Chapter 5: Wriggling, Writhing Spirals

Chapter 5:
Wriggling, Writhing Spirals

 

SEVERAL HOURS after the battle finally ended, Flum showed back up at the door to find a waiting Milkit.

“Master!!” Milkit dove into Flum’s arms and buried her face in her chest. Flum returned the embrace, gently running her fingers through her hair.

“Sorry to worry you.”

“That doesn’t matter, I’m just so glad you’re safe, Master.” Milkit rubbed her cheek against Flum’s chest, causing a gentle, comfortable warmth to fill her heart.

“You really are close, aren’t you?” Ottilie watched the exchange between the two with a feeble spark of envy in her eyes. Eterna, from her place behind Milkit, nodded in agreement.

 

***

 

A short time later, Flum sat down at the table with Ottilie, Eterna, and Milkit to regale them with the tale of her day.

Though things calmed down a bit once Ottilie ordered the soldiers stationed at the castle to clean up the area, it was going to be difficult to entirely clear Flum’s name among the denizens of the West District. Dein had done irreparable damage to Flum’s reputation in the area. No matter how unfair it might have been, that was the reality of it.

“That’s dreadful. I wish you’d told me about what you were dealing with, especially with how bad it got.”

“I’m sorry. I never figured it’d come to this.”

“Who could anticipate something like that? Blamed for a crime you didn’t commit and then chased up and down the West District by a whole garrison gone crooked? It nearly defies belief.”

Apparently, the local commander and several of his soldiers had enjoyed the companionship of several young girls with connections to Dein.

“I’m just glad you were able to make your way back safe and sound, Master.”

“That’s because I knew you were here waiting for me, Milkit. I just had to come back.”

Milkit’s cheeks burned red under the bandages. “Master…”

Flum was telling the truth. If it wasn’t for that thought driving her on, she likely would’ve let her desperation take over.

“Of course, the Souleater’s regenerative effects helped a lot, too.”

“That’s due to the Reversal attribute’s effect on negative enchantments, right? Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of cursed equipment being used for a purpose other than torture.”

“I only learned about it recently myself.”

“If only you’d figured it out during your journey. I’m sure you would’ve never been sold in that case.”

“I don’t know. In a way, it was a good thing. Or at least, I’ve started to see it that way.”

Eterna looked taken aback to hear this.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Flum said. “It’s not like I wanted to get sold! But I’m starting to think this power is why I was tapped to join the other heroes.”

“I could see that,” said Eterna. “Otherwise, it really doesn’t make sense for someone with zeroed out stats across the board to come along.”

“You’re saying the church might’ve wanted to get their hands on that kind of power?” Ottilie said. “If that’s the case, I can take you there myself.”

“I dunno. I feel like there must be some reason I need to go to the Demon Lord’s castle myself.” Flum had no clue what that reason might be, but it was pretty obvious that the church was plotting something. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. “Even if I discovered my powers during the journey, it’s possible the church might have done even more to limit my movements. Which doesn’t mean I’m ready to forgive Jean, of course.”

“Of course not.”

The passing thought of Jean made her return to imagining the beautiful click his jaw would make once it received the haymaker she had in mind for him.

“So, umm…” Ottilie paused for a moment before speaking up, a look of concern on her face. “You don’t suspect the church of something, do you?”

“I…uhh, well, I…” Flum faltered.

Even considering the church and military’s strained relationship, a lieutenant general like Ottilie doubtless had close connections to the royal family, who were strict adherents of the church of Origin. It seemed best to keep her issues with the church to herself.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Ottilie said. “I have my own issues with the church. In fact, that’s what brought me out to the West District in the first place.”

“Oh, really?”

“When the kingdom unified the southern reach, all of our non-demon rivals were pretty much done for. We lost a lot of influence after that first sortie into demon country thirty years ago. Since then, the royal family’s relied more and more on the church. It’s gotten to a point where the church now wields power to match, and perhaps even surpass, the throne.”

Milkit looked concerned by this revelation. “The church is that powerful?”

Ottilie nodded solemnly before continuing. “Hardly anything comes to us about their activity. Even my sister Henriette, a general of the royal army, can’t stand up against them. However, one thing has become clear.”

She clenched her fist. Her voice grew strained as she continued. “The church is conducting clandestine experiments in pursuit of some sort of tremendous power. They want a second invasion, and the journey to destroy the Demon King is part of that plan.”

