King POV:

“My king, we have a serious problem!”

One of the guards ran into the place, barely breathing.

The king looked up from the book he was reading and asked.

“What happened?”

“T-The kayeri! They are taking uninfected people now and have sealed all entrances to their tunnels!”

“…We did expect them to reveal some way or other. Protect the rest of the population and imprison any kayeri which are still on the surface.”

The king breathed in the air and started to think.

This is not a coincidence; the tournament will be held shortly. Phil must be planning something, to now openly attack the people of this city. What is his end game? Is he trying to make an army that can rival mine? No, civilians aren’t good soldiers, no matter what he does to them. I need to keep my guards up and be prepared for anything. I will have to increase the number of guards around the most important parts of the castle.

“What about those who were taken?”

“The place where they live is filled with poisonous spores. Nothing can survive down there.”

“B-But my family…

“Are probably turned into hideous monsters by now. Don’t worry, I am planning to make them pay when this tournament starts.”

As the king finished speaking, in the distance the sound of a trumpet could be heard.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Calm down.”

The king stood up and looked at the gate doors.

“They are arriving.”

*****

“

There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God, I know I'm one.

“

As I was singing, I made a slow spin, changing some of my equipment, while using the one in my other hand.

Even if this body didn’t work on the dissection of the royalties, I could still use it on the dissection of other species, like this giant centipede, caught by the ants and given to me for a barrel of the good stuff.

The insect was so big I needed three tables so that its body wouldn’t be on the ground.

Its carapace was sky blue, with skies running through it, making it quite hard to attack it.

Its stomach however had only a thin layer of armor, making it easy for me to open things up.

“

My mother was a tailor

She sewed my new blue jeans

My father was a gamblin' man

Down in New Orleans

“

I cut through the stuff carapace and examined the green flesh underneath it.

“

Oh mother, tell your children

Not to do what I have done

Spend your lives in sin and misery

In the House of the Rising Sun

“

I slowly cut through the flesh exposing the innards.

As I searched, I found something bulging in its stomach, probably its lunch.

“

Well, I got one foot on the platform

The other foot on the train

I'm goin' back to New Orleans

To wear that ball and chain.

“

I opened the organ and extracted something that looked like the paw of some sort of rodent creature. badly damaged from digestive fluids.

“

Well, there is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God, I know I'm one!

(The House of The Rising Sun by The Animals (My favorite version is the one sung by Geoff Castellucci, his voice is so deep!))

“

I threw away the limb and turned to its innards.

“I should be disgusted by this, but this actually makes me hungry. Should I… Nah, this is a test subject. I will eat something.”

I knew that I was a male and all and I wasn’t having a baby, but recently I was having something that you could call ‘pregnancy brain.’

I forget things that I just turned away from and I became quite hungry for no reason.

More than that, I stopped drinking! I have been gulping on alcohol since I arrived here, and now I have been clean since this happened to me.

Is this some sort of instinct kicking in or is it the sign of me growing up?

What bothered me greatly was that my body became bigger.

The thing growing in me became so big that I couldn’t walk, forcing me to make a new sort of chair.

Imagine a black crab without pincers and having a hole on its back.

Well, I was standing on something like that, carrying me around.

This actually made me think, and while I developed the drugs, I also prepared a few upgrades for this body and for… other factors.

I picked up several syringes and started taking samples.

Blood, gastric fluids, spinal fluids, toxins stored in the mandible, and other such things.

Once I was done, I stored the samples in their designed location and cleaned my hands in water stored in a bucket.

I stepped out of my lab and turned to one of the kayeri guards.

“How are the preparations going?”

The guard stayed silent for a while, his back connected to the mold giving him information through big Brother, before speaking.

“Big Brother said that the sound of trumpets was heard in the distance, signaling the elve’s arrival. They will arrive in the city in three hours.”

“…Prepare the birds. I want them ready an hour before those pointy ears arrive. Understood?”

“Yes sir. “

I nodded and I was about to walk away when I felt the familiar red electricity hitting me.

[Slave owner calling you]

[Go to the slave owner immediately]

“That bitch… What does she want from me now?”

*****

??? POV:

This place was strange.

Sitting in a carriage, which was made from living great trees, I could see the various species gathered together, cheering for us, but there was something wrong with them.

Behind their smiles, I could see darkness, fear, and sorrow.

“You can feel it too?”

In the carriage, on the seat facing before me was my older sister, Tania.

She came here to marry into the family which rules over this place and she decided to bring me with her.

Like me, she had brown skin like the earth, pointy ears, and charcoal black hair.

From the blessing of the earth, she received emerald, green eyes which could see the movements of mana.

“This place is… suffocating. “

“You are right. I can tell that something evil is growing in this place. It seems like I put you in danger.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize, I was the one who wanted to come! Plus, with my father’s gift, I am sure that I will be okay.”

Suddenly, the carriage stopped, almost making them fall over.

“What was that.?

When Tela opened up the window to see what was going on a black raven flew in and scratched her arm.

