"No, I really don't want you to stay on my wrist! You are welcome to go to heaven or hell. Just go where every you want!!"
Hal had raised his left wrist, but despite how he yelled and tried to take the bracelet off, the thing would not leave his arm. Instead the ugly thing just clacked against his bone arm sort of like the sound of certain weather chimes on some people's front porches.
[Hal, you know you have important things to do, don't you?]
Gently reminding Hal that there were certain things that he could not ignore.
"Argh, I am supposed to be dead! Why do I have to deal with this!!"
Despite himself, Hal complained. He was not the type of person who could easily handle people who were emotional and even less distraught. After trying to take off the bracelet for a few more moments he finally resigned himself to his tasks and left the tent.
Outside, the smell was horrendous. Whether it was piss and shit or blood and garbage his old encampment had been ravaged. Grimacing he refused to cover his nose, he would not look down on the women how had been raped. As he walked the changes in the dominant smell made it so that his nose could never become acclimatized.
However, this was just the start of Hal's troubles, because almost immediately the goblin camp started to become unruly. A huge beast that had been under a fallen tent began to roar and then next to it another beast began to screech screaming out its wrath.
Howls began from the wolf pen, caws from the crow pen, and then finally even the bound women began to shriek.
'Flo, what is happening?'
Overwhelmed with too much sensory input Hal put his hands against his ears and pleaded desperately for Flo to help him.
[This is the result of the [Goblin Grease] potion. They are going into withdrawal.]
'Oh, the [Goblin Grease] is addictive?'
[No, technically, they aren't addicted to the potion. Well, it is a sensitive subject...]
Uncharacteristically Flo did not want to enlighten Hal.
'Oh, come on, what could it be? Does it really matter anyway? If they are addicted to something, all we have to do is let them go through withdrawal. They will recover afterward, right?'
Philosophically Hal thought something that he was sure would gain Flo's approval and make him look smart.
[Hal, don't even think it! That would be terrible. There is a seventy percent mortality rate for withdrawal from [Goblin Grease].]
Flo said, the scroll rate for her statement appearing slower than normal. She was starting to learn more ways to express herself through a text field.
'Argh, that makes it more complicated. I am not a doctor, I don't know how to get them through withdrawal safely. So our option is only to let them die or to give them whatever it was that the Goblins were giving them in addition to the [Goblin Grease], right?'
A sinking feeling was making Hal dread what Flo was about to say next.
[It is not that simple. The goblins were raping all these female beasts as well as the women. The goblins were using the women ...]
Suddenly Hal interrupted Flo's text screen refusing to read more.
'No, I don't want to hear the details.'
Hal was struck silent and then finally threw up to the side. When he was finally able to think again he said out loud.
"So we have to either rape these women even more or let them die as they go through withdrawal?"
[Yes.]
'This can't be happening.'
Putting his hands up to the sides of his head he pulled the hair there hard. Hoping the pain would help him think of some solution.
[Hal, I hate to say this, but you can't solve this on your own. You must let them die. Some few will live. Maybe the women who have been on the [Goblin Grease] longer will have less of a chance to survive, but your own servants have been on the potion for less than five hours. Surely they have better chance of survival.]
Flo wrote a few sentences trying to help Hal make a better decision.
By this time Hal had made his way to the pen where the humans had been kept. Here there were about three hundred women tied by their wrists to stakes in the ground inside cages. There was barely enough room within the cages for the women to lie side by side if some of them stood.
Horrifyingly women of all ages were subjugated here from the age of eight or nine all the way up to women in their seventies. None of them were recognizable. Dirt, blood, garbage, and excrement made the floor of the cages mud. Hoses extended from the top of the cage down so that the women could put their mouths on it to suck [Goblin Grease]. Even as Hal looked on baby goblins were being birthed. Too small to protect themselves the women mindlessly squashed and destroyed each other's broods as they fought to eat or to attract his attention reaching out to him through the wood bars of the cage.
[The [Goblin Grease] makes their bodies primed for orgasms.]
Quickly when Flo saw that Hal was about to say something she went on.
[Don't ask! It is a combination of just the right ingredients and magic. They must receive more sex or they will go crazy. The only thing that will calm them a little is the potion itself, see?]
Indeed Hal could see that a few of the women were already going crazy shrieking and groaning as they tried to stimulate themselves to orgasm. One was even trying to use the stake she had been tied to as a makeshift substitute for a real man. The wood of the spike causing untold damage even as her body filled with [Goblin Grease] healed itself.
'This doesn't make sense. How is this even possible?'
He asked.
[Magic, Hal, magic. But basically it burns the life of the woman to fuel the healing of their bodies and the speedy growth of their goblin babies.]
Shaking his head, Hal suddenly had a revelation.
