I landed on the moat and found it surprisingly sturdier than a plank of wood had any right to be. It did not creak nor did it groan under my boots. Interesting. This level of structural awareness wasn't something I'd expected of the warlord known as the Goblin King. Nilbog had put his powers to good use- fleshcrafting abominations that could serve all his needs. The rockworms I had seen on the way were also a product born of his desire to forge a kingdom 'worthy of a king'.
It was admirable what a man could do when he dedicated his heart to it. How unfortunate it was, that this particular man had decided to slaughter an entire town to appease his appetite for some sick revenge fantasy.
According to Observe, Jamie Rinke triggered because he was a loner who had no social skills to speak of despite being a banker of all things. He did his job but shied away from any interaction with his colleagues during or after work. When it came to any promotions, a man like him was easily passed over for more outgoing people. Such was the nature of his line of work. One day, he received a call from HR, and twenty minutes later, a numb and lost Rinke left the bank.
Rinke had made enough money to last him a month or two, but with the mounting bills and the lack of any family or friends to support him, dread began to seep in. He tried to apply for a job elsewhere but was rejected. In a small town where most people knew each other, Jamie Rinke was no one. No one knew the man. Some knew his parents but they had long since passed away and few remembered the quiet, awkward boy from his highschool days. Jamie was alone. He had no connections or friends to rely on. It took an entire hour for that realisation to sink in and when it did- Jamie Rinke decided to punish a whole town for it.
I had to stop myself from facepalming and denting my helm because of the sheer force. What a stupid fucking reason to commit mass murder. Honestly, this country was full of pussies and snowflakes that flipped out for the most pathetic of reasons.
'Oh boohoo, I was shit at talking to people and now no one gives a fuck about me. Instead of packing my shit, saving my money and leaving this town for some bigger, cheaper city to look for a job- let me just lose my shit and kill innocent people and then use their biomass to create my perfect little family.'
What a monster. I shook my head. This thing had no right to continue breathing after all that. I had no sympathy for such creatures, no matter their traumas. It was at the massive, blameless, innocent casualties that I drew the line.
__________________________
The trolls were the ones who saw me first and were quick to raise the alarm- the two giants they had been conversing with, roared with blatant bloodlust.
They rushed at me, swinging their giant clubs. One of the trolls even had a nasty-looking spiked flail.
Before they knew it, various charred parts of their bodies splashed into the water below, the many-legged basilisks swimming in it were grateful for the feast, I reckon. Some roasted lower halves thumped down onto the wood.
I could hear the roar of rage emanating from within the castle's depths. Nilbog felt those deaths. He was connected to every creature he grew in those biosacs of his. I lowered my hand, the white glow gradually dimming. Good, let him froth with rage.
With a wave of my hand I pushed the two lasered troll pelvises off the moat, and kept walking.
The portcullis dropped right before I was about to cross the part of the gateway where the defenders would normally shut the gates and thrust their spears through the murder holes above. And that was exactly what happened. The portcullis behind me fell with a loud clang and the one ahead fell right after. I now stood below a dozen murder holes. Joy.
A band of 3 m tall goblins in the yard on the other side laughed and jeered at me. Some even made crude thrusts with their pelvises. While they were doing so, my enhanced ears picked up huffing and puffing stinky goblins, dragging a heavy container of hot, chunky liquid over the murder holes right above my head. Some kobolds and goblins had picked up long poisoned spears and were preparing to thrust them through the murder holes. The reactive poison would eat away at the strongest carbon fibre, even reinforced tungsten.
How welcoming of them.
As a guest, it would be rude of me not to offer my hosts-to-be a gift of my own.
Kaiser's [Ferros], now unbound, responded to my call. Spikes and barbs of hard steel sprouted from the surface of the portcullis, expanding rapidly into the courtyard ahead. The crude goblins were green and black mincemeat before they could yell "cunt!". The courtyard was filled with cries of horror and pain, some crying out for "Lord Nilbog" to protect them. They would be disappointed, as Lord Nilbog was probably still wondering what the fuck was going on.
