4 Deluge

Samuel Ashebell - "I was walking by the wall when the Darkened One passed. It was a moving mountain. The earth was shaking something fierce, like a demon straight out of stories. The air got colder. I couldn't stop shaking. This wasn't something a man could fight. This was something more. This was the end of all times."

In honor of reciting my story with the highest level of accuracy, I coaxed Deluge into narrating his own parts as I slept through most of his own acts. The way he tells the story varies by an order of degrees in comparison with my own though, so be ready.

I’ll warn you. He is ruthless and cruel and kind. His mindset saved me countless times. Even though we often disagree, we manage our differences without oppressing each other, though Deluge gave his best shot at destroying my mind when we met. I’ve given him his fair share of wounds as well, however. So please, at least attempt understanding him before you hate him.

That being said, here he is.

Hmmm, where to start? I suppose a chronological ordering would be rational.

After we discussed our plot. Jack and I swapped our consciences as he fell asleep. I had listened as the others spoke of the information they obtained, so he and I developed a simple plan. Instead of absorbing every member of the arcanum, we would become a member and learn what we need to know.

My own attempts at infiltration would be crude, but both Jack and we wanted every member skinned alive, each of them screaming their own unique symphony. Perhaps I wanted this more so than him, but I digress.

The mythological dragon, on the other hand, sounded impractical at best and idiotic at worst. I listened close though, since few would believe in the existence of our own group as well. Considering our circumstances, I doubted the monster’s existence would prove so simple.

It mattered little. Ever since I fused with my host, I’ve augmented its structure well past that of a normal human. By that point of the trip, I had incorporated minute wires of silk derived from an eight legged creature that I dispersed throughout my flesh. I stored a dense form of carbon in the marrow of our bones, and I prevented any radiation from leaking out of our body by lining our skin with lead. This gave me a grayish pigmentation and bones hard as steel.

The wires webbed together in nets that folded around the tendons and ligaments of our body. They redistributed kinetic force throughout our frame while allowing our muscles to become even stronger and more flexible.

I amplified this effect by replacing the tendons in the fibers of our muscles with the same material. This resulted in our durability enhancing along with our power. With these modifications, dying in battle had become less likely. Unfortunately, not zero.

We faced threats that would rip us apart routinely. I healed us with rapid metabolization of bodily resources. I cured any wound. I mended any break. With a few altered insertion points for the muscles and tendons, a few remade organs, and a medley of structural changes, I had created a force worthy of awe.

In essence, Jack fought the monsters roaming this world by becoming one.

This level of combat ability gave me more than enough strength to devour the Arcanum here in town. With a confidence born of my own ability, I started pacing towards the town. Razor halted my steps by placing a deep blue orb covered in dull yellow blades at my side. She glowed like firefly I turned towards her humanoid yet faceless form. Without a care in the world, she leaned onto my shoulder with her elbows while the rest of her hovered midair.

Razor’s body shifted like a liquid since she was a mire. The mire is a species of gelatinous creatures held in thick, robust membranes. Razor was a queen mire, meaning she owned a colony. She left the colony to follow Jack after she failed one of her most capable children. I enjoyed her company as she owned an interesting demeanor along with the warring potential of an army.

Moving inside her translucent skin, the goo glowed through the membrane with a near godlike aura to it. A few feet behind her, six spheres floated, covered in blades. Each spanned several feet in length with jagged edges. She often rubbed them against stones as we walked, no doubt sharpening them for further use.

On my shoulder she spoke In her full and piercing voice, “So little one, where are you going?”

I turned towards her as I said with a delighted grin, “I’m going to give a half-hearted attempt at joining the arcanum before I kill them all. Care to join the carnage?”

She floated off me, a waning glow left behind by her movements. The spines jutting off her back contrasted the feminine curves of her figure as she said, “I’d like to watch just to see what you can do. I’ve always been curious of your powers and even more so your potential.”

I rolled my eyes as I said, “I have no powers. They are biological modifications.”

She hovered in front of me like a dolphin through water before she said, “What difference does it make?”

“Power implies I have set limits.”

She giggled and followed me as I continued towards the village. Before I left the camp, Sophia sat beside Aether. Sophia captivated herself with study often and always, even through the night. She used the blue light Aether radiated so she could continue her study. Unlike the shifting light of a flame or lanturn, Aether offered a steady, reliable glare. It eased the eyes instead of straining them.

