Chapter LVI: Purging the Corruption I

Demonic Wildlands

Month of the Tortoise 33, 172 ,328 DE

When I open the main hatch, a strong wind hits me in the face, but it should not be a problem. We are not moving at more than ten kilometers an hour, and the War Knife's superstructure provides a wide if curved landing pad.

Pulling the short sword I took from the armory from their sheathes, I step from the hatch drop the War Knife . My feet hitting the superstructure echoes hollowly.

Thud!

THUD!

At he sound of Vorn's feet slamming down on the superstructure, I look at at him. "Anyone inside will know we're coming."

"Do you care? We're not being stealthy here."

Drawing Trinity from my core realm, I wrap it around my short swords and drive them through the chain-mesh and the plywood beneath. Using my weight, I rip my blades through outer shell of the superstructure until they slam into the metal beams making up the frame and slice along them. A simple stamp sends the sections of plywood and metal down into the dimly lit interior.

Vorn frowns at me. "You're making all that noise and you were bitching about my landing."

"No point in being quiet anymore."

"Bullshit. You were planning to do that form the start."

"Your thunderous arrival changed my plans. Even an idiot cat should be quieter. We're improvising, now."

"You were winging all night."

"Just get down and help me kill some trash. I don't want to be her for the rest of the night."

Vorn drops into the superstructure, and as soon as he moves clear of the hole, I follow him down. Except for the gas bags, pumps and storage tanks, the superstructure is empty. But a fowl odor fills the air.

With a grimace, Vorn wrinkles his nose. "What is that stench? Is that Chaos corruption?"

"That's Chaos and Chaos corrupted humans."

"I don't smell any humans."

I smirk. "Turn into a two-legged, red pussy and you'll smell them."

"You should turn into a dog and track them down."

"Not needed. Follow me, dead nose the cat." With my smirk still in place, I head for a hatch leading down to the gondola section.

Before I reach the hatch, it opens, revealing something that could be charitably called a normal human. The corrupted, human male has a nearly hairless head that with eyes giving off a sullen red luminescence. Rows of small horns, no longer than a fingertip rise from where its eyebrows should be, and its leathery-looking skin has a greyish color reminiscent of a Beastman.

Creak.

With the sound metal being strained, the corrupted male leaps out of the hatch. His feet topping out at over two meters in the air, before he falls back to the deck grating. Tattered chainmail flaps in the air, revealing bulging muscles that would look more natural on a Beastman than a human.

Clang.

The volume of them ringing impact of his leather-soled boots gives the impression that his weight far exceeds that of human of his size. With his left hand, he pulls a knife, almost long enough to be a short sword from its sheathe behind his back. With his right, he pulls a short-hafted, single-bitted battle axe from a hanger on his right hip.

"He's mine." Hefting his own sword and battle axe, Vorn steps forward to meet the corrupted male.

Almost before Vorn finishes his words, the corrupted male springs forward. His speed hovers around the border between Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Cultivators, but Vorn sidesteps, avoiding the heavy swing of the axe.

Screech!

Clang!

As the corrupted male uses his dagger to parry the thrust of Vorn's sword, sparks fly from the edges of their blades. Instead dodging the corrupted male's axe, Vorn hammers his own axe into it, deflecting the oblique chop. Both Vorn and the corrupted male take a step back and size each other up.

"Wh't t' fuck 're you?" The corrupted male speaks Sprache, but he has a strange accent, which I cannot identify. He barely pronounces the vowels in his words.

Not answering, Vorn launches himself into a furious string of attacks. Alternating between sword and axe, he chops and hacks from continuously changing angles. The speed of his attacks gives the corrupted male no chance to retaliate. As he parries attack after attack, the corrupted male's open wider and wider. When he misses a parry, Vorn's sword hacks deeply into the side of his neck.

The corrupted male explodes into a flurry of violent attacks, but Vorn blocks each one. Vorn's sword and axe parry the corrupted male's arms instead of his weapons. After only a half-dozen attacks, the corrupted males weapons fall from his now useless hands. Blood continues to spurt and spray from the wound in his neck.

Clang. Clang.

"Wh't t' fuck 're you?" The corrupted male repeats his original question.

Vorn does take his eyes of the corrupted male. "Lower Core Formation realm. He's strength rather than speed focused. How can he still be alive with that neck wound? What the fuck is he?"

"Chaos corrupted. He's already. It's only the corruption keeping him on his feet. Just cut his head off."

Moving like lightning, Vorn chops through the corrupted male's neck with a lateral swing of his axe. As the corrupted male's head flies through the air, his mouth opens and closes but no sound comes out. With no head, the body slumps to the ground twitching, and a faint polychromatic sheen glistens on the ragged stump of the neck.

"He was heavily corrupted. It's surprising he still looked so human."

Vorn looks sidelong at the headless corpse. "You call that looking human?"

I give Vorn a smug smirk. "More human than you. Fourteen and you look middle-aged. You have a cat face and enough muscle to make five common blacksmiths."

"Like you can talk. You have the face of a perverted dog, not wolf, dog in heat. And you don't look much younger than me."

"Stop bitching. More are at the hatch."

Vorn looks at the open hatch. "How many?"

I test the air again. "Five. Might be a sixth. I can't be certain if she's still there or if she left."

"She?"

"It's a female. The most corrupted of them all. There's still another female down there."

When none of the corrupted humans shows its face for fifteen or twenty seconds, Vorn moves near the hatch and quickly peeks over the edge.

Boom!

As Vorn snaps his head back, the thunderous report of a gun echoes inside the superstructure. A bullet ricochets from a metal beam and embeds itself in the plywood used for the superstructures outer surface.

