Chapter 46: Misery (Patreon)

Jack reacted with a compulsory fear for his friends when he hid them. I delight in his actions as he allows me to find my own reasons for acting out since he exposes me to the thoughts of others. They’ll prove useful for my research into many fields.

Reflecting on these assessments, I pace towards Sophia’s room before I edge my hands into the crack the plate leaves between the wall and the door. After forcing the plate aside with a single hand, I squint my eyes as I say,

“Teach me the details of soul forging.”

She glances up from a series of charts as she stares in surprise for a moment before her guarded motions lower as she rolls her eyes. She glares as she snaps, “I see Jack left and you took his place. I'll teach Jack whenever he awakens. Find someone else to bother.”

I smirk as I say, “You'll find him preoccupied with finding the shadow organization controlling the flow of human souls. If I am to help him, then I'll need to figure out the inner workings of my enemy’s objectives.”

I tilt my head sideways as I say, “I wish to gain a foundational understanding of what my enemies are doing before I make any more decisive moves against them.”

She blinks several times before she sighs. She places her papers aside before she bounces from the bed of dirt. She says, “Alright then. We’ll need a soul and a gem. That shouldn’t be too difficult right?”

I roll my shoulders before I pop my index fingers saying, “Care to watch the process?”

She leans downwards as she grabs her chin for a moment before she says, “Alright. I'm game.”

I raise an eyebrow as I say, “Collecting the creature and gem will be gruesome beyond anything you've seen. I offered more so as a conversation ender.”

She crosses her arms before she says, “Do you think I'm too weak to handle it?”

I shake my head before I say, “It’s not a matter of strong or weak. It's a measure of how numb you are. You still feel Sophia, therefore you will experience a profound disgust. It is neither good nor evil. It simply is.”

She squints her eyes before she says, “That sounds like an elaborate way of calling me naive.”

A small, reserved smile forms on my lips before I cover it with my hand as I say, “Perhaps, but that doesn't change the truth behind the accusation. You may not be so infatuated with Jack after seeing what he is capable of.”

She snaps, “I don't like him!”

“Hah, why so serious?”

“Because I despise it whenever people tell lies about me to my friends, and you could hiss them into the ears of the few I have.”

I grab my chin as I say, “I'm asking for your help as we speak. Do you honestly expect me to stab your back so soon after requesting help?”

She walks past me as she says, “Actually, yes. You seem so slimy all the time when I speak to you. Jack shows himself. You hide behind an arrogant attitude.”

I turn pacing beside her as I say, “Arrogance requires overestimating your abilities. I've yet to do so.”

She frowns before she says, “What about when you faced the tarantula slime? You would have died then if not for Jack.”

She covers her mouth with her hands while a spiteful wrath explodes in my chest, but instead of lashing out, I glare with a cold, intense stare. After a moment, I murmur in icy tones, “The next time I find your throat slit, I shall watch you bleed rather than offering my own blood to save you.”

I shove her aside before she says, “I'm sorry...I shouldn't have said that.”

I glare at her as I say, “Do not snap at the hand that feeds you little one, else you find yourself starving until your dead corpse becomes food for Ravens and worms.”

She blinks several times before she glances down. She shakes as her frail mind quivers at even this small confrontation. I lean down until my eyes are level with hers before I tilt my head. I say, “You aren't very familiar with even mild disagreements are yo-”

A tear drops from her nose before I lean upwards sighing. I blink for a moment before I walk past her, and I say,

“I'm sorry for my outburst. Let's both try to watch our words next time. I'll leave so you can compose yourself. Be ready to help me once I return.”

After walking till I reach under the hole, I leap from the rock below until I land on the surface of the rock. I stumble for several moments before I race towards the GC’s storage room. From what I've seen, alexandrite holds the strongest connection to souls. Therefore, the burden on the soul will be far smaller while being less stressful for me.

Avoiding any agony or terror on the helpless spirit will ease my own worries. While no doubt the GC will be heavily fortified, I would rather sneak past a few dozen guards rather than rip a soul apart. The act defies the very reason I fight for this cause. Regardless, how am I supposed to reduce the anguish of others if I will sacrifice their comfort for my own?

