17 Tying Threads

General Osyus - Life is your story. Don’t mark it in sand. Carve it in stone.

After waking in the inn, I turned towards the vast hole Jack left in the wall. Several people stared through the expanse, so within a few minutes of waiting for them to leave, a little girl and her father walked past. The girl pointed up and said,

“Look, it’s an ugly troll.”

The father replied, “Don’t say that about our savior or I’ll whoop your behind till it’s glowing red.”

They rushed off as several knocks could be heard through the room.

Our door slammed open as a reddened innkeeper glared at the missing window. He turned towards me before his eyes softened. His peppered sideburns wiggled as his mouth twitched, due to his withdrawal from opiates. The back of the store reeked of them.

I kept my eyes opened by the thinnest of slits, so he shook his head as I feigned sleep against the side of the wall. He fought two urges in his mind, one demanding reparations for his inn’s destruction, the other offering gratitude for the hero who saved his town.

Pretending I slept, I snapped my eyes open before gazing around the room. As my eyes set on his, he stepped back before I said, “My apologies for the decimation of your window. I will pay for it’s replacement.”

He blinked, his stance guarded before he said, “So you’re saint Jericho. I imagined you’d be more…friendly.”

I rolled my eyes before I said, “In order to fight beasts, you must become one, right? My situation is similar.”

He bit his lip before saying, “Uhm…Alright then. Well, ahhhhhh, just get it fixed whenever you can. There ain’t no rush.”

I pushed myself from the wall before saying, “Excellent. This room has a draft to it now, I’ll move myself elsewhere.”

I walked past him, my steps creaking the wood underneath me. Aa our eyes met, he held his breath for some reason. I assumed fear.

Having left the wounds from the golems open, I appeared wounded and weary, yet I brimmed with vitality. I paced towards a corner of town until I reached another hub of the Arcanum, though this place differed from the smoke and sex of before.

The scent of smoke lingered at the entrance of the extravagant mansion, but other, more malevolent odors engulfed the premise. The burning of opiates, the brewing of chemicals, the acrid stench of acid, they melded into a stinging scent. It could bring tears to untrained eyes. In the middle of this filth, however, I found a familiar victim.

Oddly enough, the scents wafted from a mansion in the corner of the town. As I paced through the open courtyard, glowing fauna similar to those of Mareovosa lit the entryway as the sun set. The iridescent lights created a whimsical and unsettling sight. Those phosphorescent properties would be useful for future transformations, so I chewed a few plants for analysis as I walked in.

As I did so, I glanced around, noticing no other people coming and going through the nearby streets. The isolation of this district struck me as odd, but that played to my advantage. If normal people saw my jaw crunching through bones, it would ruin the reputation of Jericho. We couldn’t have that, could we?

So I pranced up to the entrance and knocked on the door. After a short moment, a maid opened it, her red eyes keen and focused. She glanced at me, her raven hair and pale skin shifting, as she frowned and said,

“What? Who are you?”

With a sardonic smile, I said, “Tell Galen he has a guest. One he wouldn’t want waiting.”

She squinted her eyes before she attempted slamming the door in my face. Without shifting my weight, I snatched the doorway from shutting. The loud popping of wood poured from my fingers as I crushed it. My eyes relaxed while my tone became impatient as I said, “I’ll wait inside, if you’d allow it.”

An open hostility leaked from her face before she said with her tone gritty and strained, “Alright then. Whatever you say.”

Forcing open the door, I pulled and she jerked towards me before I grabbed a hand around her waist and propping her up. After gaining her balance, she leapt back, and said, “You’re as strong. Who are you?”

“Get. Galen.”

She turned around before bending over and lifting her right foot towards my face. I dashed towards her left side as she rotated. I wrapped my right arm around her neck and my left around her waist as she stood up from her little attack.

Helpless, she writhed in my embrace before I pulled the side of her face and exposed the nape of her neck. My breath sliding down her neck, I spoke in her ear, “You’re a rather enticing temptation. Be glad I don’t have time for devouring you.”

