STS Chapter 98: Cruel. (Patreon)

---{Heavy}---

What's this feeling? It feels far too soft, far too comfortable. It is unsettling. It was so comfortable that I wanted to scream, I wanted to break something.

I felt something warm land on my cheek, a large soft hand. The feeling came with a sense of comfort. Slowly, my mind caught onto a soft voice muttering.

"You look really cute in your sleep John."

'...?'

The voice calmed me down from a sense of panic, I remember, I was taking a nap with Priscilla after hunting down a dragon. Off to the side was Gwynevere teaching Quelaan how to use her fire more like sunlight.

'...?...'

It just felt so comfortable, laying on her lap. This was fine, I was strong, the world could wait for me. I could deal with Gwyn anytime, there was no need to rush. I could just enjoy these moments.

I deserve to rest, don't I?

I felt soft hands brush my hair, nobody had ever done that to me that before that I remember of. It sent tingles down my spine.

'...?...!...?'

Nevertheless, I couldn't spend the entire day lazing about, could I? I pried open my eyelids to see the sight of Priscilla staring down at me with warm eyes and a slight blush sprinkled across her cheeks as she smiled lightly.

'...Doesn't...'

"Ah! Did I wake you up, John?" I couldn't help but smile, she was always so wary, wasn't she? All those years of isolation couldn't have been good for her. At least Gwynevere was helping her with her shyness.

"Don't worry about it Pris, needed to wake up anyway." I said, mournfully lifting my body up from her lap and stretching a little, for some reason it felt like my body was stabbed all over. Instead of wearing my armour, I was wearing some simple clothes. Priscilla smiled in response.

"In that case Good Morning John!"

'...Make...'

"Good Morning to you too Pris." As I said this I noticed a white blur zooming toward me, a familiar lovely white blur. Soon enough that white blur tackled into me with a hug that felt like a normal human being rammed by a spiky car.

"Good morning John!" I looked down to see the smiling Qulaan snuggling into me, she was like an excited Golden Retriever, yet she was surprisingly emotionally intelligent considering her life.

"We made you breakfast." I heard a warm motherly voice call out as Gwynevere approached us with a meal table in her hands, I felt some warm settle on my left arm like a scorching heat but did not put any mind to it.

'...Sense...'

"Yep, Auntie Gwynevere and I have been practising cooking." I saw Gwynevere's eyebrow twitch at the words.

"Quelaan... could you not call me that? Besides, you aren't much younger than me are you? Oh wait, maybe you are even older than me?" Gwynevere said with a too-sweet voice as Quelaan turned her head slightly to face Gwynevere, I swear I could feel her glare.

I should intervene before actual fire starts to get slung.

"You guys know I could have just cooked for you guys right?" After all, I was the one with the supernatural cooking skill here.

"I know you are better at this than we are but well, we wanted to do something for you. Besides, what wife doesn't know how to cook for her husband?" Hearing such words my cheeks heated up a tad, like a warm viscous liquid had been splattered onto them.

'False.'

"Come on John! Taste it, I want to know if you like it or not!" Quelaan pestered as I shook my head fondly before picking up a fork and stabbing it into the meat before bringing it up to my mouth and biting. It was juicy.

Too juicy.

As I bit further I could bones snap under the pressure of my teeth. It was very fresh.

Too fresh.

The flavor was quite unique too. I couldn't place my finger on what it resembled though.

'It tastes like rotting, festering, human flesh.'

Regardless, I kept eating, for some reason, as I ate they did not touch the plate, standing still, almost like statues, it would be rude to just not eat the food they made so I kept eating, keeping myself from puking as I forced myself to finish all of the plates.

"Did you like it?" Said Quelaan, her voice sounded flat. my right hand hurt.

"Yeah... it... tasted really good." My voice shook. Why.

"̵W̵h̷a̸t̷'̸s̵ ̴w̶r̴o̶n̴g̷ ̸J̸o̷h̷n̵?̶"̴ I felt Priscilla wrap her arms around me, it felt like I was getting strangled. Her arms were ice cold.

How cruel.

"̷̖́̀̾ͅW̶̖̮͚̠̤̬̮̺̝̥̭̤̜͕͚͎͐̓͗̚͝͝ḩ̴̡̰̙͖̩͉̲͉̝̦̮̟̼̭̖̹̿͒͗̄̈́̏̎̍̈́ą̵̛̩̫̜̝̹̹͌̅͐̈́̈̎́ţ̴̞̫̦̦̓̾̽͐̌͂̑̍̈́̽͐͘ͅ'̶̼̟͚͕̝̳̗̩͖̳͙̖̪̗̥̓̍̂̐̔̉̚͝s̸̛̺̝̩̦̃̋̂̑̀͐̈̽̀̔̌̈́̄̚͝ ̸̡̨̝̭̬̩̠̼̤͇͔̣̫̈̇̒̇͜͠w̴̰̤̯͔̅͑̄͌̿͂̀́̇ŗ̵̧̯̦̳̤̭̝̫̩͎̭̗̒̀̔̂͘͜ŏ̵̧̺͔͚̻̬̩̠̮̥͈̥̩͎̪͈̜͋͗̔̊̀͌̀͝n̸̡̛͙͚͔̣͍̺̪̹͎̘͉̙̠̅͐͂͑̈͌̿̽̈́͘̕̚͝g̷̦̺̳͈̰̹̱̘̏͋̇̈́͑̏̇̎̋̈́̈́̐̎̈̕ ̸̨͖̯͔̮̩̱͔͍͍̀͗̃̾̿̔̑͗͊̇̉̂̀͠J̸̨̧̛̣̺̣̤̝̙̗̯̩̪̰̺͓̆̂̎̾̄̋́͑̏̈͜͜ỏ̶͈͚̥͈̦̪̱͓̞̐͒h̵͉̗̹̤̫̞̘̥͔̱̳̪͔̗̥͂̑̔̆͌̾͛̽͊́̇̈́̔͗̊͛̋͌͝ņ̷̰͍̀̀̇?̵̡͎̤͚̩̳͑͒̅̽͑̒͘͜͜"̴̹͈͙̜̳͍̥̜̱̗̗̫̦̠̀̄̈́̐́