These thoughts curse me as I traverse through the caverns before I reach outside. As I bend around trees, I contemplate my conversation with Sophia. She always seems so frail to me, and despite my best efforts, I still found a way to shatter her emotions. It's created a sort of Revelation.

Normal people aren't like Jack. They are frail. They are soft. Even with precautionary measures, people still crumble without my trying. It's a humbling experience. I never acquainted myself with failure thoroughly, yet I have failed completely at being gentle, so I give in.

Part of me believes that my appearance spurred her intolerance to my words. She sees Jack in the way I look and in the way I speak. As she owns romantic intentions, this makes her hyper sensitive to what I say. At least, that's what I believe is the cause of her sensitivity.

Regardless, it's a task for another day. Skulking through Mareovosa shows the abundance of guards leaving me unsettled. Instead of only four guards, I spot eight pacing around each building, and they seem far more aware than before. This awareness illustrates itself as I survey a certain scene.

A guard questions a late night visitor to a dorm. The guard berates The student with a series of questions, and even after several minutes of intense inquiry, the guard still eyes the student with a suspicious glare.

Disguising myself as a normal person will likely fail due to these precautionary measures. The only method I have available to me for finding my way inside is through piercing their defenses without them knowing.

The augmentations I gave this body were never intended for stealth however. I worried far more about raw power, so now I find myself unable to move in utter silence, but improvising proves simple despite my circumstances.

I widen the bones in my hand and wrist and forearm. This leaves me with large, brutish hands that disperse the force of my weight more evenly allowing me to move with less noise. Using the same process for my feet, I use a wider crawling stance allowing me to move closer to the ground.

Combined with an extra hinge joint below my knee, my heavy stomps transform into padded taps across rather than against the ground. Without having to worry so much about the sound I produce, my mobility enhances by orders and magnitudes.

Using this speed, I evade the chainers before I grow hooked claws. They grip into the rivets of the stone generating an easy to work with traction. Instead of stabbing claws into stone, I latch onto them as I weave through the obstacles in front of me.

Without any complications, I crawl across grooves and roofs and walls until I reach the bolstered defenses of the GC. Unfortunately, they barricade the entrance with golem guards and an assortment of glancing guards who use glowing torches of blue. Crashing through these defenses would prove tedious to such an extent that the only option left seems to be burrowing through the brick at the other side of the entrance.

Doing so without making a noise may be difficult, but the alternative involves fighting against dozens of guards without killing them. I believe I'd rather fight against rock.

So I begin the process. I burrow underneath the building using an altered pair of limbs mimicking the appendages of what humans call moles. After reaching the area below the containment center, I spray a bone melting acid onto the mortar and cobble. This corrodes the building down until only a thick jelly remains leftover from the bricks.

I consume this pasty mush reveling in its taste. It reminds me of salty skin. Whenever I eat animals, the dried on sheen of sweat seasons the initial taste of the skin. Therefore, I tend to savour that portion the most. That makes this is an unexpected treat. I will make sure to eat this once more later, but for now, I must focus on my task.

After penetrating several dozen feet of foundation using this method, I reach within two bricklayers of the containment unit. The dense jelly builds my weight far quicker than I imagined it would, though consuming solid rock would increase the weight of any living creature. The minerals of this specific rock compose themselves primarily of carbon. This allows me to store it for later use.

Grinning from the unexpected treat, I place my ear against the upper portion of the cavern I melted out. As I hold my breath, I listen for the sounds of living creatures. I hear nothing, so I melt the last portion enabling me to pierce to the inside of the expanse.

As I gaze around me, I can’t find anything of value. If anything, the room’s emptiness omens a dark energy while the unusual coldness and the cobwebs etched into the corners give the place the feeling of abandonment.

A low rumbling enters my ears as I gaze towards the locks of the door. They seem different. Instead of restraint through sheer force, they hold this place captive with a series of enchantments. The shining locks and chains shift and contort until an oppressive force pulls me towards the ground.

My feet crush through stone before a set of chains bursts through the walls. They wrap and bind my frame restricting me at my sides before the locks of the door open. They fall to the ground as the doors swing open.

