Chapter 10

“I was looking for love, while you were looking for grub. But our love wasn’t fated to beEEeeee! Cause you were the kind of rat-chicken, darling, that just wanted to eat meeEeeee!” I belted out my out of tune country love ballad in a deep, fake Texan accent from the bottom of the stairs.

This was my second attempt to draw in the Colo Colo. The first time I tried the pied-piper act, Duke began singing along with me like he used to do when he was a dog. If he’d still sounded like a dog, I would have welcomed the duet with open arms. However, the unearthly howl that came from his dead muzzle sent my body trembling and my teeth chattering. Nothing with even an ounce of sensibility would travel toward that soul-shattering sound. It was a good thing I couldn’t see my reflection. He probably turned my hair grey with that wail.

So, after scolding my man-eating dog, I forbade him from ever singing again. Duke stood at the top of the stairs, glowering at me with glowing red eyes from the darkness. He was trying to hide in the shadows of the balcony, but he wasn’t doing a good job. I think my singing was bothering him as much as his howling hurt me. Every so often, he’d whine in complaint when I missed a big note. I might have been overdoing it a little.

It took nearly ten minutes for the stupid beasts to arrive. I’d long since run out of lyrics for my material and had to resort to singing half-remembered children’s nursery rhymes. Duke picked up on their presence before I did, abruptly sinking deeper into the darkness. It was the only warning I had, but it was enough.

“Finally!” I shouted in annoyance at the three creatures holding a battle-ready stance. “If I didn’t know better, I was starting to think you actually liked my singing. How long were you just sitting there watching me?”

Unexpectedly, only one of the feathered rats looked at me. The other two were warily sniffing around the area for an ambush. Either my small size, or because they thought they knew what I was, left them unconcerned about the threat I presented.

It was possible they detected Duke, but I wasn’t sure how. The Barghest didn’t register at all to my enhanced sense of smell. Though, to be fair, the description said it only helped track living things. Further, he was invisible in the darkness, and I already knew Colo Colo had poor eyesight. Sound was out completely. The spectral hound didn’t make noise unless he wanted to. That left reasoning as the likely culprit. It was too strange for prey to sing out in the open, and the rat-birds knew it. I made a mental note not to underestimate them in the future.

One was getting close to Duke, and I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to contain himself. He would end up fighting all three if he acted prematurely. I flung the cracked base of the phone with all my enhanced strength. My last encounter with one of them taught me they really hated that. And I was fortunate enough to find the unwieldy missile where I’d left it.

BRRRRRINNNGG

The projectile smashed cleanly into the side of a rat closest to Duke, knocking it off its feet. Two sets of angry eyes turned toward me, and I could see in the shallow light they puffed their feathers out. It was almost kind of cute.

A second later, Duke interrupted the posturing by pouncing on the one I’d knocked over. His massive maw clamped down on the neck of the off-balance creature. Then I heard a sickening crunch. The Colo Colo never even had time to squeal.

Faster than I would have expected, both survivors fled toward me, practically leaping down the red-carpeted stairs quicker than I could say the word “nope”. Without looking back, they recognized a monster they could not win against.

The one that had been watching me earlier was in the lead. At about ten feet away, it launched itself from the stairs in a smart attempt to fly over me. Unfortunately for the rat, I expected the maneuver.

Jumping backward with my super strength put me in an in-flight collision with the surprised creature twenty feet in the air. I narrowly dodged its extended talons, smashing the Colo Colo back to the ground with my monkey wrench in an overhanded swing. A crunch nearly as awful sounding as Duke’s resounded from the blow. My attack hurtled the gory corpse back to the ground in a spray of feathers, slamming it into the last of its pack mates.

Duke and I reached the unlucky creature on the stairwell at the same time. His jaws clamped down on its spine, and my wrench caved in its head.

Scroll appeared to give me a bunch of notifications, but I ignored it.

I ripped away a bunch of the foul-tasting neck feathers and sunk my fangs into the neck of the first one that I killed. Its blood was spilling out too quickly for my liking. The last thing I wanted to have to do was lick the precious liquid up off the filthy lobby floor.

A moan of pleasure escaped me as I took in huge gulps of the extract. My hunger had been in danger of taking over again, and I gnawed into the creature's disgusting flesh, sucking at the wound until nothing was left.

Done with the first, I tossed it aside and repeated the process with the second and third creatures. Because of the heavy bleeding, I only gained 1 Ichor from the first one. The other two gave me 2 each, putting me at 6 of 8. After I ate their hearts, I would get 3 more. This put me in a position of having a surplus of Ichor for the first time. Life was good. Or death. Whatever.

“Well, that went better than expected. You did great!” I said, sitting on the stairs and rubbing Duke’s shadowy back. It wasn’t clear if he enjoyed the sensation, or just the idea of it. The smoky spectral flames that encompassed his skeleton had a plastic texture to it that almost felt like skin. I could believe he really enjoyed it.

Duke thumped his tail against the ground, basking in the well-earned praise. With a weapon in tow, I felt confident I would have prevailed against the three creatures. However, the victory would have been nowhere near as clean. The pack would have scratched me up, and it would have sucked.

