Chapter 12.1

 

Cursing himself internally for running out for the second fight in a row, he used his good leg and pushed himself up to vault forward. Colliding with the disoriented creature he took a chance and went for the neck. Sinking both claws in he successfully ripped out one of the jugulars with a scream and was thrown from the creature to slam against the ceiling with a sickening thud. He was certain at least most of his ribs were broken now along with the leg that had been stomped on. Hitting the ground at a twenty foot drop he coughed up blood and barely had enough strength to lift his head. Though he was able to see that the minotaur was at last in its death throes, internally giving him a sense of extreme satisfaction.

Meanwhile his HP bar was at 13/220. Trey was barely alive.

‘You must consume one of your kills to restore health! Hurry, before you bleed out!’ Sithis urged Trey as Trey’s hand moved him forward, crawling across the smooth cold floor and leaving a trail of blood across the stones.

His vision blurred in and out and he saw the health bar tick down again with the bleeding status ongoing. He felt faint, but another couple of arm motions and he’d reached the Culn soldier. He stopped to take a brief glance over at the awed prisoners who were still chained together, and then to the minotaur that had just then stopped its struggles to let out its very last breath.

“You have gained XP.”

He grinned victoriously before turning his attention back to the still-warm corpse of the nearest culn man he’d killed. It seemed natural as he sunk his teeth into the neck, soft flesh tearing away and warm blood filling his mouth. He relished it, savoring it, and found it odd how much he enjoyed it. He wasn’t at all disgusted, which was an immense surprise to him. Not only that, but as the first bite was swallowed: his HP, MP and SP bars all went up just slightly.

He continued to chow down in a monotone lackadaisical fashion, unable to push himself too far because of how exhausted and injured he was. But as he went on he felt his ribs snap back into place, his wounds began to seal shut, and his leg began to do the same. Trey was truly amazed.

He looked over across the room at a series of terrified prisoners that stood watching the scene unfold. In front of where they stood, large green pools of water were collected into stone basins with enormous grotesque larva swimming about. The disgusting creatures were chowing down on the helpless men and women that had already been thrown in.

One of the prisoners, gawking at Trey, accidentally slipped on the watery floor and landed a short distance from the closest pool. To his horror and as he did, a larva the size of a wolf leapt out of the green murky basin and clamped large brown jaws onto the man - dragging the screaming victim in and pulling the line forward with him. A couple seconds later the man had been pulled out of the pool and flung back onto the stone floor by Trey. A black, smoldering chaos chain had impaled the slug-like larva and whipped it into the air only to bring it back with a splat as it slammed violently against the far wall of the chamber.

Trey’s eyes glistened as he looked into the pools, and was able to tell that at least a dozen more were swimming about in the filthy muck.

“Gross…”

Trey waited a little while longer until he had enough mana to cast some more chaos balls. Consuming more of the corpses nearby also helped expedite this process, and soon all of the larva in the pools lay dead after he let off another series of explosions.

“You have gained XP.”

He nodded in satisfaction, eyeing the carnage he’d just created. Without any sort of warning and a couple seconds later, Trey began to feel… Funny. A surge of hunger caused Trey’s body to lunge forward against his will. He staggered, muttered to himself and looked around in a frenzy. What he’d eaten wasn’t enough and the humans or dwarves here… they seemed like tasty meals... Trey inched closer towards the nearest prisoner - a woman about his own age. He was hungry, ravenous even, and he felt himself begin to salivate. But before he reached her, just a couple feet away from his next potential meal, he snapped out of the trance.

“The fuck am I doing…?” Trey murmured with an expression of worry across his face. “Sithis? You there? What the fuck dude.”

Sithis did not reply, but yet another surge of hunger gripped Trey’s consciousness and he doubled over to let out a scream that soon turned into a low sinister growl. It didn’t sound human. The prisoners all backed up as best they could, terror stricken, as Trey’s body pulsed. The fear in the eyes of the men and women was growing, but the chains connecting them by the necks prevented them from individually running away.

Blood pooled across Trey’s hand while he remained growling on all fours, and he looked to his left to see the giant minotaur that he’d slain earlier gushing blood from its neck. Trey let out a triumphant roar and lunged forward to sink his teeth into the flesh of the monster. He began to devour it with a ravenous appetite and slowly whittled away at its flesh.

“You have gained 1 strength from consuming a fresh kill. You have gained the Blades skill. You have evolved, Aspect of the Devil: Mask is now part of your being.” stated the familiar, feminine mechanical voice.