I commanded the steel in the gate and it obeyed, it fell apart and all the metal in the courtyard scattered into a heap of metallic powder. I walked into the courtyard, where now only mangled corpses remained. The creatures on the battlements were still alive and looking down at me with confused fear. I replied with a jolly wave and let Ferros work on the weapons they had on their person. Their screams of pain as their hands and guts were pierced by shining blooms of steel, were delightful.
As they sprouted, the bloody blooms spun and struck against each other, sending sparks flying into the iron tub that was being dragged over the holes. The hot tar inside was incredibly flammable. The sudden roar of fire drowned out any further screams.
I did not have to wait long for Nilbog to send something else. The stench of rotten meat wafted over as a pack of pale, skinny, bent over humanoids- ghouls, commented Observe- galloped over on all fours. They were ugly, there was no doubt about that. Their jaws filled with razor sharp teeth were floppy and open wide- too wide.
Their appearance was uncanny, and similar to what hikers around the world knew as "Crawlers". Despite that, I could tell that these were not the infamous cryptids from Native American folklore. They were fast and stronger than the average man, but lacked the supernatural abilities to manipulate the environment around them or feed on fear, nor could they appear when mentioned by name. No, these were rabid dogs.
The metallic dust rose up into the air like a trembling blanket. The blanket of dust whipped across the yard in an instant and came across insufficient resistance. Pale rotten flesh met millions of specks of metallic dust and parted quicker than Nilbog had foreseen.
Their bodies stripped and ripped apart, inside and out, the ghouls ceased to exist as an identifiable organism.
"Is that how you treat those who come to seek an audience, King Nilbog?" I asked aloud, my tone filled with just the right amount of amusement and reproach. "And here I thought I was to meet with a king, if I knew a barbarian ruled over this demesne, I would've approached accordingly."
Silence was the only response, but I knew how he seethed. His power whispered it all to me, telling me how furious the Goblin King was at my provocation. Even his thinking subjects inside, teetered between offense and shock- it was the first time any son of man had dared to mock the great Nilbog in his own domain. In their minds, even the greatest of mankind respected King Nilbog and dared not cross him, lest the hordes of Ellisburg burst out and swallow their cities whole.
I had to suppress a laugh at those silly thoughts.
"You may decide to ignore my request, and continue sending your pathetic forces to murder me, and I can continue killing them in new and interesting ways," I threatened casually. "And we both know you can't bring 'em back quicker than I can kill 'em."
After a minute or two, the door to the keep swung open and a scowling creature wearing a butler's uniform marched up to me.
The creature growled deeply under its breath for a moment before unfurling a scroll. "The Great Plague Lord, Scourge of the Earth, Master of Magic, King of Ellisburg and all that is under it-" Wow. "-King Nilbog the Great cordially invites you into his illustrious hall so that you may make your humble case before him." The thing finished, and I could see how painful it had been to grit out those few polite words. But, "humble case"? Haha. So adorable.
"Very well, lead the way… servant." I grinned, watching the thing's ego boil and its face twist up, for a moment, into something out of a Spongebob closeup scene. The rage vanished as soon as it had come and the butler nodded.
"Of course, sir. This way, please." It stiffly motioned for me to follow.
I followed the creature through hallways and spacious galleries, until we came to our destination. The mahogany doors swung open and I was greeted with a scene out of some litrpg isekai. I was sure there were some descriptions in at least some of them about what I was seeing.
A grand hall with weird banners and tapestries, edgy fixtures and furnishings, such as those creepy green and blue flame torches in sconces shaped in the likeness of a screaming human mouths and flayed gullets. In two neat lines stood goblins, kobolds, trolls, ratmen, lizardmen, a couple of hybrid species that I couldn't name and some warty witches with chicken feet, one of which kept picking her nose. Oh, that's a big booger… oh, she slurped it. I smoothly ignored the grinning shitstain, and kept walking.