For a nice, relaxing minute, the two of us sat on the stairs in contentment. Having my belly full of blood, or Ichor I guess, set the animal in my mind at ease. It became easier to think about things, turning me strangely optimistic.

Life in this place had some serious setbacks, but I enjoyed the simplicity of it. A man and his dog hunting for sustenance invoked a primal, universally human satisfaction that I have never experienced. Gone were the worries about making Heather happy. The thought of work schedules, traffic, and student loans almost made me laugh. All I ever needed to worry about was where I would get my next meal without becoming something else’s next meal. It was just so freeing.

There was no doubt I needed more than this eventually, but for a time it would do.

Scroll ruined the moment, popping up in the corner of my sight, as if to say hey I need you to fill out this form. Such a bullshit move.

“All right, scroll, you’re up,” I said, sighing and giving the ghostly paper my full attention.

[Colo Colo defeated +10% Legacy]

[Colo Colo defeated +10% Legacy]

[Colo Colo defeated +10% Legacy]

[Rank 3 Legacy of the Dead achieved]

“Yay, more painful mutations,” I said sarcastically. The scroll shifted at my words, giving me options.

[Please choose one of the following (Lesser) Blessings:]

[1. (Lesser) Blessing of Bereavement: (+1 Ka) Ignore Pain: 1 Ichor for an hour, immune to all Pain] [You have received this death blessing for accepting your loss.]

[2. (Lesser) Blessing of Final Rites: (+1 Sahu) Consecrate: 1 Ichor, preserve or destroy normal corpses in an area.] [You have received this death blessing for showing proper respect for the dead.]

[2. (Lesser) Blessing of the Siren: (+1 Ba) Seductive Voice: your speaking voice commands attention and is aesthetically pleasing to the listener.] [You have received this blessing for luring living creatures to their death with singing.]

“Oh, come on! Who makes this garbage up!?” I cried. “What about the blessing of monkey wrench murder or braving the dark? Would it have been too much for you to give me something useful?”

As always, the damnable scroll ignored my whining.

Last time I made this decision, I looked at it from the perspective of the “Steps” improving my inherent characteristics. Since then, I had time to reflect on the choice.

After choosing ghoul, I had convinced myself that I could see better in the dark. Now I knew that for the lie it was. The pain of the transformation had given me a nasty bout of cognitive dissonance. Sure, it was true that I could smell better, but that was only because of the blessing itself. I was just as blind in the dark in this place as ever.

Which meant that what the scroll had originally said about Steps being the measure of the potency of a blessing was all that they were good for. My steps in Sahu helped me understand things about the netherworld, but only through the lens of the ritual of the Barghest. Reflecting on the topic gave me no new information.

Recognizing this made it easier for me to make a more intelligent decision, if not an easier one. Bereavement was still highly desirable for obvious reasons. Chances are I would get hurt again, probably soon, and pain sucked shit.

Last time, I’d written Final Rites off completely because I did not like what it did. However, now I knew Sahu was my connection to Duke. Increasing my Steps in that direction would make the Barghest stronger and give me a better intuitive understanding of the ritual. That made it significantly more tempting. The only reservation I had was that I did not know how much of an improvement one point would make. Would Duke get 100% stronger or 1%?

Finally, the Siren blessing, while offering no immediate benefit, resonated with me on a personal level. I held onto the hope that I would leave this place behind one day. Picking Siren almost felt like I would make a promise to myself to choose a better life. Who didn’t want to have a sexy voice? In a word, the option for it was, well, seductive.

In the end, I settled on Bereavement. If I had only found animals running around this dusty hell, it would have been less tempting to take. Crazy cannibals changed the dynamic of the judgement. If worse came to worst, and those freaks captured me, the ability to ignore pain would be important. Duke was the only reason they hadn’t taken me last time.

Satisfied with my choice, I looked at my progress.

-Soul Record-

[Rn - Name:] Julian Nelson Ortega Marco the IV

[Bloodline:] Hades

[Legacy:] Rank 3 of the Dead (0%)

[Ichor:] 6/8

-Aspects-

[Khet - Physical:] 1 Step

[Sahu - Spiritual Body:] 3 Steps

[Ib - Heart:] 1 Step

[Ka - Vitality:] 1 Step

[Ba - Personality:] 0

[Khaibit – Shadow:] 0

[Sekhem- Form:] 0

[Akh- Mind:] 0

-Blessings-

[(Greater) Barghest]: (+3 Sahu) Summon Barghest: You know the necromantic heka ritual to summon a Barghest.

[(Lesser) Iron Strength]: (+1 Khet) Enhanced Strength: Your strength is significantly enhanced, and your body is renewed.

[(Lesser) Blessing of the Ghoul]: (+1 Ib) Blood Scent: ability to track living organisms by scent.

[(Lesser) Blessing of Bereavement: (+1 Ka) Ignore Pain: 1 Ichor for an hour, immune to all Pain] [You have received this death blessing for accepting your loss.]

-Heka-

Summon Barghest: Use of this ritual costs 1 Ichor permanently. If the Barghest is slain, it will return in nine hours.

Now it was time to go dig out those hearts.