Flum averted her gaze. “So the journey was just…”

“It’s just a theory for now, but I’m confident there’s evidence here in the capital of their experiments. My sister’s been working fruitlessly to investigate this for a long time, so I decided I would do whatever I could to help her out.”

Thinking back, Flum realized Ottilie had been vague when asked what she was doing in the capital. All she said was that she was there for her sister. In that sense, she’d been telling the truth.

Flum cast a glance Eterna and Milkit’s way to see how they were responding to Ottilie’s impassioned speech. More importantly, she wanted to know their thoughts on sharing what they knew. The other two women nodded in agreement. Ottilie could be trusted.

“Actually, we ran across some of the church’s monsters out near a small village called Anichidey,” Flum said.

“What?!”

Flum went on to explain everything that happened in the research facility. Ottilie listened with great fascination, taking in every word. Once Flum was finished, she sat there in silence for several moments.

“I believe the church has multiple teams of researchers,” she said at last. “That place you found was probably just one of their labs.”

“So there are more just like it?”

Flum was beginning to realize she was up against something far greater than she originally imagined. Ottilie, meanwhile, seemed surprised to have her fears both confirmed and then expanded on.

Eterna grinned and sipped at her tea, looking like she was giving something great thought. Milkit looked over at Flum, clearly worried for her master.

It was Ink coming down from the second floor that broke the all-consuming silence. The young girl had already become fairly well acquainted with the layout of the house and could navigate it with ease, even without the benefit of sight.

“I can tell Flum’s back, but what is that other voice I’m hearing?” she asked.

“That’s right. I’m back, Ink. Glad to see you.”

“Welcome back, Flum. Soooo…who’s the other person?”

Ottilie tensed up. Understandably—Ink was pretty jarring to look at. “Wh-who’s that?”

“Dein’s men were harassing her; I was in the neighborhood. She ran away from somewhere, but we’re not exactly sure where, so she’s staying with us for now.”

Ink excitedly waved her hand in the air. “Yup, I’m staying here!”

She was always quite energetic right after she woke. It added a certain warmth to the household, livening the mood.

“Hey, Ink, come here for a sec.”

“Huh?”

Eterna walked over to Ink, put her arms around the younger girl from behind, and then lifted her and headed to the stairs.

“Whoa, I’m floating! But why are you taking me back upstairs? I just came down to get something to drink, ya know!”

“Listen, I have all the water you could possibly need. That’s no problem.”

“Huh, you mean your magic, right? I dunno if I wanna drink that!”

“Don’t be so picky. Besides, it’s far cleaner and safer than what you could get out here.”

“Yeah, but it kinda tastes like you, Eterna.”

“Does not.”

The two slowly returned to the second floor, continuing their friendly banter the whole way. Before Eterna left, she gave Flum a glance, silently communicating that she wanted Flum to tell Ottilie all about Ink, and that she would take the girl somewhere she couldn’t hear it. She’d grown awfully protective of Ink lately.

“So who was that kid?”

“Her name’s Ink Wreathcraft. That’s the most concrete thing we know.”

“Even if some disease took a toll on her eyes, no normal person would sew them shut like that. Some kind of abuse?”

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Flum said. At least, Ink never made any mention of abuse. In fact, her whole reason for running away from home was that she felt an odd disconnect with the people she lived with. “I spoke with a friend of mine in the church, and she said she hadn’t heard anything about kids in an orphanage going missing. The guild didn’t have any jobs mentioning anything like that, either.”

“Hmm. So you think she has something to do with the church’s research?”

Flum frowned slightly and nodded. Ink still hadn’t told them the full story, so she couldn’t be completely confident at this point, but every time she looked at Ink’s eyes, church involvement was the only logical answer she arrived at.

“According to Ink, she lived together with four other kids, all around eight years old, and a caregiver known as Mother. There was apparently someone she calls Papa around somewhere, too.”

“Mother and Papa, huh? Seems pretty obvious they’re trying to keep their names under wraps, though I have to admit it doesn’t exactly ring any bells.”

“Darn…”

“Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help. I highly doubt Echidna or Dafydd would go by code names like that.”

“Who are Echidna and Dafydd?”