This is just... too cruel.

A humourless chuckle left my mouth as I watched my surroundings melt into blood along with the girls. Maybe it was a small mercy that I no longer could shed tears.

"̵͍̕J̴̨͒ ̴̟̎O̶̡̎ ̶̲͘H̸̢͒ ̷͚͝N̶̰̈́ ̴̢̒?̸͕́"̵̯́

Some deep part of me hurt as I watched the girls melt down to their skeletons before collapsing. This fake world of dreams around me collapsed until what it was was unravelled.

The air around me felt like ash and blood, the world around me was just a massive ocean of blood as I stood alone surrounded by the corpses of the girls, the sole ground below me was made of mutilated corpses whose expressions were twisted in agony.

That same Centipede blotted out the blood-red sky, it was woven by Millions and millions of brutalized corpses torn apart and put together to make the shape out of hardened flesh. Instead of mandibles, it had oversized human teeth smiling at me.

Instead, now, 48 giant building-sized bloodshot human eyes adorned its titanic body. All directly staring into my very being. Boring holes into my soul.

I was far too tired to even be shocked. I just sat in silence amidst the corpses, graves and eyes.

Before long, mercy in the form on agony overtook me before I was back in the waking world.

...

My eyes snapped open, first of all. I wasn't where I was before. I seemed to be in a graveyard, not that it said fuck all considering I was in Yharmam and a Graveyard can mean 99.999999999999999999999999999999% of Yharmam.

However, the shattered pile of electrified bones next to me painted a better picture of where I was. I assume that is what the Darkbeast Paarl I had killed in my... state.

...Not that I would say that is the only casualty, just in my eyesight I can see around 50-ish corpses. Half bisected, some pulped, at least had their limbs rearranged, but all of them looked like they got hit by several trucks made of swords.

Can't say I don't look the same. I am missing an entire arm, judging by the state of my body and the number of scars on my body closed by mend flesh I must have been stabbed at least several dozens of times. Did I beat some of them to death with my bare hands? Is that why my hand is broken?

But even more surprising was what was in my hand.

Chaos Blade.

Impossible, that should have been in my Lordran inventory, yet I brought it here somehow? I looked over the blade, I could see tiny wisps of chaotic flames dance almost invisibly across the dark dull metal blade with slight cracks across it.

Holding it felt painful, like it was trying to burn my body, but along with that sense of pain was a feeling of comfort. A piece from Lordran, a chance at returning. If I can take it from Lordran then I can send myself back, can't I?

Holding the blade, I fed some of my power into it, causing magma to surge through my veins as I got into a quickdraw stance. Before using Deadman Style to do a simple Iai.

The blade more so fast it blurred, I could chaos streak across the blade as it was swung, at speeds nearly invisible to the eye, the blade had reached my side after drawing a crescent arc.

And a moment after, one of the large gothic towers that dominated the skyscape of Yharmam fell down, it had been almost seamlessly cut in half the cut itself was still burning with the irregular flames of chaos.

Ignoring the throbbing pain I grabbed some wraps from my inventory and wrapped the blade as a semi-sheath. Clipping it to one of the many outcrops of the standard hunter belt that had thankfully not broken off in the slaughter I looked around.

I saw more corpses on the path I carved to here, but did not feel like tracing out the entire path back. But judging from how much my stats had improved from that bout of unconsciousness which was 10 on all stats I must have carved through an entire town and a half.

Walking over to one of the more humanoid corpses I used my good hand to chop it off before holding it up against my arm and using mend flesh to make it mine. Closing and opening my hand a few times I decided that it was satisfactory.

Now, I had a list to get to. Upgrading Chaos Blade, finding new armour, and finally having to face... Rom.

It's gonna be a long day huh?

A/n: Question, did you guys like the wholesome dream sequence?

Time is warping for John, he is having more episodes and bouts of insanity as everything piles. And the one that suffers from it the most is the residents of London.

Also, I wonder if you guys managed to spot some of the spots where the actual reality was seeping into the dream.

Anyways, I would love to hear your comments about this chapter, so don't be shy to comment about it, I love reading your comments, they help motivate me.