I released her, and without the support of my arms, she crumbled onto the floor like a lifeless doll. She turned towards me, her face red and ashamed before I rolled my eyes and walked past her. As she cursed while striking the floor with her hand, I waved behind me, snickering at her helplessness.

I delved deeper into the labyrinth of hallways and rooms. I paced past multiple guards and maids, yet each of them ignored my presence. They must assume the maid up front would handle any issues. They followed their faith with a foolish optimism.

After pacing down several sets of stairs, the yellow and red color scheme waned as the colors faded from their past splendor. Nicks and rips in the carpet ruined the prestigious image of before, and the peeling paint and wallpaper ruined the otherwise sublime walls and roofing. The chemical scent of before singed my nose before Galen’s voice reverberated through a doorway.

Knocking on the doorway, I said, “A friend has come to visit.”

Shattering the lock, I pulled on the doorway. As the door opened, Galen and two other priests stood over a long table covered in glass bottles with various bottles and beakers. Thin pieces of glass compressed layers of different compounds while a modified eyeglass stood over them. Gem’s of all kinds lined the back of the room where several unused golems resided.

The vast assortment of metal instruments lining each wall filled my eyes with wonder. Curiosity swelled in my chest as I glanced around before the left scientist said, “What the hell are you doing here?”

Galen placed a hand on his shoulder as he said, “He’s an old friend. Let him be.”

The fierce old man walked over with careful steps as he spread his arms and said, “So what may I thank for this visit?”

I said, “I’m here for information regarding the production of your golems along with a request.”

Galen said, “It will be done.” He turned towards the shorter, squat scientist as he said, “Write up a dossier about how we produce our golems. Make it detailed and precise. Get an illustrator if you have too.”

The man frowned before pointing towards me and saying, “Why are we taking demands from this guy?”

I walked over, my steps booming on the concrete floor before I picked up a beaker and said, “Ammonia Hydroxide along with amphetamines? What kind of chemical are you crafting now?”

The scientist stumbles back as he said, “How did you know that?”

I frowned as I said, “Ammonia’s owns a peculiar scent. It’s easily distinguished. Trace amounts of the amphetamines linger in the air, so I tasted them along with several of these other chemicals.”

Galen grips the man’s shoulder before he said, “Ask another question and you’ll be missing fingers. Go.”

The scientist waddled out of the room before Galen turned towards me and said, “So what’s the other request?”

After cracking my neck I leaned against a rack of tools as I said, “I want you to remove the Donovan’s golems from the church by tomorrow. Analyze the parts of them that make them different from other golems and incorporate the details in the dossier that scientist will be writing.”

Galen nodded before saying to the taller, lankier scientist at his side, “Prepare yourself a team for studying the golems.” The scientist rushed out of the room before Galen turned towards me and said, “I will personally lead the team in their extraction. When do you want everything ready?”

I grinned as I said, “Three days would be most optimal, though I can afford to wait.”

He nodded his head before saying, “We’ll finish everything, besides extracting a detailed template of the Donovan’s golems. Will that do?”

I nodded before placing a hand on his shoulder and saying, “I left a golem with only its gem ripped out among the bunch. It should service as a useful reference along with this.”

I handed him a red gemstone with a glowing center. I said, “These are the stones they utilized. Most of the other stones were damaged, but this should aid in your study as well.”

I turned around before walking from the room, but Galen grabbed my shoulder before saying, “What about Joan? When will I see her?”

I tapped the edge of my cheek before turning towards him as I said, “After I gain that dossier.” Turning back towards the door, I said, “Take the golems tonight. I will be servicing as a distraction. Don’t disappoint me.”

He clasped his hands together before saying, “How will we know when to take the golems?”

A wolfish grin covered my maw as I said, “You and your team will know. Goodbye Galen.”

“Goodbye, Darkened One.”

Though I disliked the Arcanum, I couldn’t deny their usefulness. Their ability for immediate and effective action pleased me, and it opened up my own time for hatching my own plots.