“Researchers who are always coming and going between the cathedral and castle. Considering how hard they work to keep a low profile, I’m almost certain there are other teams, too.”

“If you know their names, then maybe we could just follow them back to find this Mother person?”

“No.” Ottilie shot down Flum’s hopes right at once. “If you’re not careful, you’ll disappear, too.”

“What?” Flum was at a loss for words. This wasn’t a threat, nor was Ottilie joking. Someone else probably already met such a fate.

“It’s not that simple,” Ottilie said. “I’d follow them myself if I could, but if the royal family found out, I’d probably be strung up on some set of false charges.”

“So they’re beyond the reach of even a lieutenant general?”

“That’s the reality. That’s what my sister’s been fretting over.”

The church had clearly made substantial gains in power base if they could cause a general such concern.

“They also spend a lot of time out of the capital,” Ottilie continued. “I wonder if they might have some connection to what went on today?”

“Hmm…in that case, why did you decide to come out and look around the West District?”

“It’s a place where they could work while easily covering their tracks. If they’re conducting research somewhere in a government facility or church, then they’d need to move equipment in and out. I figured the Western District was the most probable location—lots of discreet options, and it’s not closely watched by the central government.”

The Central and North districts had constant heavy foot traffic to worry about, and as Sara pointed out earlier, any misstep in the East District could bring the wrath of its upper-crust inhabitants down on your head. That pretty much only left the West District.

“Anyway, I’m happy to know there are others out there who share my suspicions about the church,” Ottilie said. “I plan to continue my own independent research into the situation, but I hope we can continue to share information.”

“Of course! I’m glad to have more allies, too, and especially one as great as yourself, Ottilie.”

The two clasped hands and shook on it.

Eterna had been chosen for the heroes more for her raw power than her focus. Paired with Flum they might be unstoppable—so long as Flum could keep her interested. As much as Flum would have liked to count Sara as one of their own, at the end of the day, she was still part of the church and didn’t want to lose her position. Ottilie’s help was a game changer.

With that out of the way, Ottilie had to return to the castle to report on the day’s events. Flum and Milkit walked her to the door, where she took a few steps out before turning around to look back at Flum. “Ah, there’s one last important thing I wanted to share with you.”

She jogged back to Flum and, making sure no one was nearby, leaned in close. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“There are others like us out there. People who don’t trust the church, who are conducting their own investigations.”

“Others? You mean, outside of the army?”

“I don’t know them personally, but they exist. There’s at least a few. I don’t know if we can consider them allies yet, so I recommend you play it safe.” With that, Ottilie pulled her white coat back on and left the house behind.

 

***

 

Later that evening, as the sun hung low in the sky and cast an orange glow across the West District, Sara showed up at Flum’s house again. Within a short time of her arrival, she and Ink were in the bath together.

It started out simply enough, with Sara chattering casually as she relaxed around the house. “Last time I came over for dinner, I was so late getting back home, I didn’t even have time to take a bath before bed.”

“Then why don’t you take one here?” Ink responded immediately.

She’d started talking and acting like she considered the house her own at this point. It was impressive how quickly she’d adapted. At any rate, things snowballed from there, and before long…

“Cut it out, Ink! That tickles!”

“Soooorry. I can’t see, you know.”

“Your sight’s got nothing to do with it!”

Flum smiled to herself at the voices drifting from the bathroom as she searched the kitchen for a clean knife.

“It seems like those two have grown quite close,” Milkit said.

Flum chuckled. “Yeah, the house really brightens up whenever she’s here.”

Milkit seemed to be enjoying herself as she fussed over a pot on the stove, though it had little to do with the goings-on between Ink and Sara. She just enjoyed cooking together with Flum.

“So you just need me to dice up the boar meat, yeah?”

“Right. It’s going into a stew, so cut it up however you see fit, Master.”

“Gotcha, I’ll cut it a bit on the large side then. Don’t often get to eat candy boar, so I wanna be able to really sink my teeth in with each bite.”

A candy boar was a C-Rank monster that looked akin to a wild boar but much larger. It was just as strong as it looked, yet far faster than its immense size suggested. Killing such a beast was no easy task. Its main flaw was the fact that it was slow to turn, mostly plowing straight ahead, though it more than made up for that with its area-of-effect earth magic.

