Emerging from waters as dark as tar, pushing away many bones and floating, bloated pieces of flesh as he came out, Gregory crawled onto dry ground, the dust-like soil clinging to his body.
Looking left, no undeads, nothing but an empty space.
Looking right, nothing of interest to see there either, only a few undead trees, piles of weapons and bone shard sticking out of the ground.
Straight ahead, a place beyond mesure, seemingly made mostly out of rotten flesh and bones weaved together, an immense and nonsensical building stood, it cast no shadows whatsoever, above it, stood the source of light of this place, some sort of pale miniature sun.
The miasma filling the Undead Empire prevented any light from the real suns to come through, most undeads had dark vision, so it's use was a mystery but Gregory didn't focus on that and instead paid attention the set of boots that had just appeared in front of him.
Looking up, he saw a mad clad in nothing but dark, a familiar face, a triangular black mask with faint red stripes on it, a tall-crowned, narrow-brimmed, conical hat and a long dark cloak, this was the man he had met the time he had escaped from the lake.
Not far, behind him, another man in dark was there, wearing a mask of similar design except from its shape with was more oval and simple overall, his wore a battered coat, his wrists were exposed, showing pronouced but compact muscles with veins popping out.
"Hello again Gregory" spoke the first man as he knelt to get to Gregory's level, tipping his hat as well.
"Who are you?" spoke the otherworlder after spitting a mouthful of dark water to the side.
"I am MNRB, but that's a bit of a mouthful for you, just refer to me as merchant, back there, it's BGRB, do not refer to him" spoke the merchant as he tilted his head.
"Not that you care, but we are creations of the Father-Lord, no need to introduce yourself, I know you well Gregory, I have been observing you from afar and I share the thoughts of the Creator, you aren't very noteworthy, this must be why it chose you" speaking cryptically, the merchant just shook his head while sighing loudly.
"Do you remember our little deal?" he then asked, the man in the back wasn't even looking anymore and was just kicking the soft soil.
He didn't the otherworlder's answer, his confused expression was enough.
"Oh, Gregory... Little Gregory, where do you think your new powers came from? You think you got them by luck? You paid for them, although it appears you forgot, it was a multi-transaction deal, you would pay the rest of the price for it once it appeared you would near your goal" explained the man before suddenly springing to his feet and swinging his arms to the side.
Making his cloak flutter flamboyantly, the merchant chuckled to himself.
"My dear! You passed a contract for power, power to (maybe), defeat Lust of the seven cardinal sins! Can you remember the price? Can you recall the price you paid to avenge those three... Hum, individuals? Characters? I wanted to say their names but I forgot, probably because they didn't matter" the second man laughed in the distance.
"Their name is Mirlini, Allema and Kolgat!" Gregory stood up despite the fatigue and grabbed the man's collar.
"I think you meant to conjugate that some other way, their name 'was' pspsps, long ear and green woman" taunted the merchant as the other one had already grabbed Gregory's arm, easily pulling it off as he clutched with dangerous force.
"Now, BGRB don't break his arm, let him at least go in his fight with his four limbs" spoke the merchant as he waved his hand in the air.
Feeling the circulation returning to his arm, Gregory stepped back from the two strangely named men.
"Due to your state at the time, you paid quite the hefty price for some retrograde abilities, you'll excuse me for taking advantage of this business opportunity, anyways, just so you know, I just collected most of your lifespan, you'll die anywhere in between... Three days and a month, sorry for the inaccuracy, the thing on your back is messing things up a bit..." revealed the merchant as he pulled a bunch of papers, reading through them as he spoke.
"...Less than a month actually, you better hurry up, I know vengeance is best served cold but you need to be alive to do it, yes, because I will also take your soul, mind and body once you die, so no undead resurrection and eternal hatred, you'll be going to the knight factory and be experimented on, any questions esteemed customer?" the hideous grin hidden being the mask was clear in Gregory's mind as he heard this last few words.
Being told that he was going to die in less than a month no matter what he did was quite shocking for him but he ignored this and simply latched onto something the man said, he had never imagined what he would do after getting revenge anyways.
"What do you by, the thing on my back?" he asked and the merchant just tilted his head to the side like a focused cat.
"Are you not aware? You have an apparition clinging to you, you don't know what an apparition is, do you? Figure it out yourself" the merchant grasped a carved magic stone and broke it by clenching it, causing both him and the other man to disappear immediately.
Right as the two left, the piles of weapons and certain spot in the ground suddenly moved and swelled, the two had been hiding themselves and Gregory from the hidden undeads but now that they were gone, the unwanted's life force was clear for them to sense.
'I'll have to get through them...' he thought as he brought his sword out as powerful undeads rushed toward him.
'They're taking formations too, this is just great...'