–...and then, out of nowhere, he pulls out a comically large spoon, – said Sol.
–So?... – Ludwig asked again, while Martha was laughing.
–The joke is that, because the spoon is comically large, he still will be able to eat all the ice cream, despite he will still eat "only a spoonful", as he promised, – Sol explained, speaking in completely serious tone.
–Yeah... Gen Z humor is a mystery to me...
As soon as Ludwig said this, the carriage stopped. There was some noise outside. Seems like two soldiers who were riding next to the horses pulling the carriage were trying to hit something. Without waiting for the problem to be resolved by the kingdom's loyal subjects, Sol opened the door and got out of the carriage. Everyone else followed him, deciding that it was better to immediately understand the situation. It turned out that the carriage's path was blocked by huge pillars consisting of a red, slightly pulsating material covered with veins. It was flesh. At the ends, about 70 meters above the ground, these pillars became sharp... and every single one had a human corpse impaled on them, almost at the very top of the pillars.
The columns stood close to each other, going quite far to the right and left. The soldiers, taken aback, tried to cut it with their swords, but the blades bounced off as if from a stone, leaving no trace on these pillars. The four heroes came closer... or rather, three. Marren, as soon as he saw these huge columns, froze in place and began to tremble slightly. Ludwig, looking at Sol, said, with a voice full of sarcasm:
–Well, shine, our master of deduction.
Sol looked at the pillars, and then, thanks to his eyes, he was immediately able to determine the following:
–These things are 100% made from the flesh of different living beings. There are no bones. There is no blood. They have been here for a long time. I have no idea who created this and how...
–I have a pretty good idea... – Marren suddenly said, taking a step forward. – I know those who could do this...
The other three turned to look at him. Ludwig was about to ask, "Who is this"... but first decided not to torment the armored guards. "Leave it, we will clear the way ourselves!" he said to the soldiers, who nodded and returned to their horses.
–So... who created this, in your opinion? – Sol asked.
–The cult of the flesh, or, as they call themselves, Depari... these are fanatics who once turned me into what... into what I am now, – Marren answered in a trembling voice, lowering his head.
–Errm... I may be blind, but... what are you? – asked Ludwig.
–I... I am no longer a human, but an ugly monster, unworthy of life...
–Cool, we have 2 dead insides in our team, – said Ludwig. – Well, if you've already started it, then tell us your oh-so-tragic backstory. From the very beginning, please.
–Okay... it all started... when I was born...
–No that level of "from the very beginning"!
~*~
The Byanerions were a family of noble origins from the kingdom of Arai, who, however, had been losing their fortunes dramatically over the past few generations, forcing them to sell off their fiefs one by one. On the verge of ruin, Marren's father decided to start a dangerous adventure hunting the legendary monsters in order to earn money, however, he died on this hunt. He did not die from from the beasts of legends, which probably do not exist, but from highway bandits. In order to have enough money for a house and food, his widow sold her 13-year-old child, as she thought, into slavery. Although, it didn't really matter to her – whoever those strange people in meat masks were, they paid well.
For 3 years Marren lived in dank stone catacombs somewhere deep under the city. Weird strangers wearing white robes with red patterns in the shape of a snake entwining an apple fed him food that made him want to vomit. Every now and then, they chained Marren to a table and did strange kinds of manipulations with his body, sometimes opening him up and then sewing him back up. All this happened without painkillers; however, Marren did not feel pain. They did these horrific things with the help of unusual magic, so that there was not even a trace left of it. One day, he heard one of the cultists tell another that they were going to make a "new deity" out of his body, and that Marren's body "perfectly tolerates mutations." After that day, whenever he thought about it, he would instantly throw up.