The “candy” part of its name came from the species’ sweet tooth. The boars were often seen eating sugarcane, fruits, honey, and other sugar-rich foods, which lent a sweet taste to their meat, making it a delicacy.

“Isn’t C-Rank monster meat really expensive?” Flum asked. “In fact, I remember hearing that candy boars were usually nowhere near the capital.”

“It was about to expire soon, so I was able to buy it for half off. Even then, it wasn’t cheap. Did I spend too much?”

“Don’t worry about it. At half price, that makes it cheaper than goat or buffalo, and besides, candy boar is really tasty. Just looking at it now makes me hungry.”

“Oh, please don’t eat it before I have a chance to cook it. You’ll get sick, Master.”

Flum laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not that crazy.”

They talked all through dinner prep until Sara and Ink finally got out of the bath. Ink made a mad dash out of the changing room, tracking water into the rest of the house. Eterna dove in and wrapped the girl in a towel. “Hey, you’re soaking wet!”

“But I’m hungry!!”

“It’s not even ready yet. Just calm down and wait a bit.”

Ink and Eterna almost seemed like sisters with their constant back and forth, though their age difference would put them closer to mother and daughter.

“I’m tellin’ ya, kids have a lot of energy…” Sara looked exhausted as she slumped down into her chair and rested her head on the table.

“If she’s what you’d consider a kid, Sara, I guess that puts the rest of us past our prime.”

“Not just youth then, I guess. Ink’s just really, really energetic.”

Ever since moving into the house, every day had been filled with new experiences for Ink. Each passing second was another fresh, exciting stimulus, so it wasn’t hard to imagine she’d be in constant sensory overload.

“Mmm, something smells amazing! I’m huuuungry!”

“Hold it, your hair’s still not dry.”

“Can’t you do it later?”

“Of course not. Listen, it’ll just take a moment, so please sit still.”

“Okaaaaay!”

Eterna gently toweled Ink’s hair dry. It took Flum by surprise to see just how tender Eterna was with her, though now that she thought back, Eterna had always helped Flum out whenever she was in need during their journey. Her offhand speech patterns and laid-back personality—not to mention her fashion sense—caused many to mistake her for cold and aloof. In truth, Eterna was a kind person.

 

***

 

Dishes of candy boar stew, salad, and baguettes lined the table. The three women, followed shortly by Ink, put their hands together to bless their meal.

The food was a lot simpler than the last time they came together for dinner, but it was just as delicious. The stew, in particular, was absolutely mind-blowing. With each oversized bite, the juicy boar meat melted beautifully into the stew, filling Flum’s mouth with the perfect blend of savory and sweet. Using her tongue to press the meat up against the roof of her mouth, she managed to squeeze out even more of the delightful juices before chewing and swallowing.

Next, she tore a piece off the baguette and dipped it into the stew. She topped it off with a piece of boar meat and shoved it right in her mouth. The stew-soaked bread disintegrated in her mouth, once again bombarding her taste buds with glee. The bread’s crisp crust and note of salt added a whole new dimension to the dish.

“Wow…”

“Delishus!!”

“I feel like I’ve been introduced to a whole new world!”

Eterna, Ink, and Sara were completely bowled over by the stew. Milkit beamed at the praise. She derived far more pleasure from watching people eat something she made than actually eating it herself.

Flum looked over and caught Milkit’s gaze.

“Do you like it?”

Flum shot back a thumbs up. “It’s amazing. You’re the best wife one could ask for, Milkit.”

“I’m just happy that you enjoy it, Master.”

“All right, that settles it. I guess you’re my wife from now on!”

Milkit’s face burned red. “What?? I, I…but that’s so sudden…”

She’d meant it as a joke, but apparently, Milkit took it quite seriously. Flum laughed and plunged her spoon back into the stew.

 

***

 

After dinner, while everyone was sitting down to relax for the night, Sara turned her attention to Flum and Eterna. Something was bothering her. “You two traveled with Maria, didn’t you?”

She was almost certainly referring to their travel companion and her adoptive elder sister, Maria Affenjenz.

“Yes…”

“How was she doing? Was she happy?”

“We didn’t talk a whole lot, so I can’t really say.”

“It always felt like she was hiding something from me.”

“Hiding something…huh.” Sara didn’t seem all that surprised. “Maria holds an important position in the church. She knows a lot about what’s going on.”