In walks an older, gruff looking man with gray hair. The speckles on his skin and glasses give the impression of extreme age while his sharp eyes and brisk gestures inform me of the keenness of his mind.

He smirks before before he says, “So looks like you fell for our little trap, aye?”

I glare as I say, “This won't hold me.”

He opens his hands as he says, “You won't be able to gemchain with those restraints on, little demon. That and the fact that your bones should be crushed by now should keep you captive.”

My joints pop and my Cartilage snaps as I begin to reform. I say,

“You'll find I draw my power not from the souls I harbor, but from the flesh I've eaten.”

Since the chains only wrap around my arms and legs, I rip my skin and my clothes as I squeeze out of the restraints using my blood as a lubricant. My skin reforms almost at the same pace that I crawl out of the chains as I rasp,

“This is torment...I will give you that.”

The familiar blare of a gemchain enters my ears before he raises his hand sending two strikes of lightning from the palms of his hands. They arc through the air and down my right shoulder. My skin cracks while my blood steams. All the muscles within my body flex at their absolute, maximum capacity before my metallic and carbonic structure prevents the lightning from leaving my body.

I writhe in pure, unfiltered agony for several seconds before I contain the anguish with my will. I absorb the energy hidden by pain before I roar belting out my excruciation. The sound explodes from my throat shocking the guards behind the man while making him only stumble.

I shiver for a moment before fall to the ground as he says, “So this is the monster Petra was so up in arms about? He fell from my first attack and trap. Pff. She must have lost her touch.”

He cracks his knuckles before he walks up to me with several guards staring. I blink several times before raise myself from the ground. I roll my shoulders saying as I continue my transformation,

“I shall show you just what she fears.”

Ignoring my warning, he channels the air around him. The pressure of the air changes before water pours from the stone above in a thick layer before he lowers his stance. I rush towards him with a detonation of power, but he retaliates. Before I reach him, he unleashes another strike of lightning.

Yet instead of generating yellow streaks through the air like before, blue blasts into the water below channeling a force many times stronger into my blood. Hah. I prepared for this.

The electricity siphons into my metallic bones preventing damage to my internal organs. I convulse without pain for a moment or two before I begin absorbing the water around me as a

I say, “Is that all?”

His expression alters to one of grim focus before two blinding lights appear in each his hands. They radiate spheres of white glare at their handles while the light extends from these spheres shifting from a fog of light into solid sabers that contain the blinding light within their frames.

The walls of the cavern dim once he finishes his enchantment however. They no longer proliferate their light - they mold it into two glowing, holy masses creating a heat that fills the room in the light’s place. He crosses them overhead building a ball of blazing shine as he stares upwards at the missile saying,

“May Gaia lack mercy for the demons of this world.”

I didn’t idle as I watched however. As he lobs the light downwards, his expression cracks at my appearance. Two extra arms jut from my scapula as an extra knee joint pops into place giving my hind legs the appearance of a wolf’s hind legs without fur. My skin changes tone to dark grey while my irises lose their pigment causing them to beam red.

They glow just as my blood does. Collecting so much energy into this frame caused the energy of the soul to emanate from the red liquid. My sternum pops as my rib cage expands until it bursts open revealing a second mouth in my chest. This will prevent them from even attempting a close melee since this appearance makes them imagine me grabbing them and jerking them into the abyss of my body.

Their fear holds a rightful virtue. My jaw extends outwards as bones creak and break, and my teeth grow through my cheeks piercing them as the arms on my back develop hooked claws. They clamp into the roof while I roar with my elongated jaw ripping the remnant of my human cheeks. My throat reveals thousands of multi-jointed legs that squirm for prey. The massive, contorting muscles on my back and arms shift as I move.

I smash my left arm into the stone below me. I smash my right arm after creating a web of cracks. The ball of light from his swords crashes into me searing my skin, but the bloodlust pumping through my veins numbs me to any pain. My frame expands until I crouch in the cavern.

My skin and flesh regenerates as I grin. In the voice of death and demons, I rasp, “Tell me, does your soul splinter? Does it quake? Does it...tremble?”