After 3 years of such a life, he noticed that everyone around him began to wear, on top of their usual masks created from pulsating flesh, other, ordinary fabric masks, and soon switched to masks of plague doctors, completely stuffed with herbs from the inside. And soon Marren realized why – during one of the "operations", the mask, poorly adjusted, fell from the cultist's face, after which he immediately began to choke, his skin became covered with cadaverous spots while he was still alive, after which he immediately fell dead. The rest who were on that operation did not care; however, Marren realized that now he was dangerous for these people. Sitting in his cell, he continually experimented on rats that sometimes ended up in that dungeon. It turned out that Marren can now release energy from his body, which infects surrounding creatures with diseases, and soon he learned to control it. In addition, it must also be as a result of these experiments that Marren, first doing it by accident and then learning to do it intentionally, could turn his blood, while it was still in the body, into a poison with any biological effect.
One day, when two fanatics were taking him to an operation, Marren deliberately fell face first right onto a stone lying in a long corridor. As the cultist picked him up, Marren spat blood from his mouth, landing on the cultist's mask. The blood that Marren had chemically altered immediately evaporated and thus allowed the fanatic to inhale COCl2, passing through all the herbs in the mask. For several seconds he writhed in pain, and after 3 seconds, he fell dead. Unprepared for Marren to resist, the second cultist tried to grab the 16-year-old captive, but the boy knocked off his protective mask with a blow to his head. The cultist soon became covered in blisters and lost his life. In a normal situation, Marren would have been very sad and would have prayed for their souls, although he knew that there were no gods in this world, but time was running out.
After finding a key on one of the bodies, the boy freed his hands and, taking a breath, removed the cult clothes from one of the fanatics. Under his clothes, this... man was a mountain of flesh, only vaguely reminiscent of a humanoid creature. What Marren had previously thought were "masks of flesh" turned out to be the indescribably disgusting faces of these creatures. Swallowing so as not to vomit, Marren put these clothes on you and, already knowing these corridors well, ran to the passage through which the cultists always exited. Passing through the door, he saw that it was here that they kept the masks, which means that if he encounters further sectarians... they will be defenseless. Acting purely on instinct, without understanding why, Marren took one of the plague masks and, after examining it, put it on himself.
Quietly making his way through unfamiliar corridors now, Marren did not encounter any obstacles on his way. In the rooms that branched off from the main corridor, there were sometimes people... although, most likely, they couldn't be called "people". Anyways, they were few in number, and did not pay attention to the figure in the same robe as them, walking along the corridor. Having passed through many floors, having already lost count of them, we open the next door, Marren finally found himself in the city, emerging from some basement. All this happened right under the city, and no one suspected what was happening underground. Just the thought of it made Marren tremble. He wanted to run to call the city guard, but... "Why, if I can do it myself?", he thought and turned around. Trembling with fear of what he was about to do, he pointed his right hand into the passage leading underground. Nothing was visible, but he sent plague, smallpox and cholera there. After that, he closed the wooden doors and filled them with boxes that were nearby. Now everyone who was there must die.
Trying to forget about this horror, Marren began to live by earning money, first from hunting – the ability to endlessly create any poison, because his blood was immediately replenished, was useful. However, then he realized that it would be much more profitable to become an alchemist and sell these same poisons. So he lived, selling his altered blood for all occasions. Apparently, because of these experiences, he stopped aging – now his body remains at the age of 16 years. The sale of poisons did not bring huge profits, however, he was finally able to live a quiet life, forgetting about this nightmare...
~*~
–Or... or so I thought... but here they are, these crazy flesh things, just like Depari creations...
–Hey, hey, Marren, calm down... now you are stronger, and even more so, you are with three of us, we will protect you, if anything happens... – Ludwig said in an agitated voice, trying to calm Marren down; it was not visible under his mask, but from his trembling voice, it was clear that now Marren was about to cry.
–I agree with Ludwig. While you are with us, you are not in danger from some crazy fanatics, – Sol said. – Okay, I'll destroy this meaty barrier now.
With a sigh, the prince walked over to the pillars of flesh and pulled out his sword. He made exactly one horizontal cut. The columns were not cut, because the blade went straight through them without leaving a scratch... but it didn't matter, because immediately the pillar through which the sword went simply disappeared. From the hole in the ground that was left after the column, it became clear that these things go deep underground. A body fell from above and was impaled on this pillar. Sol picked him up with his sword and gently lowered him to the ground. What was strange was that the blade did not go right through, but turned out to be quite touchable.