“I wonder if she knows about the things we witnessed in Anichidey?”

“It’s possible. Actually, I’d say it’s very likely that the clergy know about it.” Sara looked dejected. “But the idea that Maria would be involved in something like that…”

The Maria she knew was kind, warm; the perfect image of a holy woman, and the perfect role model for an aspiring nun like Sara. She didn’t want to believe that the woman she admired would have anything to do with sacrificing people in the name of research.

In a way, it was an indictment against the entirety of the church. In public, they were an organization devoted to bringing people to salvation. In private, they worked to consolidate their power base. Even Sara knew that.

“I just wish I knew who was lying and who was telling the truth. The more I think about it, the more my head starts to hurt.”

“I don’t know either. That’s why I need to hunt down the truth.”

“The truth…”

Whatever that truth was, it was practically guaranteed to be far worse than Flum could imagine. Not a single good thing had come of what they’d learned so far, but she couldn’t help but sense that remaining ignorant would do her no favors in the long run.

“I guess it’s the only real choice we got. I’ll do whatever I can to help ya,” Sara said.

“You don’t have to, you know. There are some things you’re better off not knowing.”

“I can’t accept that. I won’t be happy until I’ve got everything completely sorted out.”

“I guess you’re along for the ride.”

“Looks that way. Anyway, first thing tomorrow I’ll get right down to seeing what I can find out!”

“Don’t overdo it, okay?”

“Same goes for you, Flum. I heard about everything that happened today. Don’t forget that Dein’s still out on the loose, and wherever he is, you know he’s up to no good.”

He was injured, sure, but not enough to be fatal. Besides, there were tons of places he could hide out in the West District. The whole place was practically his backyard.

“The problem,” Flum said, “is that even if I do figure out what rock he slithered under and report him to the authorities, they wouldn’t charge him with anything.”

“Why’s that?”

“He never actually tried to kill me himself. All he technically did was set the whole sequence of events in motion, which means there’s practically no proof that he was even involved. Even Ottilie said they probably couldn’t do anything.”

“Looks like he found a way out again, huh?”

Flum and Sara sighed in unison.

He’d built his whole little empire on cunning; it wouldn’t fall apart all at once. Not that he’d made it out completely unscathed, either. Now that he and his crew were catching heat from the army, they couldn’t count on outside support.

But that brought with it new concerns: what would a wild animal do once backed up against a wall?

 

***

 

Dein’s shoulders heaved as he struggled to catch his breath. “I…can’t believe…that little punk…managed to do that to me.”

He’d found his way back to his hideout, weaving through neighborhoods he knew by heart. The perfect place to lay low and lick his wounds. The injuries Flum and Ottilie managed to inflict upon him during his escape were a lot worse than he thought. Though they were only glancing wounds, the Genocide Arts greatly restricted his movement, and the blow from the massive sword left behind a pretty significant gash—in his thigh, no less.

He’d lost a lot of blood, but he couldn’t visit a church for healing. All he could do was bandage up and dip into his herb stash. He narrowly avoided bleeding out, but it left him deathly pale and drenched in sweat. His head ached, and he struggled to stay conscious. It’d be some time until he fully recovered.

“Damn them, damn them all! I’m not going to just take this lying down.”

If anything, this only further solidified his desire to crush Flum. Dein’s mind raced as he began plotting out his next plan of action. The seed of the idea was something he’d had for a while already. He slowly pulled himself back up to his feet, leaning against the wall for support, and made his way to the door.

This was no time to sleep. He needed to gather his men and put his next plan into motion. He reached out for the door and then froze as the knob turned and someone made their way inside.

It was one of Dein’s supporters.

“You made it back. Was worried about you, boss.”

“Heh, so you came looking for me. That’s great timing. I was about to put my next plan into mo…whoa!” Dein tumbled forward, but the other man caught him and offered his shoulder for Dein to lean on. “Thanks.”

“It’s nothin’. Anyway, what’s our next move?”

“We’re going to gather our forces and launch a decisive attack. But before we can do that, we need to bring someone else into the fold.”

“You really gonna try that? The first time you brought this up, it was supposed to take a lot more time.”

The two slowly made their way out of the hideout as they spoke.