"Why didn't you tell me they had gun?"

I shrug. "It's a Yuan Qi gun. They don't smell any different from any other oiled steel."

"Asshole."

Pulling a huge fire-powder revolver from a holster at the small of his back, Vorn holds it over the hatchway without exposing any more of his body.

Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom!

Repeatedly pulling the trigger, Vorn empties the revolver in less than two seconds. After a few seconds of silence, Vorn looks in my direction. "Is that blood."

I put on a derisive frown and point at the deck grating behind Vorn. "Of course, it's blood. Your nose is practically dead as a human."

Vorn returns my frown with a glare. "From the hatch?"

I do my best to look innocent. "Oh! That's what you mean! You hit two of them. They're probably not dead, not enough blood. But they're at least as corrupted as this one."

Are you playing around!?

Are you going to fight? Tia's calm but derisive thought follows on the heels of Tama's angry one.

Of course.

Then why have not withdrawn us from your Core Realm. You face the corruption of Chaos. A Primal Power.

Your too long for fighting in a confined space.

I heft the short swords in my hands. Even these a bigger weapons than I like to use.

We were forged by the greatest Maker to ever walk among the Dvergar. We can alter our size and shape to certain degree. We just need to maintain the basic form of swords.

Sister! We may be forced to server this cur, but you tell him too much! Tama's unending anger fills her thoughts.

I unconsciously grin. Can you become Bowie knives?

You want us to be short and fat!? How dare you!? Tama's anger crosses the line into full-blown rage.

I let my smug amusement leak through with my thoughts. Yeah. You would look good, short and fat.

Bastard dog! I'll see you dead, so we can find a worthy master!

Sister! Be! Silent! Rage fills Tia's thoughts for the first time.

After a few seconds, Tia's, once again, calm thoughts enter my Mind. Bowie knives, as you call them, are within our range of shapes, but our mass will remain the same.

I can deal with your weight.

Bring us forth, Master.

After I sheathe my short swords, two overly long bastard swords appear in my hands. In my left hand, the silver-bladed sword, Tia, shrinks in length. With the exception of being double-edged and retaining her S-shaped guard, her shape changes into an exact match of the Bowie knives I lost fighting the Gnolls.

Still standing near the hatch, Vorn's eyes open wide as watches the changes to Tia's shape.

Raising Tama to eye level, I frown at her. What about you?

I will not make myself short and fat for a filthy cur!

Master, hold the image of my shape in your mind and force it onto her. We are yours until you die. Force her to serve. Simmering anger seeps into my Mind with Tama's thoughts.

From my experiences in the Mind Net, I have developed the skills to use my Mind almost as well as my Body. I form an image of Tia, with Tama's coloring, in my Mind. As I sink my awareness into the image in my Mind, it manifest in concrete form in the Eidos between my Mind and Tama's Mind.

The Eidos can be called the Realm of Mind, but it can more accurately be called the Realm of Idea or the Realm of Conception. According to several of the tomes from the ancient War Masters, a solid enough Idea or Concept is not restricted to the Eidos; it can manifest in the Soma or Pneuma. If I wanted to, I could probably manifest the image in the Soma, but I only need to force the image on Tama, a more difficult task.

Use the Soul-thread that ties you to Tama. It will allow you to suppress her and have the advantage in forcing her to alter her shape to conform to your Image.

Drawing on the reserves of Trinity within me to reinforce my Soul, I grab on the Soul-thread that lies between Tama. Wrapping the thread around the sword, I bind the sword's spirit within the confines of the blade.

Bastard cur! Go die! Release me! You are not worthy to wield me! Tama struggles, but she cannot break past the restrictions of the Soul-thread.

With the Spirit contained, I impress my Image into the metal Body of the sword. While its outline wavers, its shape slowly begins to change.

No! No! Go die! Damn cur! I refuse to be fat and ugly!

Enough sister! We were Made with a purpose. Mother Life has chosen this one as our Master. Our purpose is to be wielded by him, to serve as his weapons.

NO! We were never given a choice! That bastard monster bound us in these alloy prisons.

As Tama's bitching continues to assault my Mind, a black wave of rage floods out from the depths of my Soul into my Mind. The tide of emotion batters into her thoughts, forcing them out of my Mind. Driven by my fury, I unrelentingly hammer my Image of her new shape into Tama's Mind and her metal Body.

With the shape of the sword changed, I release my grip on the Soul-thread, and Tama remains in the in the shape of a double-edged Bowie knife.

I'm trapped! I can't change back!

Tia's implacable thoughts override Tama's angry ones. Of course. We are the weapons. When Mother life enhanced our patterns, she altered them so that our size and shape will fit the wills of our masters.

You don't want to serve this cur, either!

Whether I want to be a weapon or not, whether I want to server others or not, it is what we were Made for. We will not approves or all our masters. We cannot change our fate.

Enough! You wanted to fight the corrupted humans. It is time to fight.

Within the Eidos and Pneuma, the Mind and Soul operate at far faster speeds than the Body. In spite of how long it felt like, only a few seconds passed. A I look at Vorn, he closes the reloaded cylinder of his revolver. From the open hatch, I smell and hear the corrupted humans, once again, moving closer.

Since I do not know what languages the humans speak, I point at Vorn's revolver and speak in the Beast Language. "They're are below. Attack."

Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom!

Holding his revolver over the hatch, Vorn empties on the corrupted humans below. Trinity flows through my Body, Mind, and Soul, accelerate the speed at which they function. Before the echoes of his revolver change, I leap through the hatch.

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