–Hey, Sol... what did you do with that meat pike now?... – Ludwig asked.
–I erased it from reality... well, I think so. I'm not sure myself. But it's a fact – it doesn't exist anymore, – Sol answered, gradually repeating this process with other columns that were blocking the carriage's passage. – I can switch any bladed weapon in my hands between causing it to deal normal physical damage... and having it cut the very concepts of the objects it passes through, – after these words, he finished clearing the road and turned to the others, continuing to speak in an absolutely calm voice as if it was no big deal. – Well, not only objects. I can, for example, erase something abstract. Such as "gravity" or "color yellow". In this case, such concepts will disappear from the entire multiverse. I haven't tried it, but it should work... is something wrong?
The other three heroes, and in addition to them the soldiers and the coachman, looked at Sol with shock on their faces. Martha spoke first:
–Look at Marren, he can simply poison anything, I can create extremely mediocre portals. Ludwig simply can... shot... and you erase concepts from this plane of existence, and even talk about it calm as ever, as if anyone can do it?!
–Let's start with the fact that I didn't know what you all can do. None of us shared information about our abilities with each other. Let's continue with the fact that I, as I already said, am a descendant of the divine beings. Of course, I will be more powerful than those who are human, – replied Clain, not expressing a drop of pride in his voice, although his words showed how much he was now mocking the others deeply inside.
–You know, I don't believe your bullshit about being the messiah... but I can understand why you developed a god complex, given your abilities. It doesn't change the fact that you're a freak, though, – Ludwig said and shrugged.
Then the coachman spoke:
–Mr. Sol, thank you for your help, but... after these... things disappeared, there are now huge holes in the ground. The carriage will not pass here...
However, they didn't have time to think about it – the ground began to shake under their feet. The flesh columns that still remained began to move and twist. It became clear that these were not just columns – either someone was controlling them... or these were the limbs of something that was now located directly under the heroes. The shaking of the earth became so strong that the ground itself rose and fell like waves at the storm. The carriage overturned and fell on its side along with the coachman. The soldiers crouched to the ground, like the heroes, since this is the most logical thing to do during an earthquake. But it was a mistake...
–Careful! – Sol shouted, trying to keep his voice calm, although it did not sound very convincing.
Sol, as well as the others, when they heard him, quickly jumped back from their lying position, flying dozens of meters away from the place where the meat pillars were. The ground opened up, revealing a colossal rounded mouth with a bunch of bones instead of teeth. From inside, it moved in a circle, grinding everything that got inside, including the earth itself, as well as the carriage with the coachman and horses, since they had neither time nor physical characteristics to jump as heroes did. The same fate befell the soldiers, who were unable to move as quickly due to their armor. The meat "columns", or, rather, meat tentacles, bent down and tried to either pin down or grab the heroes, but they were already far enough away for this not to happen.
Terrifying creature began to rise, lifting entire layers of earth with it, which forced the heroes to retreat more and more. As the shadow covered them more and more, they expressed different emotions – Marren was trembling with fear, Ludwig's left eye was twitching, and Martha threw herself on Ludwig's neck shouting "we will all die here!" Sol Clain, clutching the sword in his right hand, waited for this monster to emerge from the ground entirely. It didn't take long – quickly enough the monster dug out of the ground, blocking the sun and casting a shadow on the heroes. It was literally the size of a mountain – this mass of meat and bones exceeded 2 kilometers in height, and its shape was appropriate – this thing could surely cover an entire town. The creature made... a sound. It didn't sound like a roar, or indeed anything that a living creature could emit. However, this sound caused the ears of the four heroes to become somewhat blocked.
–So, how are we going to kill this... thing?! – Martha shouted.
–Well, if it's big... then it's easier to hit! Give me my weapon, Martha! – Ludwig shouted back.