'Flo, I know you don't won't like it, but I ...'
[Don't even say it, Hal. Just let them die. You could say that living with these memories would be worse than life if you somehow could help them live!]
{Be gone, system.}
Calmly the Morrigan walked up in her guise as a martial general. Her slick and shiny armor glinting in the light not a speck of refuse on it.
"Morrigan, what should I do?"
Hal was too much of a boy to make the choice to let them die.
{Boy, you must let them die. You were too late to save them and now you must bear the consequences.}
Morrigan in her general aspect was unrelenting. Commanding him to obey her she said something that Hal was not prepared to accept, yet.
Suddenly Hal was thrown to the ground, the mud splattering everything around except for Morrigan. Struggling Hal fought to simply get his head out of the mud and wipe the shit from his eyes only to see that Harumi was straddling his middle. In her stimulated state it was easy for her to subdue him and pull up his tunic which had already been shortened a few times.
Fortunately for Harumi her antics were extremely stimulating for Hal and his little brother had become rock hard. Just when he thought he was going to lose his virginity Morrigan stepped in and somehow finding some strip of leather tied Harumi to the cage both hand and feet.
{This is not the way it should happen.}
The Morrigan intoned as she worked.
It all happened within a few seconds leaving Hal dazed and blinking.
{You should put that thing away. It is not impressing anyone.}
Laughed the Morrigan, but availed herself of the chance to reach down and caress him.
Groaning Hal's shivered as he found himself so close to releasing. Instead of doing anything else to help she stood back crossed her arms and waited for Hal to behave himself.
Eventually Hal stood up.
'Okay, that was something.'
{Just walk away. I will accept these souls into my eternal embrace. Go!}
Not being able to go against her, Hal turned and started to walk away. But he was not done yet. Against all the best advice from Flo and the Morrigan Hal decided to make one more effort to change this fate.
'I am sorry, Flo. I know you said I should never involve the Gods, but they are the only way out of this!'
Trapped in a mental pit of his own making Hal made a snap decision that would affect everything going forward. He didn't think about asking the women if they would like to be saved, he didn't ask why the Morrigan felt it would be better to let them die, and he didn't consider the cost to others if they did live. Instead all he could think about was his own moral decision and he couldn't live with himself if they died.
Even though he had briefly looked he hadn't seen Meiyu. Still foolishly enamored with her, Hal couldn't stand the idea of knowing that he caused the death of his infatuation. Even knowing that he was only infatuated with her and nothing else wasn't nearly enough to slow down his thinking and decision making ability.
"Oh, Gods of this higher plane! Please, please save me! Save these women from the [Goblin Grease] potion! Any healing God, please, I would do anything. Save us, please!"
No sooner had Hal finished his plea when a golden light descended from the sky straight down to the ground only two meters away from Hal. From within the divine light a beautiful goddess he ethereal white dressing gown floating all around her became visible as the light grew brighter and brighter. A scepter in her hand with a two dimensional large mandala captured in a prismatic explosion of color fixed atop it dazzled Hal's eyes.
{Mortal, I am Eir Goddess of medical skill. I have been waiting for your call.}
Eir smiled at Hal and gently gestured reaching her hand out to him.
Surprised that he was answered so soon and still trying to regain some type of presence Hal struggled to do more than drop to his knees.
{I have the power to heal these women. They would be instantly cured and I would assuage their minds reliving them of their memories.}
The goddess continued and she was everything that Hal imagined a goddess to be.
"Yes, Goddess, please help me!"
Still focused only on himself Hal willingly accepted her help.
{But mortal, divine beings can not act in this mortal plane without a contract. You must give me something so that I can perform my works.}
She explained gently.
"Anything, anything, whatever I can give you I will."
{Oh man, you must foreswear your allegiance to these Gods of Death. That is all I require.}
At her gesture both the Morrigan and Ankou appeared as if dragged from the shadows. The old skeleton appeared as he always did his cowl falling from his head revealing his skull with its soul lights twinkling like two stars, not at all like flames.
The Morrigan however appeared in her crone form. Bleary eyed and hunch backed she crackled with a laugh.
{Eir, you dare to summon me!}
Seething Morrigan hissed at Eir.
Ankou just remained silent putting both of his bone hands on his staff and leaning on it as if content to just watch what was about to happen.
Eir ignored the Morrigan and turned about to Hal.
{I will free you from their clutches and restore your arm back to complete health. All you have to do is break your contract with them. You won't have to worry about any negative consequences for doing so.}
With that said Eir smiled and expectantly waited for Hal to abandon these gods of death.
