stiffened, her eyes widening as she felt the death of her coven members—the six necromancers Talia and the others had killed. "Hurry!" she hissed to her followers, her voice panicked. "Our six brothers and sisters that went searching for more bones have just been killed. Activate the circle now!"
The necromancers threw the final fragments of bone into the center. Nearby, a dozen captured humans lay tied and gagged on the forest ground, their eyes wide with absolute, paralyzed terror as the circle activated and began to glow, channeling the energy of the Nemeton into the summoning.
The runes violently flared. With a deafening rip, the fabric of space tore open directly above the circle, expanding rapidly into a swirling spatial portal.
Then a smooth, echoing female voice came through from the void.
"Finally..." the voice purred.
---
Back near the ruined Hale house, Jacob, Stiles, and Scott waited for Talia and her children while they went inside the house.
Talia, Cora, and Derek didn't take long to come out.
Cora said, "Okay, let's leave."
But just as they were about to leave, Jacob suddenly froze. He turned around, his eyes locking onto the dense, shadowy depths of the deep woods.
Cora blinked, instantly picking up on his sudden tension. "Jay? What's wrong?"
"I just felt a massive spike of space energy coming from deep within the woods," Jacob said, his brow furrowing deeply. "Someone is performing a summoning ritual... and whatever is coming through is definitely evil."
Without another word, he wrapped everyone in his telekinesis and teleported them to the depths of the woods, near the place where he felt the space fluctuation.
When they materialized, the scene before them was horrifying. Nine dark-robed necromancers were kneeling fanatically on the dirt floor, bowing their heads in front of a female monster.
The creature had a lioness's head with long donkey's ears. Her hands had razor-sharp claws, and her legs ended in the powerful, scaled talons of a bird of prey. She reeked overwhelmingly of rot and decay. Her very presence actively corrupted the environment, causing the vibrant green plants and trees in a hundred-meter radius to visibly wither, turn black, and start dying. A double-headed snake was coiled snugly around her neck like a large, living necklace. In one clawed hand, she affectionately held a small pitch-black wolf, and in the other, she also affectionately held a small boar.
Jacob's eyes immediately drifted to the side, spotting the twelve human captives tied up on the ground. Their skin had turned completely pale, their breathing shallow—not just from sheer terror anymore, but because the foul, oppressive aura of the monster was actively draining their life force. And just beyond them, ten human bodies lay in a row—throats cut ear to ear, their bodies completely drained of blood.
Stiles stared at the lioness-headed creature, his face twisting in absolute revulsion. "What is that thing? It doesn't feel right."
Jacob waved his hand. Utilizing his telekinesis, the twelve bound humans were instantly lifted into the air and floated safely ten meters away behind his group. Then he knocked them unconscious with his Conqueror's Haki. With another flick of his wrist, a dense, glowing energy barrier appeared around them, completely insulating them from the creature's toxic aura.
Once the civilians were safe, Jacob focused his gaze back on the creature. "That, Stiles, is a demon."
Stiles blinked, squinting. "Really? She looks like a shapeshifter to me. And what's with the cute little wolf and cute piglet in her hands? Are those her pets?"
Jacob shrugged. "No idea. But they aren't normal animals. Those two little things are demons as well."
Stiles turned his head, genuinely curious. "By the way, Jacob... how can you instantly tell the difference between a standard supernatural creature and a demon?"
"It's their energy," Jacob explained calmly, his eyes never leaving the beast. "I call it demonic energy. Every demon we've faced so far has it, including this one. It doesn't matter which element they control—fire, ice, or wood—they all have it. It feels... unnatural. Normal supernatural energies, or magic, or whatever you want to call it, feel natural. They blend into the world around them. But demonic energy feels cold and actively hostile. It feels greedy, like the energy itself is trying to corrupt and consume everything around it."
Scott tilted his head, frowning. "Isn't there good demons?"
"Honestly, I don't know if good demons exist. We haven't met one yet," Jacob said. "But every demon we've faced so far, the moment I'm near them, I can feel they're evil. It's pure instinct. I don't need to read their minds or know what they've done to know they're evil. I just get this overwhelming urge to destroy them—like nature itself is screaming in my ear that they don't belong in our world and need to be wiped out."
Jacob paused, his eyes traveling slowly up and down the demon's body, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "Though... man, I really hope good demons do exist somewhere. Because I seriously want a demon wife."
Stiles choked on his own saliva, staring at him. "Are you serious right now?"
Jacob nodded sagely. "Yeah, totally. I mean, look at this one. Sure, she's ugly and repulsive, but you can't deny she has a hot body. Look at those curves, Stiles. Just imagine what a truly beautiful demon would look like. Think of a Succubus, or Raven from DC, or Darkchylde from Marvel."
Stiles said, "Darkchylde? You mean that blonde mutant girl, Illyana Rasputina? Also known as Magik?"
A perverted smirk spread across Jacob's face. "Yeah, exactly! I mean, how ni—"
Suddenly, Cora smacked the back of Jacob's head, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Focus, you pervert!"
Jacob quickly scratched the back of his head, offering a sheepish smile. "Right, right. Sorry, love. It's Stiles's fault. I'm focusing now."
The demoness had been watching Jacob closely from the moment he appeared. She felt it—the staggering, bottomless energy surging inside him when he used his telekinesis to move the captives and raise the barrier. His passive Absolute Anonymity had stopped concealing his energy for just a few seconds, and in that brief window, she had sensed enough to terrify her. And yet, fear was not the only thing she felt. It was also desire—a deep, hungry greed for the power his body contained.
She opened her jaws, speaking in a surprisingly charming, melodious voice. "Child... who are you? Or more precisely... what are you?"
Jacob simply smiled, completely relaxed as he looked at her. "Wait. I'll deal with you in a moment."
Cora glared at him. "What are you waiting for?"
Jacob said, "I need to call Allison and the others to join in on the fun. Otherwise, if I take out a demon and a few necromancers without them, I am never going to hear the end of it—especially from Malia and Dany. And also, I need Cogman to tell me what kind of demon we're dealing with."
He contacted his wives telepathically, asking who wanted to join in the fun. Except for Melissa, who was currently busy at the hospital, every single one of them enthusiastically accepted.
Jacob lifted his hand, casually tearing open a portal directly to Serendell.
Within seconds, Allison, Lydia, Malia, Sansa, and Daenerys appeared from it, along with Cogman, Arya, Missandei, Erica, and Kitty.
To be continued… 😊