"We have enough to last for a while," Captain Mallory reported.
"How long?" Erik asked, as he looked at a report in his hand which displayed the food quantity, quality and the type.
Captain Mallory calculated in her mind for a while before saying, "Three months, for military and…" She hesitated for a while, before saying, her lips pressed together letting out a forced smile, her head hanging a little low, "Three weeks if we were to include the civilians."
After which there was silence in the war room. While Erik read through the report, Sergeant Collum kept shifting his sitting position on the chair, clearly uncomfortable about something, but Erik left him as he read through the entire report before saying, "They still hid it."
He was talking about the nobles, to which Mallory nodded. Despite her being quick enough, they were able to hide more than half of their stock.
"Bloody Ingrates." Sergeant Collum said in a suppressed voice, clearly angry.
Erik turned toward the Sergeant who hurriedly stood up and was about to say something, but Erik interrupted him with a question.
"Nothing that can tell their purpose?"
Collum could only swallow his long scripted garbage apology and nodded, embarrassedly. He had great confidence in his techniques, and had promised that he would get what the young master needed, but he failed successfully.
It turns out that other than the task given to them; they knew nothing about the Alliance's purpose of attack. If they ever did, a powerful mage capable of casting erasure magic erased it.
Erik nodded. It did not surprise him. This entire set of events was suspicious to him. The timing was off, the use of sleepers was weird and why use explosives when assassins could've easily done the job?
'I'm still missing something.'
Erik said, but before he could further think about it. His chest tightened, an uncomfortable feeling arose, making him clutch it tightly. If one could look inside him, they could see the black mist now had a companion, a red mist that formed an outline of his beating heart.
"Young master!"
Mallory and Collum hurried to his side, holding him so he wouldn't fall. Erik, meanwhile, was lost in his own thoughts. A probable cause of such feelings and a name came to mind: 'Valcroy.'
He could tell that something had happened to him, although Val can't feel it, but he could feel his heart, beating like it was the last time it would do so.
Erik didn't dilly dally and left the war room. Mallory and Collum looked at one another before following him, something was strange about their young master, which made them both curious and they wanted to find out.
.........
Tip* Tip*
Droplets of blood trickled down from between his fingers, still grabbing the heart ever so strongly. His reddish eyes glowed as a black slit appeared in them, making everyone unconsciously take a step back.
Gulp*
Many gulped as they looked at Valcroy, their expression strained. They wanted nothing more but to run away. The only thing stopping them was their boss, that was still standing there like a pillar, calm. This gave them confidence, some got overconfident, one of them grew a backbone and dashed toward Valcroy.
His fist stretched back, and when he was a little distance away, he brought it forward with full force, striking Val's face.
Valcroy just stood there, the heart in his heart squirmed but no one paid attention to it as the fist successfully connected to him, and he stepped back, tumbling, but didn't fall, just staggered. The other lackey, upon seeing no resistance, followed the first one, while one still stood by his boss' side, watching all this playing along. He was one of the cautious kind.
The two barraged Valcroy with fists and kicks, treating him like a punching bag.
"Bastard, you'll pay for this."
"How dare you kill Billy!? How dare you!"
"Die!"
They continued beating him up. Val was now lying on the ground, receiving such harsh treatment. It felt so easy that the last lackey regretted not joining the duo and earn some points from the boss. The boss, though, was looking at all of this indifferently. Valcroy had surprised him at first, even making him become vigilant, but now seeing him getting roughed up by mere non-practitioners, he blamed Billy for his negligence.
Just as the lackeys felt it was getting monotonous and slowed their kicking, it happened.
Slice* Pshhh*
Ahhh*
One of them screamed out loud as he fell to the ground, stunning others. A deep gash has appeared over his legs, severing his tendons. Valcroy had one hand clutching him while the other now had beast-like claws popping, making him inhuman, especially with those eyes whose black slits were opening ever so slightly.
Soon the other hand finger nails also became claws, which gleamed in the moonlight, to tell one that they were sharp enough to cut through steel. They dug into the lackey's leg, not letting him get away. He dragged himself forward, soon appearing next to him. He sat up, lying a person sitting next to a bedridden person, with one hand claws slowly moving through his legs.
AHHH!!
"No, no, no, get away. Ahhh*"
The lackey begged and flailed, trying to get away from him, but Val's grabbed him by his neck, locking him in position, his other hand tearing through his flesh, the claws moving up before stopping at the lowest rib of the rib cage.
The other three were watching this theater scene with popped eyes, forgetting to help their comrades. Valcroy pushed through the rips, cracking voice sounded as he moved up, the cry soon turned into begging.
"Please….st…op."
But the voices soon died down when Valcroy got hold of what he was seeking and yanked it out of that person's body, a heart.
Just as everyone was coming out of their daze, he suddenly turned and jumped. Grabbing the next lackey, who enjoyed beating him, by his neck. He stared at him. The lackey looked into those red and black eyes, and he could see something in those pitch black slits, like something was trying to break free and come out, making anyone shudder.
"Let go!" He said, his expression pale, struggling, hitting Valcroy, but Val didn't budge and didn't let go. His head slouched down, staring at his chest, like he could see that beating heart and wanted nothing but to stop it from doing that.
Lackey knew what would happen next, his body trembling in fear, his mind shut down for a moment before restarting, he didn't want to die and in desperation, he called out loud, or tried to, but the hand on his neck suppressed it and only a hoarse, small voice came out, asking, "H..elp!"
His cry for help brought the boss out of his daze, and he dashed.