Trey ignored the All Spirit’s prompts and continued to eat, but soon his facial features began to change… morphing into a pitch black skin all across his head, no lips, with long sharp dagger-like teeth encompassing the front of Trey’s face in a set grin. He continued to gorge himself on the corpse and his bites became larger, jaws unhinging to open much wider than any normal human should be able to do - and the additional teeth from the mask easily cut through the monster’s tough flesh like it was butter.

His regular features were still somewhat recognizable ignoring the long wicked jaws, but he literally looked like a man possessed. Using his claws he dug into the chest of the minotaur and removed the heart, which was the size of a small watermelon, and eagerly tore it into chunks as he devoured it.

He ate for the next fifteen minutes, with the prisoners frozen in place watching him. By the end of it, he had devoured nearly the entire minotaur, two culn, and gained yet another strength point. How he was able to eat so much or where it had all gone, Trey would never know.

The act of a small hand gently touching his shoulder was what evicted him from his absent state of mind. He was covered in blood from head to foot, his hair and clothes were soaked in it, and he turned to look at the prisoner who had touched him. It was a small girl with light brown hair, probably the age of 5 or 6, who stood wide eyed and staring. She wore a torn orange dress and had stitched sandals for shoes.

He stared back at her through glowing crimson eyes and a mouthful of culn flesh, razor-like teeth of his new jaws smiling savagely. Then he swallowed, expecting her to say something.

The little girl seemed to gain the courage to speak, and when she did her voice wavered. She spoke in a language Trey did not understand, but she was motioning to her bindings with a look of desperation. The other prisoners nearby held their breath as Trey stood up to tower above her.

He sighed, his eyes softened, and he tried to wipe the blood from his face without any luck. Slowly and gently he leaned down and crushed the chains connecting the little girl’s neck to another man behind her with one of his claws. Trey then snapped the chain between her and the man in front of her, cut the ropes tying her hands, and they stared at one another again for a good minute.

When Trey smiled down at her, and Aspect of the Devil: Mask was relinquished, she smiled back up at him and gave him a firm hug around his leg. Trey laughed gently and patted her head before cutting her feet loose. Within an hour Trey had freed all 37 of the prisoners, and soon many of them were desperately trying to talk to him.

[English Dialect] ”Do you speak English?” No one acknowledged him and he blinked in irritation. Trey held up his bloodied hands, [Ancient Demon Dialect] “What about this…? No? Nobody? Look… I don’t know what y’all are trying to tell me but I don’t know what any of you are saying.”

Trey shrugged helplessly and gave a crooked apologetic smile toward the mob surrounding him.

The bearded man who had fallen and had nearly been beheaded earlier waved his hands about in the air, then yelled something a couple of times before everyone else quieted down. He quickly came to the front of the group and stood before Trey. He was bald and dressed in what once was a nicely made green robe, but it’d definitely seen better days. He had large dark bags under his eyes, cuts along the spots where the ropes had bound him, and looked quite frail.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “I speak for the group here, as I am the only scholar to know your tongue amongst us.” the old man stated as he tried to remain calm. Trey could tell that his grasp of the language was far from perfect as the words seemed mispronounced, but Trey got the general idea.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Nice! Good to see someone understands me.” Trey said with a smirk and stuck out his hand in greeting.

The old man inspected Trey’s hand, then frantically put on a fake smile and shook Trey’s hand quickly before letting go again. He looked back up to Trey. “Who are you?”

Trey and Sithis both laughed, this time Sithis made his voice heard and it echoed about the room with a demonic taint. The fear in the people around him was evident upon hearing the laugh and this only made Trey cackle even more loudly. Eventually he calmed down and took a look about before settling on the old man once again.

“My name is Trey.”

The man looked on questioningly after translating for the group behind him, as if expecting Trey to say more.

“What else do you want to know?” stated Trey with a blank expression. He put his hands on his hips and stretched, yawning soon thereafter.

The old man stuttered. “W-Why did you save us?”

Trey shrugged.

“I mean, you’re all the first humans I’ve seen since getting to this hellhole. I’ve had a really bad time by myself. I want to know if you know how to escape this place. I mean, not this place specifically but I want to know how to get back to civilization.” Trey threw out his hands in a hopeless gesture. “This place sucks. And on top of that… I would have done it anyways. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

Trey smiled innocently. It felt good to be helping people instead of hurting them, a stark contrast to the years he’d spent working for his father’s crime syndicate back on Earth.

The man translated the best he could as Trey spoke, and soon a flurry of questions were being thrown back at the man as he tried to calm everyone down.

“You do not know the way out of Oblivion?” The man looked worried at the idea. “We were hoping you did. We were taken from our town after a cult summoned demons to enslave us in exchange for power. We have not been here long and were meant to be food for their beasts or used in their mines.”

