Jacob walked through the long narrow hall reluctantly. A red flash of Magelight floated above his head and provided a dim illumination to his surroundings. He hadn't decided what he was going to do yet.
On one hand it felt like assimilating the dead Demon Lords was probably his best shot at getting out of this whole rebellion thing alive. But on the other…. Jacob felt a twinge of nausea. Absorbing animals and insects was one thing, but assimilating something that used to be sentient? That used to be a person? That felt like cannibalism, or something equally twisted.
Then again, would it even work? Jacob has only ever assimilated small things that were recently deceased. Spiders, flies, and glowworms. Small pests that were easily crushed with a well aimed shoe. But something as large as a human...well demon… corpse?
And would bodies that had been dead for years, and in some cases centuries, have any power to give him?
Jacob slowed as he reached the door leading to the entryway to the 1st crypt. It was an ornate door, carved from black marble and inlaid with shimmering red garnets. The gems caught the light from Jacob's magelight and made it twist and dance around the hall in shimmering red patterns.
A giant face was carved on the door. A man with long pointed teeth, and a beard that traced its way to the floor. The man's eyes seemed to glare at Jacob accusingly.
Jacob reached for the door and touched it with the palm of his hand. The stone felt cold and smooth against his skin.
Jacob closed his eyes tightly. "Am I really doing this?" He asked himself softly.
He stood there, hand touching the door, magelight bobbing above his head for what felt like hours.
Then Jacob pushed the door open.
The door swung with a slight hiss. Lights exploded in the room as torches lit on the walls. Jacob stepped into the crypt.
Odd, Jacob thought, that they would have these fancy lights that turn on in here and not outside in the hallway or the room before it. Probably for dramatic effect or some other ridiculous nonsense. Demons.
The crypt's floor sparkled with obsidian glass. They contrasted with the blood red walls made from crystal. Carvings of the 12th demon lord, Nergal the Diseased, covered the walls. There Nergal was sacking a major city. There he was again fighting a dragon. Here Nergal was leading his armies to victory.
And there his body was sitting on a black throne in the center of the room.
Jacob approached Nergal's remains cautiously. He had been there once before, when he had first arrived in this bizarre world. But back then, Jacob had been more focused on why he, of all people, would be summoned to a fantasy world and told to be a Demon King. He had focused less on the withered remains of his immediate predecessor as Demon King.
Indeed, Jacob had not really heard much about Nergal the Diseased except for his name, the fact that he was Jacob's immediate predecessor, and that Nergal had enjoyed eating cats. The last of which had resulted in the palace's rampant rodent population.
Reluctantly, Jacob took a step towards the throne. His silk slippers, lacking any traction, slipped against the smooth obsidian floor. Jacob felt a sudden moment of vertigo, and fell flat on his back with a loud THUD.
Jacob yelped as pain raced up his backside and spine.
Jacob tried to get back up. Placing his hands on the ground and pushing. But the moment he put weight back on his slippers they slid again.
Jacob found himself once again sprawled on the obsidian floor with pain racing throughout his body. "Stupid floor," Jacob hissed. He paused. "Stupider shoes. Stupid. STUPID shoes…"
Jacob reached his hands down to his feet and pulled the silk slippers off, and then with a look of disgust Jacob threw them away from him.
And towards Nergal the Diseased's rotting remains.
The slippers collided with Nergal' body. The corpse unceremoniously toppled off of its throne and landed on the ground. There was a distinctive breaking noise, almost like glass shattering, as the impact destroyed several of Nergal's aging bones.
Jacob winced.
"Did not mean for that to happen," Jacob said apologetically. "I'm er...sorry about that."
Jacob waited for a moment.
The corpse did not say anything.
Jacob felt an overwhelming urge to kick himself for thinking that a dead body would say something to him. It was followed closely by a sense of shame for having knocked a dead guy over.
Jacob rose to his bare feet. The stone felt almost like ice on his toes. Slowly, Jacob walked over to Nergal's body. Jacob winced, as he noticed that most of it had been reduced to dust by the fall.
"Yeah…" Jacob murmured. "There's nothing worse I can do to you right?"
Jacob reached a hand out, reluctantly, trying to build up his nerve.
"I mean," Jacob half said to himself. "I've already done a real number on your creepy dead body effigy thingy."
His hand brushed against Nergal's head. The dead skin felt like rough paper, and the skull beneath reminded Jacob of a broken eggshell. "I...I need to do this," Jacob said.
"It's the only way I can survive," Jacob felt a twinge of guilt as he remembered Alberich's words to him. "It's the only way I can lead this kingdom to prosperity," Jacob added softly.
Jacob tightened his jaw. "Assimilate,"
Nergal's corpse dissolved into tendrils of black smoke, and Jacob inhaled as they drifted into him.
Nausea and pain slammed into Jacob like an ocean liner into an iceberg. He landed on his back hard. There was a distinctive twisting pain in Jacob's stomach. It felt like a rat was desperately trying to claw its way out. There was a feeling like someone was drilling holes on either side of Jacob's head. His mouth tasted like old pennies.
Jacob was aware that someone was screaming. He could hear them wailing and begging for the pain to stop. With a dull thought he realized that it was him.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the pain stopped. It vanished from Jacob's body completely, as if it were drained out of him. Jacob lay there for several long minutes, taking slow tired breaths. Reluctantly, Jacob pushed himself up to a sitting position.
The status screen greeted him almost immediately.
"Demon King Nergal Assimilated,"
"Level 6 Acheived. Level 7 Achieved. Level 8 Achieved. Level 9 Achieved. Level 10 Achieved."
Jacob caught his breath. "5 levels?" He whispered, "Just like that?"
The screen then updated. "Posion Magic Affinity Gained. Spell: Acid Spray Gained. Wind Magic Affinity Gained. Spell: Air Slash Gained. Hybrid Spell: Hell's Miasma Level 1 Achieved."
Jacob blinked. "And so many spells! This is-"
He was cut off as the screen was updated a third time. "Skill: Ancestral Guidance-Nergal Gained."
Jacob frowned. "Ancestral Guidance? What does that mean?"
"IT MEANS, YOU PATHETIC LOWER LIFE FORM.��� A voice hissed from behind Jacob. "THAT YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO…."
Jacob turned around slowly. Floating behind Jacob, was a red light in the shape of a man's head. The head had a long ragged beard, and beady birdlike eyes that glared at Jacob hatefully.
Jacob swallowed. He had seen that face before. After all, it was the face that had been on the door to this room. And the face slapped onto almost every carving on these walls. The face of the man Jacob had just assimilated, when he had been alive.
"12th Demon King Nergal," Jacob said.