His knees shake before I crick my neck with an unnatural turn of my head. The lean muscles of my form contort with natural ease as I stare at my fingers for a moment saying, “The only thing stopping me from eating this world is that same student Jack that your kingdom attempts oppressing. Otherwise, I would have consumed every single living thing that exists on this planet.”

I lower my gaze before I stare with my eyes narrowing from my brow as I say, “ So step aside.”

He takes a step back before he shouts,”If you believe my will so weak, then you shall face the consequences of your misconceptions.”

He condenses a shade of blue within his hand as he rears it backwards before he forces it forwards. I dodge sideways, but the blast of energy arcs in the air before it flies towards me. The airy, translucent cloud of blue air slams into me with the matter of the object dematerializing. As it disappears, a kinetic impact smashes me into the side of the stone.

Fractures ebb from stone while my hulking frame rejuvenates the multiple broken bones and broken skin. Agony assails me from the point of contact before I grow several spikes under my chest. The mouth at its center opens shooting several bursts of horns from my chest.

The spikes of keratin fly from my chest as he spawns a square block of green jelly between us. It slows the air circulation in the room while it blurs his appearence behind the opaque cube. The spikes enter the expanse before they slow down two a quarter speed. The man rolls to his side dodging the attack before he channels once more.

I rip myself from the wall before I crawl towards him with my arms crushing through the rock around me. Fire spawns around his gleaming steel armor engulfing him in flames before he rockets towards me.

I grab his shoulders while grabbing his hands crumpling the heated metal in my grasp. The flames change color to black wisps that absorb the light around them putting him in a cloak of shade. Dark, deep pain causes me to falter. My hands jerk backwards from reflexes alone, and he stabs a holy blade of light into my chest.

Heat builds in my chest before the sky blue, kinetic energy crashes into me once more. I lose all sense of direction as I flip in the air, and after I land, my ears pop from the pressure of the room changing.

Lightning builds in the bastard’s fists before he dashes beside me. He shoves his arms and blades into the center of my bloody chest’s open mouth. The electricity fries my nerves since it flows through my blood rather than my bones, and as I convulse, he evokes the heat of his blades.

I grab his sides and puke a flow of acid onto his armor causing him to lose his focus. I press him against me with all 4 arms as I regain control of myself. My flesh molds together before I lean my head towards his helmet.

I bite the edge of it before I rip it off revealing his stunned face. My own body forms around him before I apply enough pressure to make him howl. I say within an inch of his face,

“I won’t kill you since that goes against my plans with Jack, but I won’t leave such an experience empty handed.”

I bellow, “Where’s the alexandrite?”

He grimaces as he lowers his eyebrows steeling himself. I open my mouth before the legs at the back of my throat scramble for his face with minds of their own. They scratch and crawl at his skin before a mushy expanse of flesh rises from my throat as well.

Viens pulse at its pale surface before squirming suckers grow from the mushy expanse. One sucker reaches out onto his face before it begins sucking out his blood with a fluctuating movement before an insect leg tears into his cheek.

Several more tear into his lips before they force his mouth open.The squirming maggot like organ grows towards his throat. Right before it shoots down into the depths of his body, he shouts with a fear spawning from parts of his mind unknown,

“Please, I’ll tell you. Please...Don’t do this.”

I release him from the vice grip of my flesh before I grow an arm from my shoulder. I grab the back of his armor, and I jerk him from around the molded flesh of my arms. He falls out as I reform my jaw and arms for combat if he wishes to continue battling.

This isn’t the case however. Blood pours from his face. He stands for a moment before he stumbles against a wall where he slides downwards. He gasps for breath before he says in a broken voice,

“It’s been hidden on the west side of the city in a warehouse. It’s awaiting an armed escort to the capital, Nelastra. They put very few guards there since they didn’t want to attract attention...I told them that I would handle you whenever you came back.”

He shivers for a moment before I eat my leftover sheet of skin in the chains. Afterwards, I turn towards the exit of the room. The other gemchainers escaped after I transformed, so I pace outwards thudding my steps before he shouts,

“You're leaving me alive?”

I turn towards him saying, “I wouldn’t have hurt you if you didn’t attack me. I wouldn’t have threatened you with a fate worse than death if you’d just told me what I wanted to know.”