I passed by a pile of her notes, her head hunched beside them. She tampered with a gem using a set of steel instruments, molding metal around the crystal. As I passed by, she kept working while she said,

“Are you heading off to murder a bunch of people?”

Without turning towards her, I said sardonically, “I’m heading off to do a difficult and daunting task that you cannot.”

Sophia rolled her eyes before she said, “Try not to let his evilness rub off on you Razor. I’m worried it’s contagious.”

I whipped back, “Let us pray that your traits aren’t contagious as well. We cannot afford yet another idiot following us.”

She turned towards me before she said, “I know right. You're more than enough stupid for all of us.”

Razor said, “Now now. No need to be so malicious.”

Sophia replied, “I think he just finds it fun to get under people’s skin.”

I nodded as I said, “That’s quite true, in more ways than one.”

She shuddered as I passed by her. My comments are coarse and cruel, yet they stimulated her growth. Think of it as practice for when she faced an enemy who spit venom in and with their words. It toughened her, giving her a calloused mind. She and I didn’t dwell on the petty banter either.

With Razor’s claws clipping trees, we traveled past Sophia before reaching into the forest. After reaching a few feet from the encampment, I accelerated my metabolism by an exponential magnitude. The bones of my arms extended outwards while claws stabbed from and through my fingers. I leaned onto my hands before growing multiple vertebrae. They extended my torso’s length, mimicking the form of a wolf.

Make no mistake however, I was a filthy abomination. Any hasty transformation left me grotesque and deformed. It takes time for a fluid transformation. You see, every creature has a logical, natural structure to them. Every joint serves a purpose, every muscle makes an action. Without the proper planning, I fell short of nature’s own standards, though I proved no less practical than other creatures.

I could run faster than any wolf, but I had to heal the wearing down of joints or tearing of skin. Using my new form, I pounded my hands into the earth beneath me, standing on all fours before I bolted forward at breakneck speed.Through the hills and flowers and forest, I crushed clumps of earth that flew from my stomps. The cool air cascaded around me, filling my lungs with life. It was right there and then that I was alive.

Razor followed by folding her arms against her side while gliding above me. Her blades shaved trees with hollow scrapes as we reached within a mile of the village. Our pace slowed until we skulked about on the outskirts, ready for stealth. Despite her enormous weight and power, Razor never generated single sound when we neared the town. Her hundreds of years of experience no doubt the culprit for her noiselessness. The flexible nature of my flesh and skin gave me the same skills as we pierced deep into their settlement. The hunt began.

If not for the infection of my body in his own, Jack would never have known this exhilaration. He would never have know this primal euphoria. Assimilating the will of others, there was and is no greater joy in this world.

However, letting that jubilation overcome my thinking mind would degrade me to less than an animal. I wanted to consume. I wanted to devour, yet Jack’s life taught me the value of perspective. He had saved us from dying several times when I would have fallen. That alone proved my point. One will fall. Many will rise.

I kept that in mind as I continued my hunt. Using the scent of sweat, I tracked down several inns that remained open long into the night. By altering back to Jack’s normal form, I inspected inn after inn until I found what I’ve searched for.

In the corner of the town along a border of trees, a hotel laid at the edges of a cobblestone road with well worn doors. Three stories high with long logs of oak as the walls, scents of paper, alcohol, and cedar overpowered the more subtle aromas leaking from the place, but I caught the undertones. Hints of sex crept in with these other smells.

They disguised their establishment well. Simple songs and merry music saturated the sounds near here. Glasses clanked within, and the orange and yellow light welcomed any nearby travellers. Along the opening gate was a sign that said, “Sleep Steady on Your Way Home. Sleep at Samuel’s.” I saw straight through their deception. The prostitution ring centered here, along with the beginning of my own goals.

With my and Razor’s lack of visual subtlety, she and I decided on a course of action. She and I had to at least pretend like I was trying to infiltrate the Arcanum before slaughtering them. So she floated over the well lit lodging, waiting for a loud crashing sound after I walked in. If she heard anything monumental, she’d dive into the building so she could observe the fight.

Since I was infiltrating, I altered into the form of Jack before I paced towards the cedar entrance with two guards idling. As I paced up, the left guard held out his hand before he said with a gruff, gritty voice, “I ain’t seen you round here. What’s your business?”

I opened my hands outwards, showing the hydra skin outfit that covers me. As my hand opened, my palm’s width widened, exposing tiny streaks of crimson. Like the stretched skin of python swallowing a rabbit, my hands showed an ominous aura. I murmured,

“I’m hungry enough to swallow a man’s soul.”