Confused, Martha began to move her hands in the air, and soon... a weapon appeared in Ludwig's hands. Or, rather, two weapons – 2 pistols, which looked like elegant products created from intertwined metal pipes that came together at the ends. After all, it was not a firearm in the strict sense, but a magical weapon. Grabbing these "pistols", one in each hand, Ludwig began firing them at the mass of flesh. He didn't pull the trigger – everything was controlled by thought. These weapons created energy where a normal pistol would have a muzzle and released it at the target. In addition, with each shot Ludwig fired, a copy of these pistols appeared in the air above his head and automatically fired along with the others. However, even when there were over 30 of these things... all these measly shots were like a mosquito bite to a mountain of meat.
–Careful, it attacks! – cried Marren.
Indeed, it attacked. A limb grew out of the huge meat thing and stretched towards the four. Ludwig, Martha and Marren jumped back, but Sol did not move. When this appendage of flesh was close enough, Clain made a single move, sharply raising his sword from the bottom up, making a slash. Of course, as always, this did not cause any physical harm to the tentacle... however, it immediately disappeared, along with the entire monster... and everything it had absorbed, including the carriage and soldiers. There was nothing more than that. Now in front of them there was a huge abyss where this creature had previously been underground. Sol took a deep breath and exhaled.
–It was close. If I started moving even a little longer, I would be dead...note to self, don't do that again, – he said.
While he was saying this, seemingly to himself, the others looked at him again, their eyes bulging. Now Ludwig was the first to speak:
–Do you really need our help on this journey?
–Not sure. However, it will be at least more pleasant together, – he replied, sheathing his sword.
–Mm... Mr. Sol... and when you previously destroyed... erased the existence of the columns... limbs of this monster, then why did its main body remain? – Marren asked, still trembling.
–Because in my mind I was washing exactly the "meat columns", and not "what they are attached to from below." Sorry, it was my mistake.
–No seriously! I couldn't even imagine what we would do with that damn thing... and you dealt with it with one blow?!
–Technically, I didn't hit a single blow on "that damn thing." Okay, it's not that important. The important thing is that if it had normal intelligence and agility, it would not have worked. Moreover...
Sol stopped and looked to the side. Popping noises were heard from there. Everyone else turned their gaze there, and Marren immediately trembled again, stepping back. Sitting on a tree branch, clapping his hands, was a human – indeed a human and not meat abomination – in a white cloak with a hood and sleeves, on which there were many elegant red lines. The cloak came together in front, so it was impossible to see what was underneath it. However, the head and hands of the unknown person were completely human. He smiled slightly, closing his bright red eyes, which contrasted greatly with his crystal white hair.
–To be honest, I already forgot that I left Quasimodo there... and he grew quite up, devouring all's, as I see. What a shame that thou killed him...
Everyone prepared for battle and pressed themselves firmly into the ground, preparing to escape the attack, but the unknown person, along with his clothes, first instantly merged with the tree, and then appeared behind the backs of the heroes. Only Sol and Marren managed to turn around. However, this person, whoever he was, did not attack.
–Be not afeard, I am not angry. True, it would be a problem would he stay alive. It is just... I would rather eat him myself.
–Are you... are you a member of Depari?! – Marren said, pointing his knife forward.
–Oh, no, mine dear Marren, I am not a member of Depari. I am the founder and eternal leader... and no, thou cannot infect me or poison me, heed my words, I feel that thou are throwing all the diseases that thou know in my direction. I am sad to say, but it will not work the body of mine. But thy body, on the other hand...
The cultist had to pause, because a magical projectile from Ludwig's weapon was already flying at him. The body of the unnamed man split in two, allowing the "bullet" to pass further, and then united again. "Tsk," said Ludwig.
–Well, I do not crave to fight thou... yet. First, allow us introduce ourselves, gentlemen!... and the lady, too. My name is Notredame, and this, as I wot, is Marren. And the rest... what are thy names?
–Don't try to talk us down... your creation killed innocent soldiers and the driver. And you still dare to show up like that and call yourself a gentleman?! – Ludwig shouted.