Trey shook his head sadly. “I just got here too. I’ve been here for 12 days.”

12 days if he didn't include the time he'd remained dead, anyways.

The man looked puzzled and scratched his head. “12 days? So you are not a demon then? I wasn’t sure.”

Trey grinned. “No. I’m human too. Long story short, I’m from a place called Earth. I woke up in this world 12 days ago and have been killed multiple times now. But for some reason I can’t seem to permanently die.”

The man’s eyes grew large. “You are Earthborn?!”

“I mean… yeah, I guess. I was born on Earth. And that’s actually one of my traits so I assume you’re correct.” Trey scowled. “Why? Does that mean something to you?”

The old man put a hand to his forehead and looked incredibly worried. “Do all Earthborn have your powers?”

Now it was Trey’s turn to look confused. “All Earthborn? So there ARE more here?”

The man looked curiously back to Trey. “Yes there have been others, but they are not likely here in Oblivion. It’s just that this situation seems so bizarre, I would likely believe anything you told me right now. You do not find humans walking around in the halls of Oblivion out on a whim. But back to the point, in the past your kind has come in small groups.”

Trey paused and raised one eyebrow. “Interesting, but to answer your question from earlier about them having my powers - it would likely be a no."

The man furrowed his brow. "Why is that?"

Trey considered telling this man about how he'd bonded with the 'Void Essence', but declined to do so. Letting on about his abilities and attributes wouldn't do him any favors, and if anything would leave him exposed. If these people became his enemies, or if they were captured and interrogated by others, letting on to what he could do would have been a very foolish decision.

"You'll just have to trust me..." Trey replied with a low chuckle with the demonic features reappearing across his face for a brief instant. He'd done it by accident, still being very new to the Aspect of the Devil: Mask trait. He didn't have total control over it yet.

However, it was enough to scare the daylights out of numerous people. One of the men in the group even staggered back, turned heel and ran out the circular entrance.

“I… would tell him not to go that way.” Trey said, nodding to the other man running out. “Those hallways have traps. I got killed yesterday trying to get through. Had a bunch of spikes sticking through me.”

"Killed...?" Quickly the older man nodded and ran to the doorway to scream something down the passage. He repeated it twice more before looking back with a sigh. “He refused to listen and kept running.”

The older man straightened. “But nevermind that, I have to think about the safety of myself and my granddaughter here. I was afraid you were a demon shifter of some kind, but I'll choose to trust you. Please don't make me regret it.” The man smiled at the little girl Trey had first freed. She looked up at her grandfather, then back over to Trey and smiled before waving shyly at him. She was by far the least afraid of Trey out of everyone here.

“Granddaughter huh? What are your names?” asked Trey as he bent down again and waved back.

“My name is Farthom, and my granddaughter's name is Inis.” The man looked up and then scanned the group. Most of them began to nod and a few of them commented before Farthom turned back to Trey. “You said you want to get back to civilization?”

Trey chuckled and nodded, crossing his arms in front of him and giving Farthom a ‘DUH’ look. “Yeah. I do.”

Farthom smiled slightly and lifted both of his eyebrows. “How about a trade then?”

Trey looked back to Farthom with a curious look on his face and waited for the man to continue without saying anything.

Farthom cleared his throat, squeezed his granddaughter's hand and took a large breath of air. “When we were taken from our homes and enslaved, an Oblivion portal was opened up to transfer us here. We were then taken, put in cages, flown through the air to transport us here, and herded like animals while being fed to those slugs until you intervened.”

Farthom’s eyes were downcast. “There were hundreds of us at first. And I’m sure there are others from our town that are still alive but aren’t here…” He motioned about him. “But I am getting off track. You are our best chance at survival. Trey, we need your help.”

The older man kneeled and put his hands on the floor to drop his head. “I watched as we were flown here and I think I can remember the way back to the portal… it was closed. But, I believe we can reactivate it. Please, accept my life oath and the promise to show you the way there - just take us with you.”

“You have been offered a quest: Escape from Oblivion - escort Farthom and Inis out of oblivion, and as many of the prisoners from Negaizer as you can for bonus XP. Completing this quest will result in a large sum of XP and a life oath from Farthom. Do you accept or decline?” a mechanical voice from deep in Trey’s brain echoed.

Trey saw the faces about him waiting anxiously. They were obviously nervous about his reply, and weren’t sure what was being said as they didn’t understand the language Trey and Farthom were speaking.

