Chapter 17

Escee Sixty-Six

Elsie contorted as her wrists twisted in a circle. Sixty-Six heard the bones crack in the human’s body. His elf ears flinched at the gruesome crunching sound, his stomach churning as the grotesque sight in front of him. The once human girl turned to face the elves.

With eye-blinking speed, she charged at EE-Thirty. The commander raised her right gauntlet instinctively. Elsie’s vine-corrupted hand grasped the metal, crushing it like machete. EE-Thirty screamed as bone tore through her skin.

The blood that flowed out of her arm tainted the shattered gauntlet that pierced her skin. Bits and pieces of the ulna had dropped to the floor. She whimpered; her once-proud voice leaked out of her lips like a frightened little girl.

She fell on one knee as Elsie still clutched at her arm. Vines wrapped around EE-Thirty’s mangled right arm, or what was left of it, and dragged her to one of the pits.

The stunned Sixty-Six quickly sprung into action, his legs pushed forward with momentum as his right hand brandished a mana-cloaked dagger aimed straight at Elsie’s neck.

Zero-Two and Thirty-Four surrounded Elsie on her left and right sides as Sixty-Six headed straight to her. The two other elves aimed daggers at her shoulders, but the possessed target sprouted vines from her back, snapping the three attacking elves back.

Their bodies flung back; their momentum was so great they were thrown into the air before falling back down violently.

Sixty-Six felt a crack on his right leg. He looked down, a confused expression donned on his face as he saw his lower leg bent backwards. For a few seconds he stared blankly at his deformed leg before a massive sharp pain crawled up his insides, from his leg up to his stomach.

He clenched his teeth, visible veins popped out of his neck, and finally, screamed.

The possessed Elsie acknowledged none of them as she simply deigned to drag the incapacitated EE-Thirty down into the dark below.

Sixty-Six’s mind was so clouded by pain that he didn’t register the screams of pain EE-Thirty howled or even bothered to check the condition of his comrades. He was certain he was going to die here, alone and in the dark, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

EE-Thirty

She felt gravity push her blood down as she dangled helplessly on Elsie’s hand like a captured upside-down chicken.

The ooze on Elsie’s body dripped on EE-Thirty’s skin. It didn’t burn and carried a strong scent of vanilla, probably emanating from the flowers themselves.

Her head started to swim as her sense of balance tilted on an axis like a haywire compass. She realized it then that the barrier covering her had been shattered. For a while now, her lungs had been breathing in unfiltered miasma. The elf’s bloodstream had now been coated with the black mana.

Her free hand clawed desperately at Elsie like a screeching child, paranoia and anxiety beating her heart three times faster. EE-Thirty felt herself getting closer and closer to a heart attack.

So why hadn’t she just plopped dead as soon as Elsie dropped to the fourth bottommost floor? It was the scent of vanilla. That had to be it, EE-Thirty loosely thought with whatever conjoined brain cells she could muster that the strange sweet scent had to be keeping her alive somehow.

She felt another drop, and dull pain shot throughout her entire body as she heard a thud against metal. At that point, EE-Thirty barely felt anything, and she desperately wanted to sleep, but something kept her awake. That damn smell. It wasn’t letting her sleep.

A puppeteered Elsie knelt downward and, with her goo-infested fingers, pried open EE-Thirty’s eyelids, noticing a dilated eye.

Then, she suddenly flung EE-Thirty through a strange curtain-like wall of mana that danced like water. The elf felt her body submerge into something strange, like jello. It tightened around her, slowly consuming her into itself.

Winter solstice personified wrapped around her, like a blanket made of snow.

Then plop! Cold hard steel met her floaty head. “Ughhh…” she groaned. Her arm was still shattered, but strangely enough, EE-Thirty was able to move well again. There was that scent again, of vanilla and something flowery. It was stronger than ever. That scent was all she could smell.

“Oooh~” A feminine voice reached her pointy ears which twitched in response. “Haha, real~ sorry about the sudden invite. I told the old coot to bring one of you here alive, preferably a pretty one, but apparently it decided that it only had to bring you here alive. REAL sorry about that, hope you understand, cross my heart and hope to die. I didn’t mean for things to turn out that way. Oh boy, oh brother, I am such a fool, I should’ve been more careful with my words. You poor old thing, tsk tsk, I hope you find some comfort in what I’m about to do.”

