The Holy City

Outside the Priests Mansion

 

I wonder. Is this finally it?

 

The fire burned hotter than anything I had ever experienced before. It was as though I was standing inside the sun being flayed by the holy flames that dug deep into my flesh to cut away the monstrous exterior and exterminate the man at the core.

 

As if that would ever be enough for him to let go of me.

 

Title “Survivor” activated.

 

Title “Watched by the Gods” activated.

 

Little by little I felt that dark energy, pushing out the holy flames. It was as though the evil god was shoving his hands through me to push out this new oppressor. 

 

It hurt but I was quite familiar with pain now.

 

I looked down at the burnt corpse of the guard who fought so hard against me as to cast aside his own life to try and kill me.

 

“Stupid fool.”

 

My stomach growled at the scent of cooked meat, my ghoulish form still ravished from the fight. I was sickened by the act but I had to accept this life. If I didn't choose when to feed the monster, it would take control and feed itself.

 

I ate away his armor when I snatched his arm to heal my own… Is there even a limit to what I can eat in this form?

 

I have “status” but so much of it is sealed away and obscured I’m left fighting on just instinct most of the time, like a proper monster my only real choice is to lay my strength down and hope I come out on top of whatever opposes me. 

 

I focused on the persistent flames that seemed to refuse to go away despite the dark gods' energy keeping them out of my body. I thought back to being a boy with my father when we went into the city to see a carnival, there was a man there who would swallow and spit out fire. It was a trick surely but still… if he could fake it as a human, why can’t I succeed as a monster?

 

I opened my mouth and took a deep breath like I was going to howl, the fire came rushing down my throat trying to burn my insides but I didn’t let it get away. Using my devouring nature and my ‘second stomach’ skill I broke the holy flames down. At first it seemed to be failing but after a few moments I felt the dark energy that had been focused on protecting me seem to retreat inward and work alongside my efforts twisting and tearing apart the fire.

 

Ability ‘Unholy Eater’ Unlocked! : Devour holy energy and warp it into necrotic fumes you can breathe back out!

Holy energy takes up space in your second stomach but won’t satiate you!

 

I was excited for a moment at my victory before suddenly collapsing to the ground in pain. 

True wretched pain.

My lungs felt as though they were being scraped apart and dipped in acid.

 

I screamed out and watched aghast as a black cloud, as dark as the abyss flew forth from my mouth colliding with the barrier the warrior had summoned before it broke that apart and continued on melting the tip of the pillar in front of me.

 

I felt my vision fading out as I forced myself to crawl towards the paladin’s corpse and eat it as quickly as I could relying on it to fix the stupid damage I had caused myself. I’d broken down the fire and unlocked a new power but of course nothing was that easy. 

 

My nature has truly become something that hurts itself to accomplish its mission.

 

I felt my nature tearing apart the ‘food’ I’d consumed and repairing my body as I just flopped over onto my back. The fire had flown out with the broken barrier but quickly just dissolved away without a summoner to control it and the barrier to keep it contained it no longer had a way to accomplish its goal. Perhaps even the god who’d summoned it realized there was no longer a purpose to its effort.

 

“Get up.” I chastised myself, laying there broken and in pain.

 

I couldn’t stay here long. Others will be by soon and I needed to be gone before they arrived. As it was now I might be able to berserk a victory out as I did with the paladin but it would almost assuredly be a pyrrhic one.

 

My throat felt like charcoal and my body was covered in burnt patches that reeked of overcooked meat as the old skin tore off and was replaced with fresh scabbed chunks. My supernatural healing was certainly still working but seems slower than before.

 

Nonetheless I forced myself to my knees and then feet, standing slowly just as the sounds of shouting echo through the courtyard and magical spotlights brighten the mansion courtyard focusing on me.

 

Sponsored Emergency Quest! - Get to the ritual site before the thieves guild!

 

I narrowed my eyes at the ‘emergency quest’ that suddenly appeared before me, just barely covering the silhouettes in the distance of soldiers running towards me.

 

My role here wasn’t to enter the mansion at all, in fact it was the opposite. I needed to make a big distraction and run away to get the guards away from the mansion. 

 

As my partner so eloquently put it, ‘at your most stealthy you resemble less a monster and more an act of god.’ So while everyone else raided the mansion I kept the guards off their back…

 

But here is a quest.

 

One that is actually specific, and doable. 

 

It’s way too suspicious.

 

I turned around to run away from the mansion heading deeper into the city, delaying my speed just enough to ensure the guards could see me. My healing was finally catching up too, helping my body grow to its peak form, enhancing my speed, agility, and presence. 

 

Occasionally I would stop and let out a ghostly howl to terrorize the people in the town and draw more attention to myself. I felt bad for the folk just living their life but I needed to make sure that all the attention was on me.

 

Sponsored Emergency Quest! - Return to the mansion!

 

I clicked my tongue in annoyance as the quest appearance blocked my vision of an alley giving a masked man the chance to strike from the shadows. He shoved a silver dagger into my heart, making me stumble but not before I took the opportunity to promptly chomp down on his head snuffing his life.

 

I tore the dagger out from my chest coughing up a chunk of bile and blood as I threw it down the alley at the shifting shadows earning a surprised sudden yelp from some form down there. “I’m not taking the damn quest!” I yelled out my frustration as I jumped up the side of a building using my claws to scale it more like a wolf or tiger than a man before a roaring ball of fire collided with the spot I’d been standing lighting the building on fire in seconds.

 

S*@#$!red E<>(#n@y Que&%! - Enj0y th3 C0n8qu3nces.

 

I let out a wild howl as I did my best to ignore the ominous message. To my surprise though the ghostly army that usually gathers with my howls seemed to be dissipating as a divine light covered the sky forming a pillar in the distance as a young figure, probably a girl of about sixteen years flew into the sky on a pair of angel wings, wielding a flaming sword.