Chapter Ten

Fire & Brimstone

Wraith and Fear rode out of the forest and onto the main road for a day. Fear had trouble adjusting to her new body and the hormones within in it, and Wraith refused to indulge her flesh’s instincts, and they stayed on the road. Wraith’s flesh urged him to take Fear, but Wraith refused it hating the weakness of the body he was forced to inhabit. The instincts to love and protect the female counterpart was a scratch at the back of his mind that drove him insane. The fear his body felt, the hormones that urged him to fight and fuck constantly assailed his senses driving him to distraction. Wraith concluded a rational creature with a physical body wouldn’t experience this level of discomfort.

Wraith and Fear followed the imperial highway to the capital. They joined a caravan and came near the city walls an watched as the hoards of people enter the city through a spyglass.

“We don’t have papers to get in,” Wraith said passing the spyglass over to Fear.

“Let's just go over the walls then,” Fear said.

“What did I tell you? We can’t leave a trail and if a sheriff spots us scaling the walls word will get out about superhuman humanoids laying waste to the most elite guards in the Empire,” Wraith rebuked her.

“What’s your plan then?” Fear asked.

“We kill a traveler in the forest steal his papers and make a copy of them altering them to suit our identities and enter the city normally, no disturbance no trail,” Wraith said with cold conviction dismounting his horse and trying it to a tree.

Fear and Wraith crouched in the upper limbs of two trees on either side of the road. They watched the road, and an hour later a man on foot with a small boy leading a donkey came into view. Fear and Wraith nodded to each other and jumped down. Wraith’s kick killed the man instantly snapping his ribs into his lungs and crushing his hearts spurting blood over Wraith. Fear was slower the boy screamed at seeing the older man died.

“Dad!” he screamed his eyes terrified, but he was unable to get anything else out before Fear punched her fist through his chest and ripped out his heart. The donkey screamed and took off into the forest, but Wraith killed it with a thrust of his rapier he wouldn’t let the animal run off if it had the papers in one of its bags. Sucking in the soul spark of the man Fear did the same with the soul of the boy. Fear and Wraith bent over the bodies and searched their pockets. Wraith found two sets of identification papers in the man's coat and looked them over.

There was the clopping of hooves and Fear, and he looked at each other and moved. Fear grabbed the boys legs and slung him over her shoulder and Wraith did the same with the man, and they dashed into the forest Wraith stopping to drag the donkey leaving a small trail through the undergrowth. He through the donkey into a ditch and he and Fear continued deeper into the forest. They stopped and leaped into the lower branches of a tree scaling the branches with their kill. They bounded through more trees and stopped.

“We should leave the bodies here,” Wraith reasoned.

“Good idea,” Fear agreed.

They tied the bodies hanging upside-down and continued from tree to tree and landed on the ground by their horses. Wraith’s horse neighed in discomfort and the scent of fresh blood, but Wraith ignored the animal's distress and pulled out the papers from inside his coat pocket. He passed one set to Fear, and the two looked over the documents and memorized their layout and details. Wraith closed his eyes and altered the identifications age, hair color, and other features and fixing the picture on it. The identification finished Wraith opened his eyes and looked at Fear and nodded. They both unhinged their jaws and reached into their mouths into the link that connected them with their core and pulled out the fresh set of papers.

Wraith tossed away the old man’s set of papers and took out a rag and wiped off the man’s blood. Fear cleaned her bloody arm, and the two of them mounted their horses and joined the line into the city. It came to their place, and route and Wraith handed his papers over, and Fear did the same behind him.

The guard looked over their papers looking at Fear’s exotic appearance with a mixture of desire and fear. Fear flashed him a sultry smile letting him glimpse her incisors. The guard suppressed a shudder.

“Keep your papers on you at all times while in Nomm, he ordered and waved them through.

“This is a miserable place for a dungeon to live,” Fear said to Wraith once they were past the gate.

“Wraith grabbed Fear’s arm in a vice-like grip, and she cried out in pain. “Watch your words, we are in a city surrounded by creatures who can never know of our existence,” he hissed in her ear.

Fear glared at him and rubbed her arm, “I’m not stupid,” she hissed back, “there is no one nearby. Now, where are we going to find… our friend.” She said pausing and choosing the rest of her sentence more carefully.

“Apparently he lives in a place called the Dock’s District,” Wraith said.

The two of them moved through the streets asking for directions and eventually came to another wall where people passed through a gate. Flashing a piece of identification to a guard. Wraith and Fear tried to pass, but the guard stopped them barring their way with a halberd.

