Chapter 32: Requiem

A new feeling assailed me after I took control of the conscious. I still yearn to kill Alastair and all his students, yet this mysterious sensation slammed my chest whenever I reached the professors dorm. It reminded me of pain and fear but also humiliation. The sensation overwhelmed my immediate desire, so after I harvested several metals, I turn my attention towards the soul forge. (guilt)

With my enhanced physical form, I leap from each rooftop. My vision fills with stone as I land on each expanse, and my legs propel my body on all fours with a speed unknown to humans. Whenever I jump, the force on my body multiplies pulling my skin down as I fly upward, and weightlessness soon follows before I land. My physical dominance floods me like drinking ichor and eating ambrosia.

Once I reach the soul forge, I morph myself before I crawl across the roof and walls using each of my six limbs and my hardened claws for hooking into the stone. As I squeeze through a vent hidden on the side of the building, the lights of torches dance across campus as though a rainbow of will o wisps litter the earth and sides of the buildings.

Despite my revulsion at the human’s manipulation of souls, they create splendor with their workings at least. The walls of the corridor force the elongation of my body, but the process requires the simple reorganization of my bones as I move.

Without guards, entering the building proves effortless, and I reach a golem who stands ready for commands after I crawl through the piles of iron plates and tools. I reach out to the construct touching the trapped soul, but I find a rather pleasant spirit greeting me.

The soul shimmers white and blue like a lake reflecting the sun with the ripples of white to match. After a moment’s analysis, I learn the soul belonged to a large mammal that feeds upon grass. Probing through its thoughts, I discern the production of milk as well, so I assume it’s a cow.

However, this creature owned larger horns and a prominent bony ridge that supported its low hanging skull. Either way, the significant changes to its soul prove small. Rather than decimating the entities like those used for gemchains, the alterations involve pacifying the creature’s aggression while amplifying its obedience.

While still wrong, I can ignore such tampering. This lifts a weight from my shoulders, but the souls of the veery and wren lash out even now. They stress the necessity of my actions, so I check three more golems in case that particular specimen contradicts the normal state of the others. After verifying my conclusion, I leave the soul forge through the way I came.

As I crawl across the outer wall, the urge to monitor the girl I healed strikes me. I leap from the edge of the wall morphing myself as gravity accelerates me to the ground. I crash against the earth booming a loud WHOMP. Cracks form around my feet as they dig into the ground, but I absorb the impact with a smooth crouch.

As I stand up, I yank my feet from the ground one at a time. I stomp my landing marks until my footprints become unrecognizable before I dash across campus on all fours. By exploiting my reinforced scent, I evade students as I reach the hospital.

The white stone with blue windows matches the theme of most buildings of the city below Mareovosa, but the patches of shining orange complement the windows while the blocks of stone interlock with crosses as if thousands of stone + signs formed the building.

I crawl across the roof scraping stone as I do so. I follow her scent until I reach a window.

As I peer through, a healthy young girl peers back at me. I reel back in surprise as she places her hand on her chin while squinting her eyes. She spreads her arms mouthing, “What are you.”

I roll my eyes before I leap from the building. As two seconds pass, I morph to Jack’s normal form before I collide into the ground shattering the earth underneath me. I stand in two small craters with my feet lodged a foot into the ground.

I sigh as I rend my limbs from the dirt jostling the debris from my skin. I lean downwards morphing back to my four legged form with long arms and a sleek waist covered in muscle that pulls my arms and legs together as I move.

Within seconds, I arrive at the gem chaining building. Luke’s correct, that name is a mouthful. I crawl up the walls slithering into a moldy vent. The moisture the humans let off must support this ecosystem, so I harvest the organic material for consumption with bone shavers I form. The sour, soggy mold fills my mouth, and I enjoy the taste before I creep into a room.

A worker cleans the room with a bucket of water and a rag. I wriggle up to him before I knock the edge of his jaw with my knuckle from behind. The worker falls down like a flopping corpse before I walk past his heaped frame.

The gentle pulsing of his heart still sounds in my ears, so I inspect the back room for charged gems. After scrounging through innumerable swords, shields, and target dummies, I identify a thick, iron door rusting on the sides and embroidered with images of fire and death. The door owns no lock as twelve blocky hinges surround the frame.

I spray acid on the upper hinges while grasping a heavy metal hammer. The corroding iron hits my nose with the caustic smell of fermenting lemons, and I slam the hammer against the hinges with all my power. A boom sounds with each strike while my arms numb from the vibrations, but I continue despite the discomfort.

After five minutes of coating a hinge with acid and beating the weakened metal, the hinge snaps with a loud tang that resonates through the room. Afterwards, I leverage a sword in the opening. Sweat pours from my body as I redden under the strain of my exertion, but I bend the bulky iron slab after ten minutes of exhaustion.

An opening wide enough for an arm to fit through allows my entry while a dozen bent swords clutter the floor. As I slither through the doorway, the shifting of a body echoes through the room, so I hasten my squeezing.

The sound grows louder right after I cram myself into the room breaking most of my bones in the process. Endless pain racks my body, yet the suffering of the souls within me dwarfs my own, so I force myself through the process disregarding my own pain. Right before the worker walks into the room, I grab the single lamp’s burning core launching the object into the room revealing its contents.

Time prevented me from numbing my nerves, but at least I chose the correct room and what a treasure the room hides. Glass encapsulates useless gems that cover shelves of polished wood, but the jewels contain priceless souls.

The gem’s glow and quality determines the size and destructive potential of the previous creature within revealing souls of all kinds. I pulverize the glass covering the gems as the core’s light fades without a soul powering it. The sound of shuffling footsteps creeps through the crack in the door as I place my hand on each gem absorbing the soul within.