One of those plans involved disguising our identity. Our current appearance mirrored many of The Darkened One’s traits. Surely someone exposed the details of our normal appearance to the palisade, so in order to dissuade them from connecting Saint Jericho and the Darkened One, we needed a thick, twisted mask.

The phosphorescent plants would assist with this, but a shiny Darkened One wouldn’t strike fear in the hearts of those viewing. No, we needed something sinister and eerie and ominous. A figure imposing and unnatural. A monster with ice for blood and black breath that destroyed light and fostered darkness.

Fortunately, my skills suited the task. After reaching outside of the town, I tinkered with the chemicals of the luminous fauna. After several hours of failed attempts, I created a mist that radiated from my skin like the Aurora Borealis up north.

This glow, shining like a liquid rainbow, would please the eyes of children. Not quite the sinister visage I intended, but it served as a useful foundation for further work. Jack and I had already absorbed a remnant of Gaia at that point, so I channeled that well of force, creating a dim, white glow from my skin.

I combined the effect by producing a black, ink-like substance from my pores that evaporated into the air. After mixing the compounds with the glow of the phosphorescent, I created a solid, writhing smoke that moved like black fire. Gazing at my hands, I moved and the dense vapor followed. It was perfect.

The white glow outlined the black bathing me in an onyx inferno, popping in the darkness. My plan would require more impact than just a man walking while on fire. I re-absorbed the ink before returning towards our hideout.

Joan slept at the side of the cavern while Aether and Sophia spoke about different weather patterns. As I approached, Aether said to Sophia, “The human method of determining the weather varies from ours. I did not expect it.”

Sophia replied, “How so?”

With his monotonous yet rich voice, Aether replied, “We would use the pressure of the wind and the moisture in the air for determining when it would be windy or rainy. My previous form could feel the pressure at my roots shifting, and I used that for reacting to the weather.”

She blinked before saying, “What do you mean?”

“I would let my leaves wilt while giving more water to my main body. It made the wood more pliable while making the wind easier on me.”

“Can you do this now?”

“No. This body feels nothing but an empty numbness. Nothing has caused even the slightest nick on whatever I’m made of. It’s a strange, hollow feeling.”

Sophia placed a hand on his as she said, “It’s alright. I kind a feel that way too. My nerves react funny sometimes, and I get these really bad headaches. Sometimes I can’t even move or think. It just all becomes pain.”

She glanced down, her face glum and sullen as she said, “I kinda envy you. There are times where I wish I couldn’t feel.”

Interrupting their talk, I knocked on the door before stepping through the makeshift doorway of plated gem as I said, “Excuse my intrusion. I need your assistance, Aether.”

He turned toward me while Sophia waved her arms as she said, “I hate how dusty it is in here. It’s always just, yenno, nasty.”

A slight smile appeared on my lips as I said, “Try cleaning in your free time. I heard it gets rid of dirt.”

A single, short puff of laughter escaped her which released the tension of before. Sophia said, “Bleh. Smartass.”

With the sudden leeway in the conversation, Aether replied, “What kind of help do you need?”

I smirked as I said, “I need you to make a little noise.”

I covered him in the black resin, making him melt into moonless night. We walked out a few miles from the town before I said, “I’m planning on making an enormous spectacle of the first appearance of the Darkened One. I’ll be walking in the distance of the town for about an hour. I’ll need you to stomp every time one of my feet hits the ground.”

Aether said, “Will this not make the town panic?”

“That was my intention.”

“To frighten people?”

“To distract them.”

Aether glanced down, his enormous hands and cyclopean frame casting the shadow of a behemoth. He thought for a moment before meeting my eyes with his own as he said, “If that is all, then I will help you. I still do not agree with your plan of earlier, however.”

I nodded before saying, “You don’t have to. I understand your aversion, but it doesn’t change my decision.”

He reached out a hand towards me as he said, “If you understand my aversion,Then why did you do it? Why did you have to kill those priests?”