–Oh, yes, I do dare! At least because none of thou shall do anything to me. Ay, the power of the sword that the young man with white hair is bearing is terrifying, yet... he quoth it himself. I hast enough brains to not let myself get hurt. And the rest... your pathetic semblance of magic, shooter, shall not harm me. And Marren's powers, as thou all hast seen, are absolutely useless. Besides...
Suddenly, all four heroes lost the ability to move. The muscles in their bodies froze, refusing to obey the mind. The man who identified himself as Notredame took a step and bent down. Now his face was a couple of centimeters from Marren's face, and the leader of Depari himself looked him straight in the eyes. Soon, he shrugged his shoulders and, standing up to his full height, walked away. After that, the four heroes regained control of their bodies.
–Fragment of the Deity, if thy spirit is firm-set, then thou will continue this travel. Your path shall lead you... straight to me. Yet if thou are afeard... then thou are initially unworthy of becoming the new God, – Notredame said to Marren.
Marren could not resist and, having regained control of his body, tightly gripped a knife and lunged, trying to pierce the cultist, but he only gracefully took a step to the side, letting the strike pass him by.
–Oh, I could dispatch thou all hither, yet... – he began, but Sol cut him off.
–...but you will deliberately wait until we become stronger and can kill you. Yes, yes, we already understand, you cannot overcome the plot armor. Go run along and hope that we never meet again.
–Such hardly words for someone whom cannot hit me... well, I still want thou to deliver Marren to the north alive, so... adieu, heroes!
Having said this, Notredame transformed into countless worms, which all crawled into the ground. Sol looked at this and shrugged.
–What a show off. Once he fully was underground, he used teleportation spells. Just why did he feel the need to do that entire spectacle, if he could just teleport... – said Clain, after which, unexpectedly for everyone, he continued. – Actually, I have a question. You said it yourself – I am much superior to you. So... will you move on, or leave it to me?
–I... I'll go. I must face these monsters... and destroy them. I will stay determined, – Marren answered, finally calming down his trembling.
–Ha! Well said, little one. I'm going too. Initially, I signed up precisely because I needed to return to the Empire. I have... unfinished business there, – Ludwig said, grinning; the pistols that were in his hands had already disappeared.
–Well, this brute is helpless without me, so I do not get a choice... – Martha said, spreading her arms and smiling.
–Then let's go... although, first we need to figure out how to get to the other side, – Sol said, looking at the huge hole in the ground, more than a dozen kilometers wide.
–I can make it, – Martha said and began to move her hand in the air, drawing some symbols with green energy.
When she finished, a portal appeared in front of the heroes. Having passed through it, they found themselves at the other end of this huge hole... after which Martha fell to the ground, leaned on it with her hands, began to sweat and almost suffocate.
–Hey, what's wrong?! – Marren said, kneeling down.
–Everything... okay... I told you that I only create mediocre portals... also it requires me a lot of effort, so... yes, this will be the answer to the silent question "why can't I just transfer us to the Temple of Origin"... ha... Ha...
–O...okay, I understand...
Having said that, Marren, without any trouble, picked up Martha and lifted her from the ground, in response to which she screamed, but did not try to fall.
–Since you can't move on your feet, I'll carry you. Let's go, we still have a long way to go.
–Well, it's just that Ludwig usually carried me on such occasions... and he doesn't know how to treat ladies at all, – said Martha, looking at Ludwig, who pretended not to have heard anything.
–Do you think, Sol, you can take another carriage in the nearest city? Since we lost this one... along with the horses and coachman, – Ludwig asked, starting to walk forward, and the rest followed him.
–For sure. No matter who the city mayor is, my authority is still higher.
–By the way, Marren... you said that you don't age at all. How old are you, exactly? - Ludwig said, closing one eye and looking sideways at Marren with the other.
–I am 40 years old.
Ludwig and Martha looked at each other, and then shouted in unison:
–HE IS OLDER THAN ME!