“I’ve already got a lot of the preparations done. It should be doable, with some work.” Dein’s lips curled up into a sinister grin. His breathing was ragged, and his eyes were filled with an impenetrable hatred for Flum. “To the church! With them eating out of my hand, I can crush that Flum Apricot once and for all!”

His compatriot’s reaction was more reserved. “That would’ve been great, yeah.”

“Huh?”

They stepped through the threshold. On the other side was a squad of soldiers from the Central District.

“You bastard! You sold me out?!”

The man shot Dein a sly grin. “I’m just a street rat, remember, Dein? I ain’t got no loyalty. You really should’ve known that.”

Not all of Dein’s men had turned on him, of course. Those who were particularly close to him were probably doing their best to find him right now, but they were in the minority.

“You lying, cheating, son of a…”

“Nah, I’m just a realist, Dein. There’s no value following a guy who gets beat by a little kid like that. Now I’m going to walk the path of the righteous with the good ol’ royal military.”

“Rot in hell!!!”

“Whoa, hey the…gaaaaaaaaugh!”

A person with nothing left to lose is a formidable enemy indeed. Despite his awful state, Dein drew his knife and stabbed out the man’s right eye, eliciting a blood-curdling scream from his erstwhile ally.

The soldiers rushed to detain him, but he was able to fire his wire hook into a nearby roof in time to make his escape. The desire to live gave him just enough energy to forget the sheer exhaustion that had taken over his body—but only for a moment.

Dein wheezed. “I’ll destroy you, Flum Apricot. Just you wait and see!”

His hatred came from a place deeper, older, and fouler than the rational mind could reach. He clenched his blood-drenched fists as he ran through the darkened streets, his eyes bloodshot.

Alas, he had no way of knowing that decision was the beginning of his end.

 

***

 

The next day, Flum woke to the sound of breakfast being made downstairs.

The morning was so tranquil that it was hard to believe the events of the previous day had occurred. She lazily made her way down the stairs, rubbing the backs of her hands against her eyes in an attempt to wake up. She found a smiling Milkit dressed in an apron waiting to greet her.

“Good morning, Master.”

A sense of relief washed over Flum when she checked the mail and confirmed that there were no more posters hung up outside their house. A short time later, Eterna and Ink came downstairs to join them at the table.

According to Eterna, Ink put forth a strong argument last night that she wasn’t a kid anymore, and way too old to be sharing a bed, so she and Eterna slept in separate rooms. It sounded precisely like something a kid would say, but everyone thought better of saying so in front of their young companion.

After breakfast, everyone split up to carry out their own activities for the day. Flum was flat-out exhausted from the events of the previous day, so she decided to cancel her plans to go to the guild. Instead, she sat down across from Milkit and the two talked the morning away. Eterna spent the morning and afternoon in her room hip-deep in research while Ink alternated between vying for Eterna’s room and quietly entertaining herself.

After a quick lunch, Flum and Milkit went to the Central Market. Once their fun (albeit uneventful) shopping trip was over, they made their way home, prepared dinner, and got ready for sleep.

It was, in every possible sense, an unremarkable day. As she lay in bed drifting off to sleep, Flum thought about how great it would be to live out the rest of her days that way.

 

***

 

In the middle of the night, long after everyone was already fast asleep, a man’s feral screams broke the silence that had settled over the West District.

“Stay back! Stay baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!”

The man looked to be in his mid-twenties and was dressed in light armor and a cloak, looking in all respects like any other adventurer. Armed with only an axe, he watched uncertainly as a crowd of attackers closed in on him. He didn’t know how to fight back.

Were they normal humans, or even monsters for that matter, he’d have some idea. But his pursuers were eyeballs. Human eyeballs, to be more exact, bouncing and rolling after him. They filled the streets, surrounded buildings, and poured over rooftops like a tidal wave in their ceaseless pursuit.

The man took a step back and felt his back touch a cold stone wall. There was nowhere left to run.

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!” He dropped to the ground and screamed, resigned to his impending demise. A dark spot formed at the crotch of his pants as terror took over his body.

Something in the back of his mind fought on, and he swept his axe back and forth in a feeble attempt to save himself. Squoosh. Squoosh. Squoosh. The axe smashed open the oncoming eyeballs, drenching the sunbaked stones that paved the streets in aqueous humor. Warm droplets cast off from the axe splattered his body.

The endless procession of eyes reached his knees, then his thighs, then his lower back, climbing higher and higher until they engulfed him.