EE-Thirty stood up, trying to see beyond the dark. The figure in the black had a feminine silhouette. It twitched as if it had been going through a seizure. She saw two mismatched eyes glowing in the dark - one green and one red. Although glowing, they were also lifeless.

The silhouette drew closer until it was face to face with EE-Thirty. It..no, she towered over EE-Thirty. She was a whole head and neck taller than the elf.

Four mismatched arms, two of elven origin and the remaining two of demonic (and very mutated) origin, were attached to the side of her ribs. Her skin was red and pale, as if someone patched together two very different skin tones together. She was like a frankenstein creature, but her skin was fused together rather than sewn.

“What kind of vile creature are you?” EE-Thirty asked, charging mana with her leftover gauntlet. She felt energetic somehow, albeit with blood dripping constantly out of her mangled arm.

The four-armed girl clicked her tongue as if scolding a child, “I wouldn’t quite do that if I were you, little chipmunk,” She chirped, “You’re feeling juuust fine, but that’s cause you just aren’t feeling the concept of death. That doesn’t mean you aren’t dying thooo~”

Her voice sang with delight, as it talking about the inevitability of expiration excited her. The girl’s breathing was heavy with a strange purple mist, her dried cheeks expanded with hearty laughter.

Furious, EE-Thirty continued to charge the mana in her gauntlet and launched a full haymaker on the creature’s face. Sparks of mana and electricity burned the flesh of her enemy, but it felt like she hit a wall.

“Heeeey noooow~” Suddenly everything flipped. EE-Thirty found herself on the ground, unable to muster any energy to get up. “Aww, I did warn you!” The girl wiped off the soot of blood off her face with her oversized arm, “Now I gotta heal you.”

Vines grew out of the tiles and surrounded EE-Thirty’s cold body, seeping a facade of healing magic over her. Rather than actual healing, it simply stopped the bleeding and re-energized her, as if she gained all the blood she lost back.

Blinking confusion and dizziness away, EE-Thirty sat up, looking the kneeling creature dead in the eye. “What do you want from me, creature?”

“Back to that question again?~” An exasperated sigh later, she shrugged condescendingly.

The massive hand landed on EE-Thirty’s disheveled hair, stroking her like a pet. The elf grew angrier, but also felt a sense of terror. Her instincts told her that the girl in front of her was only pretending to act patient.

“Ya see…” She breathed out, “I need a living mortal soul to break the seal here. Everyone underestimates just how powerful souls are! Especially ones with the breath of life that burn as brightly as your kind!”

“Then why not use that black-haired girl? Why use her just to get to me?” EE-Thirty seethed as she felt a hand stroke her stomach. The thing in front of her was treating her more like a dog than a person as one of the other hands stroked her chin. She swore she even heard the girl mutter ‘good girl’ beneath her breath.

“The poor girl’s soul already has Mister Maw munching on it. Why would I want a worn-down soul? That’s BLEGH. It’s like eating someone’s half-eaten cake with their spit slobbered all over the icing! Do you want that?”

The petting was growing worse, more rough. “Oh right~” She nearly exclaimed, “I never introduced myself, have I?!”

She jumped backwards, giving EE-Thirty some space as she raised all four arms up in the air, forming a dramatic pose, “The name’s Ayperos, Prince of Fools! Final offspring of the Majin Empress! Nice to meet ya, little elf!”

The mutated hand suddenly EE-Thirty to a wall. The outstretched arm raised her up, nearly to the ceiling. EE-Thirty’s legs dangled limply in the air as fear paralyzed her. “And you,” Ayperos’ voice was much deeper than before, almost masculine, “Are my ticket out of here.”

“My...my men are going to...come here any minute now and kkkkill you!” Electricity surged from her gauntlet, frying the skin off of Ayperos, but the Prince continued to hold EE-Thirty effortlessly.

“Don’t worry! I’ll take good care of your soulless husk. I promise!!!”

A hand plunged into EE-Thirty’s chest. Expecting pain, she only felt floating. She saw Ayperos draw a listless smile at her, eyes half-opened. “Good night.”