Of Many(Baldag-Ruhl POV) (Patreon)

This chapter is written through Baldag-Ruhl's POV. Enjoy.

Day 15

This is the first of my logs. May no one find them after my passing. I began counting the days after the little lamb arrived. It has been fifteen of them. That is nothing, however.

I've been here, in this prison, for an eternity. Longer than I can fully remember, even with the might of my mind. Days bleed together, becoming years. I despise it. I wish I could kill it, like squashing two skulls together. Even now, I stare at the same walls I've seen for over a thousand years.

I would've lost my mind long ago if not for a goal of mine. You see, I am trapped here due to the machinations of a very powerful and very old presence. What it exactly is, I know not. What I do understand, however, is that its guardians are far stronger than I.

A gateway towards the outer world is guarded by a monster. An abomination so powerful, I can't even imagine its limits. It can tear through time and rip holes in our dimension. Fighting it would be a messy suicide.

No, I would find another way out of here. I tricked a sorcerer by the name of Alfred Worm and almost gained control of his body. I could of reconstructed him, molded him to my will. The fool tore himself apart out of spite instead of letting me control him. Foolish.

Now he wastes away, only fragments of his mind remaining. He could have been a part of something greater. He could have been a part of me.

You see, I am one and I am many. My children, they collect food and sustenance for me. They do not give me all that there is, however. They give me no warmth, no comfort, nor company in this cold and desolate cavern. I was created to expand my mind by devouring the minds of others. Being trapped here has stolen my only joy in this world. A pity.

That worm kills any lambs that walk in here. He tears them apart, but I've bided my time. Oh how long I have waited for him to fall into depravity, to become nothing more than ghost of himself. A walking memory.

Now he has forgotten who he was and what he aimed to do. Unfortunately for me, he has guarded himself with a thick wall of mana. This wall, it harder than stone. He summons his minions to go and die for him. He knows nothing of the joys of a father. I would never send my children to meaningless deaths. They are far too valuable for that.

I believed I would be trapped here for an eternity, or at the very least, till I wasted away. What allowed me to keep my mind whole was the arduous labor I put into a ritual of sorts. Both day and night, I put my soul and blood and bones into making a ritual to give me another shell. It would contort the victim until I could wear them and new skin. Slowly, I would have overwhelmed them, and absorbed them into the collective.

That was when I felt the presence of two inside my new home. They would be torn from my domain, preventing me from controlling them and using them. It would be my final failure. In a bought of frenzy, I re-orchestrated a portion of my ritual. It would ground him in place, trapping him in my domain.

After finishing the ritual, my body and mind had fallen apart. My body had aged hundreds and thousands of years, but I had traded youth for a final hope. This was another who was connected with the presence that trapped me here. He would be utterly ignorant of how this world worked.

I would fool him into undoing all that Alfred had done. He would be my greatest tool and my greatest shell. With but a push in the right direction, all of Alfred’s plans would topple apart.

It would not be so simple.

You see, this creature is of a level of weakness that I had never known. How am I to get him to kill anything with such a weak body? The very first inkling of combat left him broken, not just his body but his mind as well. He was a fragile flower, barely holding himself off the earth.

I had to chew through the bat’s wing, and even tear off a rock to pierce the bat’s skull before it consumed him. What amazed me was what happened thereafter. He became far more willful and powerful within seconds of the bat dying. Days later, he kept fighting without a single ounce of food. He trained relentlessly, with a clear sight and a clear mind. Just like Alfred.

He found a way to kill the very next bat without my assistance, then another, and another still. After a week of being trapped here, this place was his home. He would sleep soundly, as long as I protected him. After two weeks, he no longer needed my protection. His aura would force other creatures from him, stopping them from controlling him.

It was...compelling. I had been without another soul to speak with in so long that I had forgotten the strength of will that these creatures possessed. Any being with sentience was force, given time.

I did not lose sight of my goal, however. I kept him safe, until one day when he slayed one of the many bears here. It was incredible. He used the same limbs, the ones that were once so fragile, to maul the bear as he tore it apart. He danced with death and became brutal from it. He would make an excellent shell.