I frowned before saying, “Do you believe that the caster who imprisoned you thought he was evil? Would you have forgiven him for sealing you for the last thousand years?”

I shook my head before saying, “When I absorbed his soul, I felt the oppressive hatred he felt for the world. He believed himself stolen from. He believed himself cheated. Not one thought lingered for your fate. Tell me, was he evil?”

Aether gripped his hand, radiating a deep, booming clap around us. The sound echoed through the cloudless, moonlit night before he said, “I know he was evil. I know.”

I nodded before saying, “I do as well, yet he believed he was good. Tell me, do you believe those scientists would have done righteous and noble things with their knowledge?”

Aether’s shoulders slacked as he said, “I believe I understand what you’re saying now…Those scientist, they had already done evil with good intention. What was stopping them from doing it again?”

I nodded before adding, “They deserved death for deforming so many souls, let alone killing the aunt of Joan. Petra was a noble, strong fighter, yet they poisoned her mind and corrupted her body. Like a plague, those golems would have cursed this continent. They deserved worse than a betrayal by their god. They deserved excruciation for all eternity.”

Aether met my eye before saying, “You do not forgive easily, do you?”

A cynical grin grew on me as I said, “I could say the same for you, though you might be mistaking forgiveness for folly.”

Aether glanced upwards before saying, “I can see the clouds gathering overhead. There’ll be a slow, dry storm over us soon. Are you sure about this?”

I rolled my eyes before saying, “Come now, it’s only a little thunder. We’ll be fine.”

“Then go ahead with your…transformation.”

“Gladly.”

And so, I melded into a nightmare. Bone smashed. Muscle shifted. Tendon snapped. Every part of my body expanded as I grew exponentially in size. Another set of arms jutted from my back along with another set of shoulder blades while I leaned onto all six limbs. My mouth filled with white, shining fangs. My skin grew pitch black as glowing runes of white traced across my arms, my sides, and my flailing tail.

Scars, showing a shade lighter than the surrounding skin, streaked across my body. The black fog of before streamed from my back creating long, squirming streaks of umbra. Like a thousand souls writhing for their release, the aura twisted and turned as if alive. Two eyes, white as snow and empty as voids, appeared on the sides of my monstrous skull.

From our hiding spot under the earth, I raised from underground with a slow, dramatic reveal. An eruption of blackfire pierced into the sky overhead as I rose onto my hind feet and unleashed a roar unmatched on this earth. A shockwave of sound exploded onto the city of Nern as every resident awoke from their slumber.

At the peak of my roar, a strike of lightning pierced through the clouds circling overhead and struck directly onto my face. Arcs of electricity bounced off my frame and onto the encircling field, each bolt accentuating my otherworldly appearance.

As powerful as I appeared, the thunder seared my flesh. The pain blinded me before I fell forward. Somehow, I caught myself on all six limbs just as Aether stomped the ground.

Fissures lined the area around me as gargantuan slabs of earth wedged from the ground. The wind around us shot in every direction as my hidden ears popped at the change in pressure. After I reoriented myself, I paced towards a set point in the distance.

Aether pronounced my steps as best he could, but we stood so far from the town that the delay of our footing would mask his mistiming. After twenty minutes of walking, we neared within three hundred feet of the town’s wall. By then, Aether and I had synced our steps. Guards and townsfolk lined the walls in a horde, each member gawking at the bizarre, hellish sight.

Grown men wept as I closed in while others prayed for salvation. Sweat poured from the faces of each and every guard, and many had laid down their arms, begging for forgiveness. They panicked, feared, and fled, but the one thing they did not do was fight.

I was no mere monster attacking the town. I was an absolute, supreme power. Something so shattering and so devastating, that no thoughts of defiance could even begin. Like ants facing a flood, they awaited their judgment. They awaited their fate.

At my nearest, I stood within ten feet of a man atop the short wall. He stood with his hands over his chest in his armor, paralyzed by utter terror. Tilting my head, I expressed a curiosity in him for several seconds.