Standing a few metres away from a massive throne, I gazed upon the reeking, ugly, corpulent form of a goblin-like creature. The creature groaned and his movements jiggled the vomit green, fungus-caked flesh, letting some of that goopy slime drip onto the raised dias below him.
How revolting, I held back the desire to immediately vaporise the landscape for a square mile (which was conveniently the entire area of Ellisburg). No, I was here to pass judgement and not to carry out a boring drive by.
"Introduce thyself!" Boomed the false-Nilbog.
"I am known as Nemesis." I did not like this thing's tone.
"Make your case before this king, Nemesis." He peered down at me with those beady eyes.
The creature exploded and so did everyone else in the throne room. Only the butler thing remained, now caked in troll entrails and warty witch blood. It blinked, too shocked to even whimper.
"I do not-" I looked down at the mess stopping just a few feet before reaching me. "-like being lied to."
"Y- you…" the butler mumbled, "h- how DArE-" it was about to raise its voice before I waved a hand. It squealed as it was dragged through the gut sludge and raised up into the air by one of its legs, dangling and dripping in green blood.
"Not a word out of you," I whispered to the thing and it froze, its eyes wide with incomprehension.
I spoke to the silence, "I was told that I would be meeting King Nilbog, that creature was not him. I do not like being lied to. Show yourself, Nilbog." I paused, "Or will you continue to cower in your basement?"
The creature lost its voice so there would be no further annoying interruptions. The silence lingered until the sounds of boots echoed through the hall. From behind the throne, a shadow lengthened and then shortened as the monster behind the massacre of Ellisburg revealed himself.
He was a man of average height, and his pale pot belly was peeking through the once bright patchwork shirt, now dull and grimy. His back was hunched and his kingly fur cloak dragged over the blood, sweeping a portion of it up nicely. His face was hidden entirely by a roughly sewn together pale mask stretched into a scarecrow-esque rictus grin. Behind red plastic lenses, his eyes could be glimpsed. As if to remind everyone that he was indeed a king and not an asylum inmate, he wore the most cliché crown. Gold bands set upon a velvet cap with a rim of spotted white fur.
As if sensing my disdain, Nilbog gritted out unhappily, "This is the first time a mortal has attempted to mock me, in mine own halls, no less," he hissed, "Spilt the blood of my people so brazenly." Nilbog stalked, circling me. "I admire you. Yes, I admire you, Nemesis, for your short-lived daring." He stopped suddenly, once again facing me, closer than he had been before.
He struck out his hand, palm open as if offering a candy. The vivid purple marble resting in his palm did look a bit like a raspberry flavoured candy. "In your next life-" Nilbog whispered in a sing-song voice as if talking down to a preschooler (which was all kinds of odd on its own) "-remember to not offend a king."
The purple orb crumbled into powder and turned into a cloud of smoke spreading everywhere- all within a moment.
The butler thing choked, whimpered and then screamed so loudly that the entire hall echoed with it. With great regret in his eyes, the Goblin King watched his loyal servant's body bulge, boil, burn and then liquefy into its most basic components, perhaps not even those. In Nilbog's mind, this was an unfortunate necessity in order to kill a powerful enemy.
It was brutal and looked quite painful.
Oh well, I guess I'd never find out, because that purple stuff didn't do diddly-squat to me.
By this point Nilbog had realised that something was terribly wrong with this scene. His servant had liquefied but the true target of his rage stood there, bored and unimpressed.
"How is this possible?" He whispered, backing away slowly. "T- that was my… you!" He pointed accusingly, "You should be dead! Melting, screaming! Why are you not dead?! Those fumes would burn through anything, except…yes…" Nilbog began mumbling to himself.
I snapped my fingers and he flinched, his hunchback churned grossly as if preparing an attack.