“Identification,” the guard ordered.

Wraith pulled his identification out, but the guard rolled his eyes.

“You need a worker’s permit to enter the Docks District,” the guard said.

Fear and Wraith glared at him and left and watched the workers enter and leave. Wraith then hit upon an idea and waved a worker over. “Excuse me, good sir, could I look at your worker permit?” Wraith asked rubbing a gold coin between his fingers.

The worker looked at the coin and then at Wraith with suspicion. “My papers are up to date,” the man said defensively.

“Of course, but I would love to see them all the same,” Wraith said counting out two more gold coins.

The man shrugged and passed over his worker permit and crossed his arms over his chest. Wraith examined the paper copying the details in his mind and then handed the papers back over. “Thank you, good sir,” Wraith said.

The man shrugged and walked off, and Wraith pulled Fear into an ally with him and knelt down closing his eyes and pulling out a forgery of the worker identification papers from his jaws. He opened his eyes and handed the ID to Fear and made another opening his eyes and saw in the back of the ally a street urchin staring at him her eyes wide with horror at his unnatural unhinged jaw. Wraith pounced forward his rapier already moving and pierced the girl through the neck. His body hungered for blood, and he leaned in and latched onto the girl’s neck drinking in her vibrant lifeblood that poured out as she gurgled her body twitching. Wraith pulled away disgusted at his bodies instinct overcoming him and wiped his mouth clean.

Looking about Wraith hurriedly dragged the girl behind a trashcan, and he and Fear exited the alley. They waited until the guard who had denied them passage was relieved by another guard and walked through the gate flashing their fake IDs. They made it a block before they heard a scream and shouts of alarm behind them and the snarling of some creature and Wraith realized that the girl must have come back as a Stryker. He only hoped that the beast would distract anyone from looking for them and the two hurried away from the thunder of spellsniper and the yowls of the creature.

Wraith and Fear stood before a dilapidated warehouse the building sagged from years of neglect and looked out of place in the grand city even in this rougher section. Wraith stepped up to the door and tried the locked door. Fear stepped next to him and whispered a spell, and the lock clicked open. They slipped inside and looked about. Crates were stacked to the ceiling/ Fear, and he looked about for a way into a basement or somewhere where a dungeon would live.

“Plague Maze doesn’t leave anyways into his dungeon, does he?” Wraith asked irritated kicking a crate across the room in frustration.

“When you have no way of protecting yourself and live in a city with so many humans its only natural to isolate yourself,” Fear reasoned.

The two of them heard a sound from behind them and turned to see three sheriffs with dueling, and stave-wands pointed at them the bronze barrels of the weapons glinting and showing the runes etched into the metal. “Keep your hands where I can see them!” the leader of the Imperials ordered, and they spread out keeping their wands trained on the two dungeons.

Wraith raised his hands and Fear followed his lead, but her face showed the irritation she felt at having to do so. One of the sheriffs moved up behind Wraith and removed his rapier and duel-wand letting the sword and revolver fall to the ground, and the kicked them away.

“What are you doing in here, this building is closed for demolition,” the sheriff interrogated Wraith While started to frisk him.

Another sheriff did the same to Fear having taken away her staff and other weapons and enjoying frisking her. The sheriff reached into Wraith’s satchel and pulled out his tome and looked at it over and brought it closer to his face.

“This is one of the Codex Prime what are you doing with it,” the sheriff demanded, stepping back and training his gun on Wraith. “The two of you are coming in for questioning.”

Wraith sighed audibly. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, Fear now.”

The two of them moved simultaneously Wraith went insubstantial, and the blast of force that shot out only disrupted his form hurting but not killing him and Wraith turned and glided over the ground towards the sheriff. The sheriff rolled backward letting off shot after shot the shots of lightning, force and psychic waves impacting Wraith who ducked and twisted to the side to avoid them. Fear killed the sheriff frisking her with a blow the back of the neck with her fist and dropped to the ground dodging the blast from the third sheriff’s stave-wand. She grabbed her staff and pointed it at the sheriff who ducked behind a stack of crates which started to smolder as the wet rotten wood began to catch on fire. The sheriff fighting Wraith threw the Codex at Wraith and took a shot at his face. Wraith ducked the bullet and reached for the book, but he only caught one page, and the vellum ripped an inch.

