CHAPTER 1: Tell Tale

EPISODE: 0 《HIS STORY》

 

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As far as I could remember, dozens of us were squirming like little flies after the great incident. Nowadays, I haven't seen my siblings for as long as I can remember. It was hazy in memory anyways. Shackled by my old self, I live deep in the greenery, devoid of any living beings aside from animals and so forth. Monsters would occasionally sprung up in unexpected places, but it is easily taken care of by my years long experience in hunting, etc.

I have a body that doesn't need to eat nor excrete. I have a body that doesn't need to sleep nor rest. The first time I had gained a mind of my own I remembered living with those so-called humans, blending in with their society and gaining a form identical to theirs. 

I learned the truth of this form I manifested, and my origins. My species is not registered in those fragile thin sheets of papers I could see stacked up in shelves inside of a huge building, the library. I have recollected none of our existence, history nor footmark. 

I gained a profession similar to humans and lived with them for 110 years before disappearing into this place I now call home. 

In those years, I gained a large amount of knowledge and utilized it to make a living. Finding out about the lifespan of humans, I matched my outer appearance to the years I have lived alongside them until I physically turned out too old to work. 

To avoid conspicuousness, I exiled myself several times, reformed my appearance and made a living. Humans, or, those living beings, have two sides to them. 

One is a female and one is a male. As a being that originated from none, I could freely change my gender on command. I have also met my own kind along those years of pure solitude, and exchanged information with them. 

But as far as I could remember it has been almost a century since I met one of my kind. Yes, we don't age at all, Nor do we contract diseases. 

I have researched on my own body' but as I have expected there were no fruitful results on my research. Each of us, I don't know how many of us, have different bodily compositions and abilities from each other. 

I also confirmed this when I met one of my own kind a century ago. 

And so therefore, years pass being holed up deep into the forest. I had created a hut of my own with passing 8 out of 10 for sturdiness, 2 out of 10 for style. In short, it was just a hut compiled with dried leaves, well some of them had been there for a century now, maybe it is time to replace them if i think about it. This place I call home has been with me for 80 years.

There was no furniture as I had needed none, it was just a small hut . A table perhaps and one chair, that was all it had. 

Living like this alone, for so how many days felt nothing in comparison to the life I have lived before then. 

As I patrolled the perimeter I do once every week to check for damage to the fence.in the corner of my vision, I saw one small little glob of something squirming around helplessly stuck under the tree roots.

" hah…." 

I sighed deeply, maybe it was a mix of admiration and joy. Who knows, after all I am not a human that has a dozen amount of emotions in one body. 

" don't worry little guy, big brother will take care of you" 

I placed my palm on top of it and carried the poor little guy that wandered around my yard. 

It was almost the size of a cat and i carried it back into my hut carefully as if it was a fragile piece of glass. 

I gathered dried grass that had turned into hay through time, placed an old blanket on it as if it was a nest and placed the glob of goo in it. Creating a makeshift comfortable bed.

It jiggled as I placed it down. Like those jelly I have seen so much when I was still living alongside the humans. It was apparently a sweet cuisine from one of the many countries I have traveled into. 

Because it was one of my own species, a slime. 

 

◇

 

Roughly 14 years had passed since I found one of my own and took care of it. My species are fast Learners, but we suffer from it too. 

So therefore, as a precaution I had placed a limiter on this guy to prevent him from over-information. But this guy's case, was something i had not expected at all. 

Now, over 16 years have passed since I picked this guy from the back my yard. 

It has finally gained a will of its own and is now trying to copy me. It felt cute, as if I was raising a child. Our species cannot copulate of course, so this was a first time for me. 

It started off as a small chibi version of my appearance and then eventually took the form of a small body of a girl. As I say this, we don't have any gender nor can we pick from one, so the appearance was just a mimic of a Beautiful young girl. 

I had guided its own appearance to not match mine, as I would find it pretty hard to distinguish myself and this guy in the future. 

Eventually it had decided to take the form of a 15 year old slim girl. I had taken other forms during this process to give it ideas of what to mimic, a buff body builder, a beautiful receptionist, An injured child, and a young adventurer. ²

 

Anyways, it was a success either way. From under the floor of my hut, I buried a chest full of clothes just in case and purposely hand knitted and sized the clothes to match this guy's size. 

As I looked closely, even though it still had no emotions. Its eyes were filled with intelligence and the eyes of a child that is still learning. I laughed at this as I ordered it to wear the now finished pair of clothes. It was just like a clueless doll you would find in a tailor shop

It had long hair, blue in color and blue eyes. I fixed it's hair into a ponytail and fitted him with more of a masculine clothes to offset its feminine appearance. I taught him letters from carving the soil with a stick, taught it how to work and eventually taught it how to properly talk as it lived with me. I had given it the best possible environment to boost its learning while still maintaining a steady line over the limit I had placed on it. 