A light buzz vibrated the air, there was a rush of… something.
The mess on the floor that was once his subordinate, rose into the air. At first, Nilbog was confused, but once the acids began reassembling into flesh, blood and bone, he understood. The butler's screaming began anew, only in reverse.
Nilbog was frozen in silence for a few moments before his screams of anger and anguish joined the fray. "What! What have you done?! You bastard! You insolent cur-"
My hand snapped out and slapped his teeth out, sending the twisted king sprawling onto the dirty, wet floor. He howled when I crushed his hands that were in the process of digging out some biomass to use out of his hunchback. After crushing his legs and ripping his mask off, I lifted him into the air by his throat, his crown toppled off.
The self-proclaimed king of Ellisburg was a pathetic man. He was rabid and ugly just like the creatures he crafted and his soul was like a wet, tattered sheet overgrown with black mold. "You disgust me."
My words caused the wriggling worm to look up at me uncomprehendingly. I released the foul creature and walked away, the mess on the floor ceased to exist. Nilbog could've made something of it, and I took cruel pleasure in denying him of his dead children's biomass. The giant throne was transmutated into a much smaller, cleaner one. I made myself comfortable.
With the butler's looping suffering and screams in the background, I addressed the crippled king.
__________________________
"Do you like what I've done with your little pet, Jamie?" Nilbog fumed at the Invader's nonchalance, and the casual use of his old name made him hate the bastard even more. "Perhaps if you ask nicely, I shall bestow this honour upon the rest."
He froze, hearing the madman speak so callously about killing his children and then torturing them. He was connected to all his children and even now, he felt Albert's overwhelming pain through their bond. Poor Albert, what did he ever to deserve this? An unending torture and for what? And this monster wished to "bestow the honour" upon the rest of his children?!
No. He will not let it pass! As their father, he would not let them suffer.
It was time to remind this foul rogue just who he was mocking. Like a jester, this madman had many tricks up his sleeve. Yet, Nilbog knew that for all his posturing, a jester had clear and often hidden limits to his tricks. A wise king like him could guess where that limit lay. Nay, this jester was bluffing, Nilbog smirked. There was no possible way for him to destroy all his creatures and trap them into a time anomaly. He chuckled loudly.
The rogue tilted his head, "You're awfully joyful today, Jamie. Would you like to share your joy with the rest of the class and tell us what's so funny?"
Hehe. Nilbog grinned, "Go ahead. Destroy them. I dare you. Hahaha, you can't, can you?" He laid his head back against the cool floor while his arms and legs regenerated. "You can't, hero. And neither will your mannish Protectorate. They know, oh yes, they know what would happen to their precious peace if any of the plagues I lovingly packed under their skin were released. The world would be lost, hero- that's what you are aren't you?" Nilbog giggled, "A hero looking to slay a terrible Dark Lord. Hahaha…"
"Ah, a conundrum, no doubt," Nilbog frowned, hearing Nemesis' calm and unbothered cadence. Shouldn't he be furious or frustrated at the very least?
To his shame, Nilbog yelped loudly when his still healing body was levitated into the air and brought before Nemesis.
"Fortunately," Nilbog stared into the rogue's dark, plated visor. It felt… like he was staring down into a lightless void. "I have my ways around such conundrums."
Nilbog's mind was filled with fire. There was too much pain to even think. His brain felt like it was being stabbed by burning hot nails, and then those nails were hammered deep.
The moment passed and the pain was gone and so was his magic.
Nilbog looked up in horror. He could not sense his children.
"Don't worry, Jamie. You did well enough on your lonesome before all this, you'll manage." Nemesis patted his shoulder, as if cheering him on.
He was alone. Again. That simple fact broke Jamie Rinke.
__________________________
I grinned, seeing the first few cracks appear in Jamie's sanity- or what passed for one. I pressed a finger to his scalp and held the river of despair back just enough to not drive him insane. No, he had much to answer for.