Every breath remained held in their chest as an eerie silence radiated through the entire town. After holding the moment in place for another few seconds, the man’s heart ceased beating. He died as he held an amulet engraved with a metal carving of his family. Seeing the sight as pathetic, I deliberated at my options. The lightning of before still pulsed in my veins, so I gambled on an unlikely outcome.

Theoretically, I could’ve resuscitated a human with electricity, but I’d never tried it nor needed to. This presented the perfect opportunity for testing my hypothesis, so I nudged him with my maw, unleashing a surge of electricity through his body. He squirmed for a moment before I lifted my face from his chest, and a miracle occurred. The man raised from his death, alive and well as he gazed at me once more.

With my head outsizing his body, I moved away from him with a fluid, floating motion as those around him gasped. Lingering behind me, a shadow endured in my wake from the black haze. As if casting an endless, black fire, I journeyed far into the horizon until only a spec of me remained. Aether followed behind with that cloud hiding him.

This debilitating journey required well over an hour of walking. Whenever I reached a suitable distance, I reverted back into my previous form. Standing hundreds of pounds lighter, I looked over towards Aether and said with a rasping and gritty voice,

“Alright. That should be enough.”

Aether nodded before saying, “I did not know you could do that.”

I said, “Neither did I, but it’s not the first time I’ve impressed myself, with myself.” I grimaced at the thickness of my blood. My heart struggled beating the syrup running through my veins. I said, “I’ve lost much of my mass in carbon and water. Take me to a stream of some sort.”

Still distracted, Aether turned towards the town before he said, “It’s incredible. To think you’ve fooled them so thoroughly. If they ever figure out the truth, they’ll feel like fools.”

He lifted me onto his shoulder using a gentle, caring hold. After I settled, he asked, “Are you comfortable?”

“I’m laying on a substance harder than steel while having concrete for blood. Of course not. Let’s go.”

With that, we left towards the nearest lake where I feasted on fish and water. Though I sunk towards the bottom the moment I entered the water, I could leap and grasp fish with spike like teeth as I grew gills. The process took hours, and as I did so, I pondered in the lake.

During my performance, I stretched my flesh so that my torso caved in on my back. The majority of my size came from the dark mist I radiated. The glow around the squirming black highlighted an imaginary silhouette as though I were a leviathan crossing the plain. My appearance couldn’t have contrasted my actual strength any more, however.

The muscular limbs supported a gangly, deformed center that stretched wider than could be sustained. My thin bones and deteriorating physique siphoned visible sheets of power, and I mean that quite literally. The display had left me degenerated and drained. Using this trick was risky. I would use it sparingly in the future.

And so, to fill the void of hunger, I let all my carnal urges unleash. Most of them at least. After having harvested the resources of the lake, Aether and I traversed back towards our hideout. Waiting on the morning, I tinkered with the hues of the glow along with altering the pigments of my skin. The lead lining my epidermis made the process arduous, but almost every modification proved difficult, at least at first.

Jack awakened the next morning before checking with the Arcanum and townsfolk about the darkened one. The near celestial care the people took in him surprised us. He had evolved from a horrifying unknown into a supernatural monster. If anything, they treated the Darkened One as a god on par with Gaia.

Jack chided me for going overboard with my distraction. Just as I told him, I’ll tell you as well. Whenever I perform, I succeed. In this instance, exceeding a reasonable level of distraction only benefitted us. There’s no way citizens would catch the Arcanum taking the golems from the church if every member of town gazed at the living embodiment of doom. Besides, subtlety was and still is, a weak point of mine.

I am not a scared mouse hiding in shadows. I cast the shadows that mice and men hide within.

Regardless, Jack prepared for his date before he spent the day with Joan. I’m sure it was lovely. Afterwards, I-

Wait a second Deluge, you’re skipping the best part of our stay at Nern. Several decisive points in our story concluded during that day.

Fine. Recite your mundane outing.