Honestly, I had grown extremely attached to it. Calling this guy 'it' felt bad, so in the night after, I had given him a proper name as a sort of commemoration or gift to its existence. A so-called birthday gift if I remember?

"I can't always call you 'it', 'this' and 'guy' huh? So why not adapt this name, 'Cress'?"

"..." 

"Oh don't worry, I also have a name now that I think about it. Mine's flûgel. Nice to meet you"(Flugel)

"Flû..gel.."(Cress)

"Good. You say nice to meet you after meeting someone okay? It's proper manners to be respectful to others " (Flugel)

"Ice… two.. meat… u?"(Cress)

"No no, you're mixing them up! Ahahaha, still it's good enough. Don't worry you'll learn into it soon enough"(Flugel)

"Nice.. to.. meet.. you… Flûgel?"( Cress) 

Outside of my expectations, cress properly said nice to meet you, but also pronounced my name properly. The intelligence of this little guy is seriously outside of my calculations. Even though I had limited it to a certain degree… 

"That's correct, I'm Flûgel" (Flugel)

"Flûgel…. Cress… " (Cress) 

As the moon shines brightly in the sky, I made Cress sleep into his makeshift bed that he had taken a liking to. Surprisingly enough, Cress is an Extremely sleepy person who likes to sleep no matter the circumstances. He sleeps on top of trees, on top of the roof that's made out of dead leaves and of course his favorite napping place, the first bed I placed him in all those years ago. 

He is just like a cute little sloth if we take it into perspective 

I sat beside him and brushed the hair that's covering his face, as expected he looks exactly like a girl. I sighed to myself as I tucked him tight with his favorite blanket that more or less looks like a rug. 

"I can't let you be awoken, right. Goodnight and sweet dreams Cress. We may see each other again. " (Flûgel)

The night was still nigh high, cold winds brushed my cheeks as I went outside of the hut and carefully closed the door silently so as to not wake up Cress. as i gained distance away from the run down hut, i did a preliminary stretching before breathing deeply, even though i had need not to. 

The night was relaxing, peaceful and yet full of dangers. 

"I didn't expect you to trace my footsteps so soon" (Flûgel)

"We, of course, had a hard time finding you. No one had guessed that you had holed yourself deep into the corrupted forest. " 

"Is that so? I'm truly impressed, good job finding this old me. "(Flûgel)

"'Flûgel', is one of your many names. We have came to take your life as per orders" 

"Who gave that order? Is it him? (Flûgel)

"We cannot disclose information that will just die, but as a gift. I will share you one clue, the sun is thy core, ourest mission isn't pest" 

"Huh, that's new. But sadly, I cannot die yet as of now. " (Flûgel)

"Any forms resistance is futile- " 

"Sorry but I still need to live, goodnight" (Flûgel) 

Our body is mostly made out of liquid as it is malleable in any shape and form. In my stomach, it literally means, I always have a small single bladed sword inside my chest.

As i have mentioned before, our bodies aren’t that of human beings, nor is it of any living organism that has a functioning organ, we are more like a species with hollow interior that doesn't need to eat, nor rest. Our human-like appearance is only for show, but sometimes being a bipedal organism brings benefits. 

Using that as a key advantage, before I had even partaken a battle I was already equipped. This small blade was the culmination of all my travels, money and experience in battles all required in order to live in this monstrous world. 

From my right hand I extended the hidden blade and lunged right at the suspicious shadow that is presumably  after my life, then followed it with a high kick. We aren't immortals as one can guess. We have a core somewhere in our bodies that one could destroy, a weak point for us so to speak. A pressure like bashing, or stabbing can literally end us instantly, and so that's why it was evident for us to learn how to move our core in times of emergency like these.

I had also taught this to Cress as a precaution for his safety in case something like this scenario  happens in the future. And that, I have also shown this blade to Cress, sometimes he would always nudge me for it because he really likes to cuddle it for some reason. 

Anyways, from my right hand the grabbed blade came out from my wrist and  I then expertly sliced the neck of the intruder. The intruder tumbled by kick which was followed by a slice in the neck.  Their voice was masked by a deep fake-ish tone, but as I took off its mask. I was surprised to see that It was a human male around the age of 27, really young and saddening, but that is what makes humans so disgusting. 

As I heightened my concentration, it seems that I am completely surrounded all around without a gap to escape at all. If I count them one by one, it would be more than both my fingers and toes combined. 

“Hey come out!” 

I shouted loudly, picking up the corpse of the man I killed and threw it right at the rest. From within the shadows casted by the short trees illuminated by the bright moon, were several black figures shaped like hands and pulled the corpse deeper into the shadows. It was kind of eerie looking at it, but I knew that those who pulled the corpse were also quite skilled. 