Trey scratched his head. “Yeah I can do that. Not sure what a life oath is, but… whatever it is I won’t hold you to it. Just show me the way out.” Trey paused and held up a hand as Farthom began to actively sob. “Yo I just want you to know that I’ll do my best. I can’t promise that all of you will make it, hell I can’t even promise that any of you will make it. And I may die again myself.”

“You have accepted the quest: Escape from Oblivion.”

The man shakily smiled and tried to stop from sobbing. The others in the group looked incredibly worried before he turned and translated for them. Immediately the crowd began hugging one another and exclaiming, crying and exchanging words. The little girl Inis smiled widely up to Trey and hugged him again, getting more blood across her dress. But she didn’t seem to care.

“Can any of you wield these things?” Trey asked as he began collecting the swords of the fallen Culn. He left the gigantic axe of the minotaur well enough alone, there was no way any of them could wield that monstrosity.

Farthom passed the swords around the room before handing all but two back. “Only two of the men from the town are able to meet the stat requirements.”

“What happens if you use them anyways? When I tried earlier with another weapon I didn’t qualify to use, it damaged me. Would it really have killed me?” Trey asked curiously. He remembered his previous encounter with the ruby crusader’s sword where he hadn’t been able to even lift the damnable thing.

Farthom’s brows furrowed but then softened again. “I forget, you really are new here.” He straightened his posture. “If you try to use a weapon or armor that is too high level for you, it makes you incredibly sluggish and clumsy. Yes, it can also damage and even kill you. Sometimes if the item has any special effects it will misfire too. Simply put, you aren’t able to control it properly. Similar things can happen with other items that aren’t weapons or armor.”

Trey let out a humph. Then walked over to the entrance where the prisoners had come from and pointed down the hall. “I assume you all came from that way? What’s down there?”

Farthom nodded. “That leads into a series of tunnels. We passed a couple rooms that seemed to be used for storage purposes. There was also a large gate into a prison… I think. I suggest we try to sneak by it when we get near. After that… we will come to the entrance leading outside.” He wiped his hands on his green robe then motioned for everyone to silence. The talking subsided. “You’ll be leading us until we get out of here Trey, so you tell us what to do.”

‘These lower lifeforms will just slow us down. We do not need them... aside from this Farthom human.’ stated Sithis out loud.

Farthom was outwardly startled as the symbiote’s voice rang out. Trey hadn’t moved his lips, but it was clearly audible to everyone there. Thankfully only Farthom and Trey had understood it though.

Trey glanced over the small crowd. Sithis was correct in one sense, they would definitely slow him down and would possibly - no - would probably get in the way. Half of them were women, some of them old. The men there were obviously not fighters, and as Trey turned to identify them he was able to see that they were all level 1 or 2. Farthom was a solid level 1 himself.

However, Trey shook his head before replying to his new friend and symbiote. “No Sithis. We will take them with us.”

‘Why?’ inquired Sithis. ‘What profit will we gain from helping these… things? I only see negative consequences from such a choice, unless you wish to take mates from some of the females.’

Trey smirked. “It is simply the right thing to do Sithis. And you forget, I am human too. I would want help if it were me in their position. Also… they can lead us out of this place.”

Sithis let out a loud audible scoff. ‘You are nothing like these creatures. Even before you acquired the Void Essence, you were immortal. You are much higher up on the food chain, do not insult us with such a comparison. Your soul is pristine, your aptitude for power is beyond that of any here by massive amounts.’

Trey laughed out loud and waved his hand dismissively. “Sorry man. Also, remind me to have a talk with you about those hunger urges later.”

Trey remembered how he had nearly just killed one of the women next to the pools and frowned. The urge to kill and feed had been almost uncontrollable, and he had been under the impression that the hunger had been satiated after he had died. It was something that definitely needed to be addressed.

Sithis paused for a couple seconds before replying. ‘Very well Trey. I disagree with your assessment, but you are my master.’

“I said to stop calling me master.” Trey motioned for the group to follow him, beginning to walk. Farthom grabbed Inis by her small hand and kept the pace to walk beside Trey down the corridor and towards the tunnels.

“Who... is that?” inquired Farthom hesitantly. “Or, better yet, what is it? Is that another creature, living inside you?"

Trey nodded, still looking forward. “Do you know how many more enemies we’re going to encounter here?”

Farthom grunted in surprise, and then scowled irritation. “Not a clue. I saw more in the dungeon, but aside from that I didn’t see any. I wouldn’t count on what I saw though. Things may have changed, they seemed to be coming and going from the entrance when we were taken here.”

Trey said nothing, but continued deep into Negaizer with 36 others following in his wake. Hopefully there wasn’t an entire goddamn garrison here waiting for him, because if that was the case… they were all pretty screwed.