That was when I let him know of my existence. The fear he felt sunk deep into his bones, the same bones I would wear with time. He smelled sweet, sweeter than sugar and more delicious than salted meat. He was so soft, but I withheld the desire to eat. He was my only way out, after all.

So I told the little lamb to kill the bears and bring their pelts to me. I had no use for them, but if kept killing and became stronger, than maybe, just maybe, this little lamb may kill my nemesis. Only Time will tell.

Day 27

There was a nick in my plan. The little lamb has met with two other, less ignorant lambs. They seem unaware of my pursuit of the strongest of them. The little lamb has grown, becoming much more than he was when he started his journey here. He has not exceeded me, however. I won’t allow him too.

He has killed his first golem, one of many to follow after. I worry that he will discover the plot I’ve laid out for him, but he isn’t one for thought. Instead, he focuses all his efforts on survival. Good. With his mind absorbed into his task, he opens himself to my own plots. I will savor the flavor of his blood.

It will be so very sweet, watching his soul rend. I will devour his soft companions, chomping into their organs. The blood will make them slip at my touch, and they will be even softer and sweeter than the blood that coats them. With quick crunch, my teeth will snap into their bones. They will become my children. They will become legion.

Day 30

He has killed several of the golems, and now he nears Alfred’s chained spot. Even with his exponential growth, I can’t imagine him defeating the lord of worms. How would he? His other members have yet to expose the inner workings of my trap. Time has rusted over the edges of it, along with my own disguises.

Without any means of finding me, and with my insect scouts watching them, they are in my palms. I cannot help the heavier lamb anymore. He has a burning air around him. It has grown from a mild nuisance to a migraine that racks my temples and shakes my bones. If my children stayed within it for too long, they may even die.

I would never let them die off without meaning. It would be like sending your hand to strangle someone. Would you do so without any chance of success? Of course not. No one is that foolish. They act as a conduit for my own will. A piece of my mind and soul and body. As they die, a piece of me dies as well.

Imagine watching your limbs slowly fester into blackened mush, or perhaps watching tumors spread underneath your skin. That is what the death of my children is to me. I won’t allow it. I simply cannot allow it. They are this world, and they scream and weep and cry out every night as I sleep.

Oh how how lonely they have become. They tire of eating bat flesh since their births. They wish to fill on other, sweeter things. I will give them an entire world to feast upon. As they devour the fields of green and meadows laced with the flavor of life, I will feast on knowledge.

I desire another book for myself more than I desire anything in this world. I want to expand this mind of mine. I want to discover what lies at the bottom of seas and the tips of mountains. I want to feel the cold winds of winter and simmering heat of summer.

I want to hear grains of rock be blown along oceans of sand. I want to hear the lull of waves, see the vast emptiness of space, to dig into the depths of this planet. All of this will be mine as I feast and feast and feast. I will assimilate this universe into me. They will all fall into something far greater than they. They will fall into me.

Day 31

It is unbelievable! He has done it. How he defeated a foe of such higher strength is an enigma to me. In the end, that isn’t what matters. The ritual has been carved into the center of my domain. Miles and miles of it, stretching in all directions, it is my magnum opus. The very culmination of my life’s efforts.

How I have toiled over its every detail, deep into the facets of every etching in the stone. It is massive and beautiful and vast. With it, I can tear a portal into my home and bring with it the power that lies within. I’ve missed it, the taste, the touch, the ecstasy of boundless power.

I will wield it, bend it, just as I will bend the little lamb. He will become my plaything, a shell for my own body. He has hardened and grown into something more than a tiny little nothing. The muscles that attach to his bones are strong, just like his now gray skin. He has hardened his mind and his body, with this fortress as his training ground.

I will steal it from him. His soul, his mind, even his freedom. On everything that is him, I will indulge. His carcass is my victory. His life is my future. He holds everything I hold dear inside the sack he calls a skin.

What he does not realize, is that soon he will become my new skin. His flesh my new flesh. His mind a piece of my own.