"Let him go." He commanded while throwing a fist at Valcroy, aiming for his head. This time Valcroy didn't take it head on, just as the fist was a little distance away from him. His hand, the one grabbing the lackey's neck, moved.
The boss, not expecting such a thing, couldn't stop himself in time and…
Splat*
Like a watermelon, the lackey's head burst, telling one of the strength of an intermediate knight over non-practitioners. They were powerful enough to reduce mortals into such a state. the lackey, who had a Kindle of hope burning, got snuffed out by his own boss.
"You!!"
The boss uttered, looking at Valcroy, his eyes burning with fury.
"Die!"
He punched once more, this time Valcroy didn't move, and the fist hit his stomach squarely, sending him flying like a broken kite. The boss didn't stop and followed, arriving next to him. He kicked, making him float a little before he punched him down into the ground, a streak of blood came out from his mouth, staining his already red face further.
"Die! die!! die!!!"
The boss repeated those words while he struck Valcroy with a barrage of fist, the ground under him cracked a little.
The last lackey looked at his enraged boss and heaved a sigh of relief. It was finally over. He turned and saw the corpses, seeing their state made him tremble, he shuddered in fright as he looked into their wide eyes, that were still open, like they saw something horrific before they died.
Billy had the most complete corpse out of the three, as he was only missing his heart, while the second poor fella got shredded by Valcroy and finally had his heart ripped out.
'Heart?'
The lackey's thoughts stopped, a strange feeling arose in him, something was not right. He turned his head like a bobble-head, searching for the missing heart, and searched as much as he could. They were missing.
The uncomfortable feeling in him rose. He turned to the corpses to see if anything else was missing. One had his head missing, but he could see the bits and pieces scattered, lying in the pool of blood.
'Eh? Where's all the blood?'
He turned and finally found what was missing. There was no blood on the ground anymore. It was as spotless as it could possibly be, if one ignores the flesh and bodies.
Boss!!
.....
While the lackey was thinking about all of this. The boss was busy bashing Valcroy, who was covered in blood now, his own, of course.
"Die!"
The boss uttered as he used his full force and stuck Valcroy in the stomach, making him spurt out blood once again. He wanted to have him die slowly and painfully.
After he was done, he stood straight, taking long breaths, staring at the messed up Valcroy, whom, at the moment, had his eyes closed, but surprisingly he was still breathing.
'He's an intermediate realm artist.'
The boss concluded, this was the only thing that made sense to him, but those strange claws gave him a weird feeling. He looked at Val's hand; they were nowhere in sight, like it was all a mirage.
He looked at the corpses around him and felt a pang in his heart, frustrated. Finding more lackeys would take some time, and this would affect their mission.
After thinking about what he should do, he stopped and looked at Valcroy, who was lying there like a corpse. Remembering what he did to his lackeys, anger in him rose as he grabbed him by his neck and dragged him up from the ground. Just as he did that, he heard a shout.
"Boss!!"
Making him turn around, but before he could ask the lackey what he was screaming about, his eyebrows lifted a little, or did they? He saw the lackey's body slowly turning upside down.
"What's hap…penin..g?"
He couldn't say more, soon everything turned black, and he breathed his last breath. The lackey looked at the headless corpse, stunned. He stood there, rooted.
Thud* Thud*
The boss' corpse and Valcroy hit the ground, blood gushing from the boss' corpse, but this time it didn't form a puddle like before. It turned into the red mist as it floated toward Valcroy, before entering his palm of on a strange thing on it, that squirmed like it was alive.
It squirmed for a while and veins on it appeared, attaching itself to his hand while devouring the blood in relish, before it could successfully latch itself onto him, Valcroy eyes closed, brought his other hand, which had the same being on it, closer and like a predator, it opened, showcasing rows upon rows of teeth? No, they were eyes, tiny eyes, rows upon rows of eyes, making the lackey shiver as he looked at this horrific being.
He was the only person with a front row ticket to this horror, even Valcroy was now lying there unconscious. His mind couldn't comprehend what was going on as it saw that thing that was shaped like a heart, but it moved around what looked like veins and capillaries, each one barbed. After it devoured the other heart-shaped organ from Valcroy's right hand, it freed itself from his hand and entered the boss's body from its neck.
Squirm* Squirm*
He could hear the squirming voice, and soon saw what it was. The headless corpse trembled, at first a little, but then it shook like a magnitude 9 earthquake.
The lackey, mesmerized or horrified by all this, was still standing there. One part of his mind was screaming at him to run away, while the other wanted him to stay there and see what was happening, like soon the Truth will be revealed.
After trembling for a bit, the body stopped and squirming heart from before came out from the neck, this time there was something bulging over it, before one could guess what it was, it opened, revealing an eye that was moving around in a spiral with dizzying speed.
The lackey's hair stood all over his body when the eye stopped like it had found its target, him. The heart opened its mouth to scream, but no voice came out. It dragged itself toward him with the help of those veins and capillaries. At first it was slow but soon it gained speed and shortened the distance between the two.
"Nooo!!"
The lackey said out loud and turned around, running away, before it could successfully escape, the heart threw something at him, a needle, reddish, that hit the lackey in his leg but he was oblivious to it and kept running, saying out loud, "Help!!"
After getting out of the alley, his voice attracted many and soon guards arrived at his location, Erik behind them followed by Collum and Mallory.
"Help!"
"Calm down."
A knight grabbed him. He resisted frantically, but couldn't free himself from his grip and said once more before passing out.
"A Monster."