There was a popping sound as if the air pressure had suddenly dropped and the temperature of the room rose as if they had stepped into an oven a spiraling vortex of fire appeared over them. And a hound fell into place its coat crackling with flames. The sheriff looked at the fire elemental, and the portal in horror and Wraith used the distraction to grab the man by the shoulders. The sheriff screamed as Wraith bit into his neck, and the other sheriff screamed from behind ass Fear held out her hand and roasted the man alive with flames licking over his body and running underneath his armor burning the skin there. Wraith tossed aside the corpse and turned to Fear.

“Stop playing with your food we need to move fast now,” he said and summoned his mana and blasted through the floor.

If they couldn’t find a door, he’d just have to make one. Fear and Wraith leaped into the hole and putrid water below. A dark tunnel led forward with narrow paths along it and skeletons from some long-ago battle littering the ground. The two of them made their way through the abandoned sewer. Traps covered the ground, and the two of them barely avoided decapitation and evisceration.

“Plague Maze, we come in peace we are dungeons harming us is a violation of the law!” Wraith called out.

There was silence, and then a voice spoke in Fear and Wraith’s mind. Why should I care about the law, I am alone here, so alone for so long. I don’t fear death anymore sometimes I think about shattering my core and just ending it. The voice said forlornly.

“And why don’t you?” Wraith asked.

Why should I give her the satisfaction! The voice snarled its voice going from the forlorn one to a savage, bestial tenner. Not that she would ever know, the voice said in its pitiful tone again, no one cares about Plague anymore.

“What if I told you that you could revenge on Dryad?” Fear asked.

Impossible, Plague replied.

“No, it's not, we are sharing these bodies with a soul spark, these are avatars of our cores with a piece of a core in it. Wraith Eminence gave me this body, and with it, I can venture out and find allies to destroy Dryad as she did us.” Fear spoke into the darkness.

Truly? You can do this Wraith? Plague asked.

“I have done it to myself and then to Fear although she didn’t believe me and I had to show her by force. What I will not like the pain is immense, and the constraints of flesh constantly distract you with their mortal desires.”

I care not, the only thing I want is to feel flesh tear again and to hear that bitches scream as I flay her Lord Spark’s soul, Plague growled. I don’t want a body like men, give me something with claws that can lie in the shadows and strike the disease of pain, fear, and death into the world.

“That can be done,” Wraith agreed.

There was a rumbling, and the wall of the tunnel next to them receded into the ground revealing a tunnel leading away. They followed the tunnel and entered a room whose walls were covered with fungus and mushrooms that were surrounded by clouds of spores. The water was visibly swarming with microscopic organisms that hungered for destruction and would destroy anything they could. Wraith didn’t fear the diseases as an undead he was immune to them, but he waved Fear back and entered the room.

So what body will you create for me? Plague asked.

Wraith smiled, “I have a special something in mindless physical and more spirt, and it spreads like the plague.”

Wraith created a body made only of shadows based off a certain monster he had seen and fought recently. The body was immune to most forms of attack and would barely be affected by others. The body had claws a foot long, with a disease dripping off them predicated off the diseases all around Plagues core but made into a shadowy form of themselves who would attack the soul more than the body. The claws would also wither away a creatures life force draining away years of life. The eyes were the only things not black but were instead a brilliant sickly yellow like the eyes of a wendigo. Wraith created an extra-dimensional framework that would let Plague create items with his core and deposited them wherever his body was like he and Fear could. He also needed a place to keep the shard of his core and the framework of spells that connected his shard to his core.

“I am ready, I need you to brace for the pain and keep your mana in your core and try not to shatter,” Wraith said kneeling and beginning the process.

Wraith cut a section of Plague’s core free, and instead, a scream Plague let out a cackle. Wraith guided the shard to the body and bound and enveloped it with spells like and making sure to include spells like the ones for Fear that would destroy Plague’s shard if Plague tried to betray him.

Plague stood and flexed his arms which hung down to his knees with three long claws on each of his seven-inch-long fingers. “Good I like having a way to rip and shred,” Plagues voice purred a deep bear atone that came from nowhere. Plague cocked his head the slits of his yellow eyes barely visible. “A group of individuals has just entered my dungeon.”

“We may have left a bit of disturbance topside,” Wraith admitted.

“No matter I will close off my core room, and we will deal with these intruders, there’s nothing like the first time you kill something with a new body. It is the ultimate high I believe,” Plague said, and his form flickered and became two-dimensional and indistinguishable from the shadows of the walls.

“Let’s get to it then,” Wraith agreed to pull up a red bandana to disguise his face, and the three of them headed back to the entrance.