He felt no pain.

He groaned and choked as the eyeballs filled his every orifice. It was a sensation like nothing else he’d experienced before. Once his body was full, a new arm began to grow out of him. He could feel it, and even move it, just as if it were any other part of him. In fact, it was in every respect like all his other appendages.

“Aaugh… Aaaaaaah!!”

The man was one of Dein’s closest allies, whom Dein had immediately sought out after escaping from his hideout, confident that he could trust this man. Dein issued him an order: threaten a member of the church and see how they respond.

The intimidation went off without a hitch, and the man was on his way back to Dein’s new hideout when he suddenly spotted a lone eyeball on the street. That was the beginning of the end for him.

Slowly but surely, the eyes’ numbers increased. No matter how fast he ran, they multiplied at such a rate that he couldn’t get away. Before he knew it, the street was blocked. His next turn down an alley sealed his fate: it was a dead end.

The alley filled with eyeballs, they surrounded and filled his body, and then he gained a new arm. It had the cadence of a nightmare. What was he fighting against? No matter how many times he asked himself that question, he kept coming up blank.

More eyeballs poured onto him and seeped into his body. It didn’t hurt, but it terrified him. If it hurt, he would have been too preoccupied to feel fear.

“Grrrraaaaaaaoooooowwwl!!”

A second thumb sprouted out of his right hand, followed by a third leg. His stomach began to bulge awkwardly. He felt a dueling rhythm deep in his chest as two hearts beat slightly out of sync.

He’d grown three new arms, and the eyes kept piling on, this time seeping into his neck.

“Waaaaaugh!!”

“Waaoooooooo!!!”

Two voices screamed in unison as a second, nearly identical head sprouted from his neck, like limbs of a tree growing from the same trunk. A new consciousness filled his body, and it became less clear just who this form belonged to. He no longer had the freedom to try to escape.

If this was revenge for his threats against the church, they were making him pay in spades.

“Cut it out!!”

“Kill me, please!”

“I don’t want to die!!”

“Kill me like I was!!!”

None of that was to be.

The eyes continued to surround and force themselves into his body. A third head wormed out, followed quickly by a fourth. He was starting to lose track of who he was. The transformation of his body and mind was complete.

 

***

 

On being notified that Phile, the man he sent to the church, hadn’t returned, Dein decided to take matters into his own hands. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and besides, just getting up and moving did him some good. Thanks to one of his men’s curative magic, his wounds were much better now. He could walk around unaided.

Try as he might, though, he could find no sign of Phile. Could the church possibly have done away with him?

The way Dein saw it, the church was corrupt to its very core. It was why he figured they’d gladly throw their lot in with him…and if they didn’t, he had plenty of ways to change their minds. Drug up a nun, get one of the priests addicted to something only he could provide… Maybe even pay a woman to get close to a priest or knight and seduce them into joining the fold. His influence would spread through the cathedral like a plague until he was involved in every aspect of its functioning.

He’d been working on this plan for a while. In fact, he had several church knights and priests firmly in his camp already. Recent events, however, had forced him to skip some of the intermediate steps and cut straight to the chase, which was why he sent Phile out to go threaten the church leadership.

“I guess this was always a risk, though,” he muttered to himself.

Were the church as pure and saintly as many were led to believe, there would be no in for him. If they could kill people without a second thought, though, then he should be in good company. It was a shame to lose a good man, but Dein would have Phile to thank for helping to build the foundation of his empire.

“I guess I’ll have to avenge Phile’s death now, too. I’ll keep up the search a bit longer before I call it a day.” Dein chuckled to himself. He slid his hands into his pockets and continued his stroll through the dirty streets.

The still, stifling air of the dusty back streets would probably be unbearable to the upper crust of the East District. They likely wouldn’t even last half an hour. Dein could never imagine living the life of pompous nobility. He’d much rather live it up just as he was, with his idiot comrades, than live in a way that relied on perpetually reinventing himself for the sake of others.

“Hm?” Walking down a road near the West District church, Dein stopped and took a long sniff of the air. It smelled of a fresh corpse, with one major difference: there wasn’t a hint of blood to it. It smelled like sex, waste, and rot.

He let his senses guide him until he turned a corner.