"Hoh, I see so that's why the top ordered us to kill you huh? I can certainly see the danger you entail. I'm afraid you will need to die now" 

A maskless man came from the shadows from where I didn't notice and warned me. I have come into several battles in the past, But this was a first for me. A battle against an assassin versus someone who once fought in the past, using techniques that by now has been improved.  

Against an opponent I couldn't detect, I am at a great disadvantage, and that is also excluding the other 30 men after my life. Even if I could regenerate from a pebble, if my core is destroyed it is the end for Me. And of course the end for the little Cress who is sleeping peacefully inside of the hut. 

"Hoh, that's quite the big words young man"(Flûgel)

"Don't belittle me, monster" 

"I see so I'm a monster huh? "(Flûgel)

(Even though he is correct, I am in essence a peaceful passive monster that just likes to coexist with other living beings. On the run for 20 years, I found this place suitable for hiding. But even after all that, it is still useless huh? Quite the brazen one he is) 

"Against the code of order from the Veiled one, we deemed your existence as problematic. You should've just stayed put just like your other siblings, as we tortured them and rewarded them with a gift ~" 

"Death huh? "( Flûgel)

"Correct-" 

I didn't spare any time for his reply as I threw an attack right at him. Slicing deeply into the neck, the form of the man I just sliced vanished like a cloud and appeared somewhere still going on with his speech. I guess the same technique wont work on them anymore since they have already seen it beforehand. Cunning, really cunning, but that won't work all the time. 

"What's with this? A new kind of magic? Skill? " (Flûgel)

"For the long loved Flûgel, with all these names we thought you knew of this ability's existence but seeing as you asked me right now. I pity your olden mind. " 

"Sorry for being such a dumdum, Surely you aren't just full of talk right?"(Flûgel)

I beckoned him to strike, but he just stood there with a smile on his face. A moment  of silence later, 3 cloaked figures carrying Cress showed up from behind him. One was quite petite from the looks of her arms, and the other two had thick ones. Visibly evident that one was female. 

"Surely you aren't just talks right?" 

(I've always wanted to say that back, it feels good) 

Three blades were stabbed into the peacefully sleeping Cress. We slimes don't need to breathe, and yet seeing that Cress wasn't moving is bringing shivers down my spine(?) Without a second thought, I used my special innate ability and appeared right beside Cress as I grabbed those 3 in a blink of an eye and threw them away using my own strength instantly and without pause.

"Doppelganger… huh. " 

I have no time to waste, this ability of mine creates a double of myself so practically, I currently exist in two spaces that houses one mind.I held Cress on my arms, I distracted them using my first body and flew away using the short trees and their branches as footholds to escape. 

The forest is practically my backyard, I know every nook and cranny around here. Down to the very detailed topography and environment. Surely they can't run after us, right? 

Unfortunately such thinking was useless against these assassins. If what I heard was right, then other than us two, my species are being threatened all over the place.. Feeling several presence chasing after us. I had no choice but to hide Cress. 

"Sorry kiddo, but I think I'll need to disturb your sleep for a moment. " (Flûgel) 

 

◇ 

 

On the other hand, from where Flûgel was first surrounded. The two were having a conversation, flugel himself and the leader of the group. As about 2 teams left in pursuit of the two that fled, the remaining came out of their hidden places and stood in the back of the leader. 

"Doppelganger, huh?" 

"You like it? " (Flûgel)

"It is a one of a kind ability. Honestly without the report about you I would've just gasped from surprise. But that's that, we are a group. Even if you split yourself you cannot go against pack wolves right? " 

"That's quite the harsh interpretation. True. You are correct that this is an ability only I possess, so what about it? It's not like you humans can steal my special ability "(Flûgel)

"You are incorrect, We in fact have a way to extract that ability from you and present it to him." 

"From the way you speak about it, you are talking about a different person huh?" (Flûgel)

"He has just arrived in this world as we speak, and our country wants to present him with our greatest blessing. " 

"..."(Flûgel)

"Boss, we have caught with the target and are currently tailing them from a safe distance"

Then a masked man that wore a striped black and white hood came in front, and reported him of their pursuit. This wasn't the time for Flugel to be standing

"You hear that? We will use any means possible to stop this war, even if we have to eliminate the one who helped us in the past" 

"Hoh. So your -" (Flûgel)

Flûgel's word was stopped in between, before being continued by the leader.

"The Advent believers" 

Flûgel was blown apart, leaving no traces of his gooey flesh and the remains of what seems to be his core. Except the single bladed sword, which was reduced to its handle. From the hilt was a cracked blade, which contradicts with the instant annihilation he was subjected to. What made the single blade sword appear in half? 

"Still. It was out of our expectations for you to take care of one of your kind. If you can still hear, you have done a good job offering us not only your core but that kid's too" 

The night was still up, and the moon blazingly illuminating the dark forest. Unbeknownst to them, this was the start of their end and the beginning of its tale.