Before I could do anything, the bird came at me, its talons wounding the palm of my right hand, before flying out through the open window.

“What the hell was that?!”

As we were super confused about what was happening, we didn’t notice our wounds.

The skin which slowly turned greenish around the injuries.

****

As the servants pushed the carriage tier out of the suddenly appearing hole, the raven flew on top of a building where a black armored knight was waiting.

“Good boy. The boss will be happy.”

The knight grabbed the bird with its two hands, and by putting a little pressure on it, squashed the animal,

Its armor reacted to the blood and meat, quickly absorbing it, leaving no trace of the crime.

“Now all we need to do is wait and see.”

*****

Deep underground, in the tunnels of the kayeri, the masked intruder crawled out a hole it made and looked around.

The mold around here was quite dense, and the air was filled with the black spores that floated around.

Even with its specially made mask, which could filter the air, he needed to take rapid breaths.

He learned once from his uncle, that molds and other mushrooms could make the air unbreathable when they were in great numbers.

Something like that must be happening here, but his task was more important than his health.

Going deeper and deeper into the tunnels, he had to hide a couple of times.

With the skill, called Silent Earth Shaping, he could dig a small hole anywhere and hide in it.

The monsters roaming these tunnels were hideous, each looking like a deformed monster, held together by the mold growing everywhere.

The worst ones were those that looked like giants with multiple arms, the holes in their heads seriously scared him for some unknown reason.

After a couple of meters down, there were no more monsters which made him feel jumpy as if something were looking at it from the shadows.

“Almost there.”

And there he was.

The tunnel finally opened up to a large cavern.

To his surprise, there was almost no mold in here but instead, a giant hole was lying before him, and from it, the sound of what seemed like a giant heart could be heard.

“What is down there?”

Looking for a passageway further down, he looked around.

The entire cavern was littered with holes, probably connected to other tunnels, but the one catching his eyes was one that was not far away from him.

This one was the only one that was covered up by a veil of vine-like fabric, probably hiding something important.

He pushed the vail away and entered, not realizing that when he was in, the vines thickened, blocking his way out.

“My Gods above…”

He found himself in a butchery.

The room was big, with various tables and scientific equipment laying around.

Almost all the tables had a piece of raw meat on them belonging to different beings, some were visibly sown together in various degrees of success.

The worst ones were the ones piled up in the middle of the room.

Swords, axes, spears, bows, and other types of weapons, were all made from flesh and bones and as the green flesh was pulsing, they seemed to be alive.

Drip.

As he was observing this, a drip of black liquid fell on his shoulder.

He looked up, his body starting to sweat and shake with fright, his balder almost emptying itself.

The ceiling was entirely covered in decaying flesh with bones jittering out from it.

Amongst these atrocities, five tumors like growth were pulsing, emitting a faint green light.

“What the hell!?”

“Intruder detected.”

The voice of a man could be heard suddenly, emanating seemingly from the walls themselves.

“Who's there?”

“Designation: BB, Big Brother. Analyzing situation… The intruder threat level is minimal. Processing… The current situation is preferable for testing. Commencing awakening of guardian Vierte, The Berserker.”

One of the tumors opened up with the sound of flesh being torn apart and something black fell on the ground.

“What? No! Stay away! No, wait I AAAAAAAAAA!”

“ Treat destroyed. Test successful. Analyzing. Subject organic parts are compatible. Commencing creations of Guardian Fünfte, The Assassin.”

*****

Sitting on a bench while sipping on his coffee, the black-robed figure turned to his partner who was flipping three coins into the air at the same time.

“The fucker is dead.”

“Really?”

He grabbed the coins and looked at them, just now realizing that one of them lost its luster and slowly became a rusty piece of metal.

“You are right. His soul has been separated from the body. I bet it is falling into the pit like a comet.

“Haven’t you taken away his misfortune? How did it happen?”

“Sometimes skill is greater than luck. He must have met with a strong opponent or he fell into a vicious trap. We could ask Mr. History for more info if you like.”

“No thanks. That guy gives me the creeps. Did you even hear the rumors about his subordinates?”

“ Tch, who hasn’t?”

Between the dark apostles, rumors about each other weren't uncommon, especially about their current leader, History.

The word was that he was actually a person from the distant past who was brought back by the cards and gained the ability to pull objects or people out of their proper time.

With his ancient knowledge, he was the first of them who managed to make the Demonification liquid and become a true dark apostle.

The thing that confirmed these rumors were his subordinates, savage humans from different tribes, inventors whose names matched with geniuses of the past, and several extinct creatures, which looked more like living illustrations from picture books.

“ If I remember correctly, he is currently excavating something with that freak show of his.”

“You mean the ruins? If he lived in the time, those things were built then, he must know what they put in there.”

“Sigh, I have a bad feeling.”

“Just concentrate on the task at hand. We give Putrefaction the drug and we take him with us.”

“…Can we call him Rot? It's easier on the thong.”

“…Sure.”