“What in the holy hell…”

The words slipped out of his mouth when he saw the bizarre…thing that lay in front of him. The color of the skin and parts of the anatomy were undeniably human—the hands, the feet, the face—but in a volume and arrangement that made no sense, a sick, writhing mass of a dozen people’s worth of parts.

Dein put his hand over his mouth, suppressing the urge to vomit. Looking closer, he noticed something familiar about the mass of flesh.

“No…no way. Phile?!”

The face was a dead ringer for the man Dein was looking for. He ran to the creature’s side. “Hey, Phile. Phile! It’s me, Dein. What happened to you?? Answer me, Phile!!”

There was no response. The face gurgled as a thick liquid squeezed out of its mouth, nose, and eyes. Its other heads seemed equally unaware of Dein’s presence.

“Ah, Dein. There you…are…?” One of the men who had accompanied Dein on his search stopped at the entrance to the alley the moment he caught sight of the creature. “Whoa!! What in the hell is that thing?!”

“I just stumbled upon it myself. Anyway, take a look at its face.”

“Face? That thing?? I doubt that’d tell me anything but… Hey, wait, is that Phile?!”

“I don’t know what happened here, but it looks like those pigs at the church are a lot worse than I figured.”

“This is the church’s doing??”

“That’s my best guess.”

This surpassed even his worst estimations. Punishing someone by turning them into a bizarre creature like this was beyond the pale. Dein drew his knife, pushed the thrashing limbs aside, and plunged the blade deep into the creature.

“Dein?!” His compatriot immediately lost his composure, but Dein continued with his task. He pulled his knife out and opened up the wound, laying bare the creature’s guts. Dozens of fingers and feet, two hearts, and a pile of parts too numerous and ill-defined to count poured out of the open wound and onto the ground with a wet thump.

Dein scowled and leaned in close.

“Huh, two hearts? Did they just multiply, then?”

He grabbed one of the hearts, cast Scan on it, and quickly confirmed it had Phile’s stats. He tossed it aside, grabbed another body part, and did the same.

What really drew his attention were the countless eyeballs. He was hesitant to touch them, so he just cast Scan from afar this time.

 

Retribution

Affinity: origin

Strength: origin

Magic: origin

Endurance: origin

Agility: origin

Perception: origin

 

Dein scowled at the results.

“What the hell is that? Something must be wrong. Hey, get over here and cast Scan on that eyeball for me.”

Dein turned back to look at his compatriot. The man was tilting his head at a hard right angle to his neck.

“The hell are you doin’? You trying to show off how flexible you are or something? I don’t have time for this crap, just hurry up and cast Scan.”

“Umm, I, uh… Dein, what’s happening to me? I can’t really move my neck or my right arm. Actually, I can’t even really move.”

Taking a closer look, the man’s hand wasn’t exactly holding his head. It was embedded in his neck, up to the wrist. When Dein last looked his way, he’d been running his right hand through his hair. The next moment, he lost control of his entire right arm and his head started to tilt, as if beckoned by his hand.

“Why’re you lookin’ at me like that, Dein? What’s happening to me?? Gah, it h-hurts so bad! But I just can’t… Help me, help me, Dein!!”

Dein watched on in shock as the situation worsened. The man’s arm was now up to the elbow inside his head; his skull began to deform with a sickening squish. His neck was twisted so far to the side that it was going to snap at any moment—and then it did, with a loud snap. A thick, transparent fluid spilled from the man’s mouth, nose, and eyes, drenching the front of his shirt before his body tumbled to the floor.

The transformation wasn’t yet complete. His body continued to be shredded before Dein’s eyes. It only stopped when there was nothing left but the man’s head lying motionless on the ground.

“Just what in the blue blazes is going on here?? What the hell?! Is it some sort of taboo to even get close to the church?? Is that what this is?”

SHLOP.

Dein looked up to see a young boy standing before him. There was a bizarre whirlpool of flesh and muscle tissue where the boy’s face should have been. Blood and fluids sputtered out from the spinning helix, staining his white shirt. The boy stood stock-still, his front soaked completely in blood, and stared at Dein.

“Ha…haha…ha…” Dein’s hollow laugh echoed off the walls of the alley. He could tell this was a battle he wasn’t going to win. “Ha…haha…friends, power, money…none of it matters to you, does it?”

The young boy reached out toward Dein as his screams filled the air.