I grin as I say, “If you and your empire stay out of my way, then I offer the same curtesy. Otherwise...”

My grin widens blaring my teeth while I say, “You’ve seen what awaits you.”

As I turn away, his body slackens as he breathes out. He places a hand on his chest before he glances around at the wet stone and the signs of our battle. After a moment of pure exasperation, he leans his head back while closing his eyes, but without the limpness of unconscious.

His head remains facing towards the ceiling as he collects himself instead of faltering. Even with the difference in physique, he put forth a grand battle against me. In his youth, he must have been a greater gemchainer than even Petra.

That and his composure shocked me, but he couldn’t face the horror I presented. Humans fear three great and eventual truths - the unknown, the deformation of their body, and the future. I presented a compelling case for fear in two of those specific areas.

I ponder these thoughts as I densify my frame back into Jack’s standard form though taller and larger than before. I didn’t wish for him to die primarily for achieving my own ends. His experience here will send a powerful message to the empire that tries to fight me. I’ve tasted his blood as well, so he’ll never be able to escape me again.

Stray hairs, saliva from exhaling breath, even a few skin cells from opening a door knob will alert me to his presence. Since I’ve been so closely acquainted with him, I’ll be able to track these signals regardless of how small they are. As I leave the entrance of the GC, the haunted echoes of insane laughter fall into my ears. Yes, he’ll prove quite the deterrent.

Relishing this triumph, I squirm in the shadows of the city. I analyze a golem for information of the cities layout. The golem accepts my tampering without resistance due to the human's interference allowing me to draw something useful from their grotesque practices.

After pacing through and over several alleyways, I reach the western district of the city devoted to storage. Finding the specific warehouse proves simple since one warehouse has guards protecting its entrance.

They hide their guarding well however. One leans against a pole surveying the two corners while two others hide on opposite areas. The angles of their views split in the precise way needed to guard the warehouse’s entrances and numerous windows, but I devised a method for escaping their notice.

I lay in an alleyway three blocks down before I widen my body until I lay on the ground flattened into a wide sheet of muscle and bone. I roll my physique into a tube before I burrow using a set of serrated teeth from my mouth.

I dig under the three blocks before I reach under the warehouse, but instead of rising through the floor, I empty a screen of earth with my teeth and claws before I unravel underground. I reach through the gaps in the wall before I shove my thin body through the gap in the wood and stone of the warehouse.

The wideness of my body allows me to disperse my weight preventing me from creating a plethora of sound while I evade the ground of the warehouse below. Their last trap appeared beneath me, so by crawling through the walls, I prevent myself from triggering the same traps as before.

From a crack in the wood, I peer into the warehouse revealing around twenty guards distributed evenly across the warehouse’s cargo. The smell of the alexandrite reveals the location of it, but trekking through this mountain of guards will prove cumbersome.

So I slither towards the southern edge of the warehouse putting me within fifty feet of the jewel before I crawl onto the rafters of the roof dispersing my weight on my sheet like frame. After I lay above the gem, I condense my frame into a dense ball groans escape the wood above me.

The guards pay no notice however. They assume a creak or two from the old warehouse is natural and to be expected. Perfect.

I place two of my now clawed hands into the slits of the wood before I breathe a lungful of air. My right shoulder holds a slab of weighted enamel while my legs ready for an explosion of force. I’m ready.

I rip through the wood like thick paste before I fall onto the chest crushing the wood beneath me. After raising my arm, I plunge the muscled appendage into the wood before I tear the gem from the expanse.

I crouch as the deep bellowing of gemchains enters my ears before I leap through the air escaping the trap laid in the box as a set of fiery chains wraps and crumbles the wood around the box.

Several guards shout before I land on the ground where I lean backwards while digging my left arm into the ground. I pull forward with my left arm jerking my body forward in a crescent towards the ground before I sling downwards.

I push up with my right leg propelling me up from the ground and forward before I jolt across the ground like thunder. The wall ahead of me expands until I lean my shoulder towards the wall. The sea of wood and stone caves inwards, but it holds against my onslaught of force.