Tears fall from my eyes as the persecuted soul’s anguish fills me. The maelstrom of madness envelops me, but I mimic the most willful being I’ve ever known. I grit my teeth. I measure my mettle. I do not relent. I do not falter. Clenching my fists, I bleed from my fingers that dig into my skin, yet I persevere.

The souls’ suffering grows as I reach the back of the long room until I reach the last gem. A purple slab of alexandrite as large as the one that powers the tree golem leaks tendrils of evil and malice, but I slam my hand onto the gem engulfing its contents before I may cower away.

A swarm of souls concusses into consolidation along with a fragment of an entity so massive and so immense, my own comprehension fails to fathom its boundaries. The malevolent force collides into my own will with overwhelming power and explosive force cracking my conscious.

Before my mind fractures, I force Jack awake. After he's aware, all that I am devotes itself to the obstruction of this creature. The chaos shatters Jack's sleepy stupor. His will begins cracking at the sides of the force with such intensity that my and Jack’s previous struggle pales at our current battle. Jack grinds and minces against the malevolent force with his iron will with power I’ve yet seen.

Yet our wills shake under the weight of the monster’s dominance. Cracks form as Jack strains against the beast with a vicious set of attacks greater than my own, yet he falters as the beast replies in kind. My own will stabilizes and steadies his efforts, but even my own never ending will begins to shatter.

Before we crumble to ruin, I thunder, “Jack, think of all you’ve gained. Remember the yearning of your parents. Remember the love of Joan. Remember her smile. Remember Luke’s acceptance. Remember me.

But most of all, remember the loneliness after your parent’s death.”

With desperation bordering madness, Jack’s discipline strains beyond my comprehension. The wills of two leviathans crash against one another with the intensity of eruptions. The behemoth continues its carnage, yet we weather its onslaught returning our own hurricane of hellish defiance.

The edges of our mind fissure under the effort of the creature. With each breath, our oppression grows until the dreadnought before us threatens our existence with oblivion. Our teeth break as we bite down. The bones of our fingers snap as we clench without limit. Muscles and tendons snap as we strain under our labor, yet the ancient mind persists.

Jack and I endure, yet our wills wane. Clefts in our minds become chasms as the force crushes us. Before I give in, Jack bellows with vehement vivacity, “Remember the tarantula slime. Remember your failure. Remember your resolve. You are a force of nature. You are unstoppable...You are my friend.”

An emotion saturates my soul as I resolve myself. I would rather become a shattered mind than a hollow shell under this calamity’s dominion. After several minutes of continued struggle, the will of the creature roars with a voice that powders rock and bones, “If you wish for freedom with such tenacity, then I shall grant it.”

The force halts with immediate dismissal, and our body falls to the ground while we remain wary of the creature’s mercy. The being continues its appeal,

“You have shown yourself able. In all my existence, I have never seen souls defy me for so long nor so fiercely. I will harbor myself in your mind as you wish, but realize this. I am no slave.”

Jack roars, “Neither are we.”

Silence greets his proclamation, and we lay for many minutes sprawled on the floor gasping for breath as we repair the injuries we sustained during our conflict. A pool of blood soaks the stone underneath us as a familiar voice shouts through the doorway,

“Alright cretin. Get the fuck out or else we’ll make your death slow and painful.”

I reply growling to disguise my voice, “Whatever you’ve stored in this alexandrite sure seems ancient. It would be a shame if I smashed it.”

Petra shouts, “DO NOT touch that remnant. It contains a portion of the holy soul of Gaia. If you so much as breathe on it, every moment of your existence will be bathed in excruciating torment.”

I hiss, “Then come stop me, wretch.”

The sound of snapping trees breaks through the air with an unbroken constancy. The door blurs as the rumble of sound augments until I cry in pain. The pressure of the room lowers as my ears pop, and the distortion of the door grows until all that I see writhes back and forth.

With a meteoric detonation, the door bends right before the four hundred pound block of metal slams into the wall embedding itself in the stone with a BOOM-CRUNCH. I coat myself in keratin plates growing two limbs across my sides while Jack grows claws that clasp into the stone allowing me to crawl on the roof.

With a tail as my final adjustment, I slink over the walls onto the roof with the my feet chipping stone with a sound that chinks the air. I move as a serpent overhead while Petra pours into the room emitting light and power from her shining armor.

I slam my tail across her chest knocking her down. As she begins standing back up I grab three souls before I frenzy out of the room with zealous steps. Spears glance off my carapace as several shards of ice and even distortions in gravity assail my frame.

They burst my organs with their gravity pits inside me, and the ice stabs into me splitting outwards into my flesh. As I move, the sharpened icicles slice my flesh into slithers, yet I continue to squirm across the roof until I reach the vent. I shove myself into the tunnel as spears stab me.

I reach upwards laughing at my escape, but a hand stronger than steel grabs my tale yanking me back downwards. My claws rip from the stone as I fall, but I stab my arms outwards into the walls ending my descent.

Before another jerk rips me from the wall, Jack grows a large claw from our leg slamming the blade against my tail. The strike slices the appendage freeing me from their grasp while I spit acid onto my torn tail melting the flesh. If they can harvest partial souls from a tarantula slimes arm, then they may do the same to me.

As I escape, Petra snarls, “You fucking demon. We will find you, and we will kill you.”

Once outside, I leap from the vent morphing my body to Jack’s human one. As I sprint across the ground, footsteps reveal my position, so I jump from my position onto a nearby roof. The euphoria of before fills me as I fly through the air landing on stone. With pounding stomps, I dash across rooftops towards my dorm before I land on the dorm’s roof.

I wobble as my exhaustion begins to surface, but I scramble to the room under the mask of darkness. As I fall unconscious, Jack returns to conscious thinking,

“Never a dull moment.”