For Hal, though, it wasn't so easy. Over the last day he had grown enamored of [Bone Realm] and [Soul Requiem]. He had made a contract with Ankou and then with the Morrigan. Contracts were things that he was loath to break. This was a fundamental part of his being. Hal knew that Eir offered to him the exact solution that he was looking for, but perhaps because he was so selfish he couldn't even think of rejecting Ankou and Morrigan.
"I am sorry, Air, I can not break my contract."
The words left his mouth before he could really think about what he was doing. His family had always said that he was stubborn and now there he was stubbornly sticking to a contract.
{Mortal, I don't think you understand what you are saying. These death gods have made you sign a binding contract that is actually very one-sided in their favor. You should break it and contract with me. You don't have to give up your soul or even your servants souls. You don't have to worry about their constant interference specially from that nagging witch Morrigan...}
Giving Hal a few hints that had not even occurred to him before, Eir tried to help this mortal understand what he was getting into.
"But I will have to give up my skeletons and their souls, won't I?"
It was funny to Eir what Hal considered to be the sticking point.
{Yes, by breaking their contract you will also lose any abilities that they provided. But in return I will grant you my talent. For someone like you, the talent you will gain from me will definitely be [Heavenly Doctor]. Won't that be a better ability then whatever knockoff talent these degenerates can give?}
Now Eir was being exceedingly plain to Hal. She knew he needed things explained in a more up front manner.
"Good to know, Eir, it breaks my heart to say no, but I can not break a contract that I have already entered into."
Again Hal's mouth was working faster than his brain could keep up. It terrified him what he was saying, but he had to say these words. It was something that his own father had instilled within him from a young age. To always keep his commitments.
Eir tried one more time.
{Hal, don't worry, I am a Goddess, there will be no divine retribution. These gods of death are weak, barely a drop of power in the pantheon. I will make it all right, you will be able to save your people. Just do the right thing.}
But Hal just shook his head and said for the third time.
"I can not. I will hold their contracts higher than my own personal benefit."
Of course it wasn't Hal's personal benefit, it would have been better for everyone if Hal had just choose Eir. Instead the Goddess of medical skill bowed her head nicely and slowly ascended back up into the sky.
When she was gone Hal felt her lose, as if a heavy weight was now pulling his mind down into despair.
{You should have taken the deal!}
The crone screeched at Hal and even Ankou nodded his head.
"I couldn't betray you. I am sorry, it is what it is."
{No healing god will be able to save you as long as you contract with a God of death, boy!}
And the Morrigan's words hit Hal like a load of bricks.
"But then, what can I do?"
Despite his question both the Morrigan and Ankou just stared at him.
However, just when Hal thought that he had lost everything a new voice called out.
(All is not lost. I am here for you mortal.)
A new voice entered the scene in the form.
"Are you a healing god? Because evidently I can't contract with healing god's while also contracted with any gods of death."
(Child it is true that usually Gods of death are not healers, but it does happen. I am called Ninazu and while I am a God of death or of the underworld. My name means "Lord Healer" in the tongue of my people the Sumerians.)
The god explained. He was standing in a white lab coat and had spectacles.
However, Hal was suddenly suspicious.
"You don't look much like a God. Are you sure you are a God?"
{He, he, he.}
The Morrigan cackled at the new comer.
(Ewww, that one is a little crazy, isn't she?)
Ninazu said with some hesitation suddenly. Sweat broke out on her forehead.
"Don't worry about her. Who are you and why are you here?"
Despite the risk of godly punishment, Hal was feeling a little free. Almost as if things didn't matter as much as they should. Really he was completely confused and lacked a sound moral base.
(Ha! Well, I can't fool you it seems. I am actually a new demi god descended from a higher plane than this.)
When the new demi god had finished talking, Ankou nodded his head confirming what the demi god had explained.
The demi god went on after seeing the unspoken communication between Hal and Ankou.
(My real name is George, but everyone calls me Georgie. When I was alive I studied plants and their healing effects. Obviously, I was able to make a few break throughs and gain a few followers, but since my death I have become more and more unknown.)
"So, you saw that I have [Bone Realm] and [Soul Requiem] and thought it would be great to team up??"
The conclusion was so illogical that Hal was really confused. The whole god and demi god thing was a crazy pit of more craziness.
(Yes, exactly. Listen I know this is a big ask, but I would be willing to work with you if you could help me ascend to godhood.)
Georgie laid it all out. But Hal was still stuck on how he could be of any help. So far he had found that living things and his two abilities were antithetical to each other. Body tissues withered away and died in the presence of either [Bone Realm] or [Soul Requiem]. Putting all his confusion aside he asked the key question.
"Can you help these women, though?"
(Sure, I can't wave a magic wand like Eir could have and made everything right. But I can guarantee that these women will survive the detox process. No, problem.)
The new demi god made a promise that didn't sound very likely.