"You know what you've done, Jamie. All those people- 5,236 of them. That's a lot of dead people. Some of them were blameless children. I often wonder, how do monsters like you sleep at night?" I looked down at the snivelling, feckless turd and felt nothing but loathing.
__________________________
"In your next life, Jamie," a disembodied voice spoke, "remember to not underestimate the cruelty of goblins."
Jamie, son of Jarl, awoke from the strange dream. He could not recall the specifics but he wondered if it was important. Goblins? Who was afraid of some small green men? If the rumours about the nasty greenskins from the forest were true, then goblins were just savages, wielding primitive clubs. Jamie chuckled, not in a million years would the strong, grown men of his village be threatened by mere goblins.
"Jamie, Lena is at the door!" His mother called out loudly. "Get up already!"
Jaime perked up and flew out of his bed. Lena! Of course, Lena was here. He had promised to accompany her to collect some herbs from the forest. 'Jamie, ya goof!' He chastised himself.
Jamie stumbled out of his room, giving his face a quick scrub and buttoning up his tunic.
Jamie smiled seeing Lena smile and all was right in his world.
"Took your time, huh, sleepyhead?" Lena teased.
"Sorry," Jamie chuckled.
"You haven't forgotten, have you?" She smirked.
"No. No I haven't." Jamie straightened his back.
Lena giggled and led Jaime away into the woods.
Their day passed pleasantly, and the duo decided to return to their village. As they came out of the treeline, Jamie's stomach dropped. There was a thick plume of smoke and screams coming from the village. The village was being attacked. Jamie and Lena ran for the village, and this was their first mistake.
One must never run towards a village being raided by a horde of goblins.
The duo stifled their sobs as they saw beheaded corpses lying in the streets. half-eaten by the ogres, others mostly female- violated.
Jamie let out a scream of despair when he saw his father's crushed head next to his mother's corpse. Her stomach had been torn open, globs of black fluid mixing with her blood, her only remaining eye, lifeless.
It didn't take long for some goblins to find young Jamie- and Lena? Everyone who fought goblins knew they had a knack for finding fresh female flesh. And so Jamie's suffering began, his sobs at seeing his crush defiled before his very eyes.
Jamie died in his first life not long after Lena did. Ripped in half by an ogre.
Only to be reborn again. But the fire had been lit- Jamie absolutely hated goblins, and he would make sure that this time he was prepared for anything.
Of course, little did Jamie know, he had a long way to go. Slaying goblins was no easy task, after all.
__________________________
Stepping back, I gave my newest torture device a nod of approval. In the deep blue orb, Jamie Rinke floated- drowning in cruel, multi-layered dream sequences with no visible end. Any legitimate progress he made to realise his ambitions would be overturned in the worst of ways by the world itself, and if he died- he'd live again. A fitting punishment for a man who destroyed the lives of thousands.
Whistling a tune, I tucked away the orb, sending it into my pocket dimension. The simulation would end, 5236 years from now, and the orb would pop. I laughed, imagining Jamie's horror when he realised the truth of his worthless life, only to suffocate in an artificial vacuum.
Hmm. I could use this particular powerset to craft custom-made punishments for certain monstrous individuals. Now that's an idea.
__________________________
It was immensely satisfying seeing the rot, plague, and Nilbog's abominations crumble into nothingness. Though, I'd imagine this particular turn of events was not as enthusiastically received in some circles. Eh, can't please everyone, can I?
One potentially apocalyptic threat eliminated, one more to go. I blasted off towards Eagleton, leaving a sonic boom in my wake.
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Author Note: Honestly? I struggled with writing down Nilbog's fate. At first, I thought I'd just fling this autophobic murderer into space and let the loneliness eat away at him. That wasn't what I went with because space is full of those spacewhales and the possibility that some of them might come into contact with his pod was not something I wanted to risk. So this is what I settled for, lmao. Should he do this to some other irredeemable villains? Let me know.