I snap myself from the wall before I mimic Jack’s form with punching. I step forwards before I turn my body into the stone where my fist lands at an angle. Skin rips from my fingers before they snap under the force of my blow.

My arm’s bone holds however, so as I gasp in agony at the abrupt, snapping pain, the wall collapses. I grab my hand with one of my four arms before a shard of sharpened lead stabs through my chest racking me further with fire and searing misery.

The poison of the lead shard leaks through my blood with each pulse. My mind blanks from the injuries before I gasp for Jack. He sleeps in his catatonic slumber despite my call before another spear stabs through me. Piercing my shoulder, I lodge into the edge of the wood brimming every nerve with electricity.

My muscles fidget and squirm before I rasp out a cry of pain. An orange light grows from behind me. After a second, a warmth grows with the light from my back before I plunge into flames. The sudden anguish overcomes my endurance, so I scramble off the wall dislodging the spear from my shoulder before I fall on my back racking me with greater agony.

The spear in my chest pushes upwards before I cry out grabbing it and pull it out. This is no gentle tug - I sheer it from my chest with a vicious snap sending it through the hand of a gemchainer preventing him from channeling another torment at the cost of a soul.

I roll to my side dodging another spear before I roar with all the power of my chest. The sharp sound causes the gemchainers nearby to stumble before I dash through the wall scraping some of my melted skin off.

I spit acid on the skin after I reach outside the warehouse before I jump onto the side of the wall. The claws of my hands lodge into the rock firmly, but my left foot misses its grip. It scrapes at the side of the wood for several seconds before a gemchainer walks from out of the hole in the wall.

He channels for a moment before a deep, burning cold grows under me. My foot takes hold however, so I leap upwards right before a set of twelve black spires of ice grow from the wall. One scrapes my foot numbing it, but I metabolize the poison as I climb the wall by stabbing my fingers into the stone.

My left arm’s broken fingers puncture my mind with pain as I stab the edges of the nubs into the stone before I crawl over the wall. I reach the roof before I regenerate the limb along with the skin on the surface of my body.

The sound of channeling enters my ears once more, but I dash across the flat stone roofs outpacing the speed of the chainers on the ground. After several minutes of running, I reach the forest where I meander across stones and sticks without crushing them.

This ensures no one will track my movements, and after several more minutes of travel, I reach the cave where I crawl through the entrance. In a mindless stupor, my eyes glaze as I cross a mile of cave.

After reaching Aether’s hole, I leap through before I stumble as I land chipping stone with my landing..

The fresh air and breeze through the cavern cools my super heated muscles while I perspire after the fire and the intensity of my previous effort. My body radiates heat to the touch like a furnace as I pace through the corridors before Sophia walks up saying,

“Why were you so loud when you landed-”

She blinks several times before she looks away. I stare at my four arms before she leans against the wall with her eyes gaping. I forgot to transform back into Jack’s previous form. Fuck . I say,

“Shut your eyes and block your ears. Now.”

She covers her ears with her hands before the snapping of bone and tendons smashes against her side. She shivers before I return to normal, though larger, and I toss the gem towards her feet before I stumble past her.

I reach the room as she stares at the gem saying, “What the hell? How did you get that? Why didn’t you just get a normal gem?”

I move the slab of ruby covering my room before I say as I stare at her fear filled eyes, “I understand the soul’s suffering, Sophia. I refuse to give any being a lesser container. That Alexandrite,”

I lift my hand pointing at the gem for a moment before I say, “That holds souls without any degeneration...I don’t understand why, but that is how it operates from what I’ve seen from Gaia and Aether..”

She looks at my crumbling clothing before she says with her utter disbelief permeating through the room, “You went through all that so that the soul you took would have a more comfortable experience for soul forging?”

The tiniest and most minute grin grows on my face, but it takes on a different tone than the wide, mocking smiles I’ve given her in the past. Instead, a genuine, albeit small smirk grows on my lips as I say,

“Of course...Not a bad question. You’re learning..”

She stares at me for a moment before I break my gaze as I enter my room. I close the panel of gem before I fall into bed with my conscious fading. My body sinks into the dirt several inches as I lose conscious.

I wonder what we’ll dream...