Their heads elongated like a dog’s skull. Some possessed hooves. Others walked on bones that might belong to a cat. Wings grew out of a few of them and out of others extra limbs. No matter at which skeleton Eric looked, none belonged to the same species. They all crouched, and by the second, they filled the alley.

Masses of skulls and bones painted a sea on the streets that moved towards Eric, preparing to build a volume until it could overwhelm and drag him into the depths.

Eric forced himself a smile. “These can’t be human, can they?”

“Of course not,” Nephthys said. “Not even the greatest champion can bring humans back. Those of true faith dwell in Raa’s paradise, and the rest belongs to Helena Luisenbarn.” He pointed at one of the skeletons. “These are animals.”

Eric raised his brow. “What mutated animals did you find?”

“Some of them are actually mutants. But since you’re asking.” Nephthys grabbed the head of the nearest skeleton. It started to squirm and struggle as he pulled it from his spine. He placed his head inside the skull, looking like a shaman worshipping a vanished god. “This is a wolf. Other parts belong to monkeys, fowls, cats, bears, vice-rabbits, horses, rams, elks, and what you have.”

Nephthys head bobbed to each word he mentioned. His voice had become nonchalant, like going through his shopping list.

“So, you played mix-and-match?”

Nephthys nodded. “More or less. It was quite difficult finding enough bones. It’s not like in the dessert. Animals end up dead there all the time, but here.” He shrugged and coughed. His finger, he raised to tell Eric to give him a moment. He pulled his head out of the skull and placed it on top of the skeleton’s spine. The two body parts merged, and the creature started to move again. “Sorry, breathing in that thing’s kinda hard. Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. I actually considered robbing a zoo graveyard.”

“We don’t have those here.”

“Yeah, I realized that too. So, I skimmed the forest around the city until I had enough. It was a hassle, but somehow I managed.”

“And your Kaa allows you to turn them into some kind of chimera?”

Nephthys shook his head. “I’m not using my Kaa. It would be unfair anyway if I fought you with Nitocris. No, this is a rune.”

“Wait.” Eric raised his hand and furrowed his brows. “Let me get this straight. You had enough fame in Kemet-Raa’s military to learn runes despite your background, and you still betrayed your kingdom?”

He couldn’t believe what he had heard. Going by the way Altera acted, to learn about runes, one needed to rise through the military, and the governments would never let one leave to persevere their secrets. Wouldn’t they have hunted Nephthys the moment he had defected?

“I didn’t betray anyone.” Nephthys growled. He fletched his teeth and lowered his voice. “They betrayed me when they denied my existence.” He took a deep breath and continued with his normal voice. “But no, I never entered the military. I stole them.”

“You stole them?” Eric glanced at the skeletons.

They had stopped moving and gaffed with their eye sockets at him.

Were they waiting for Nephthys to finish talking?

“A general from Kemet Raa’s military took a liking to my face when he saw me begging on the streets. For a dish of rice, beans, and raisins, he could use me as his fucktoy every day.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Eric averted his face, staring at the ground.

“I didn’t regret it. I was starving and needed to eat. But yeah. He was about as tender as a tartar removal. Fucked me in the ass every night, told me I should cut off my dick. Instead of being an “invert”, I could make a halfway decent woman.” Nephthys let out a bitter laugh. “And whenever I even seemed to protest, he would hit me with his magic. At that time, I didn’t know runes existed. I saw him as some transcendent blessed by Raa. An otherworldly creature I couldn’t overcome. But I didn’t give up. I didn’t carve into despair because I knew that living was more than surviving. Whenever my eyes looked upon the sky, I knew that others existed whose life was better than mine. They had everything I wished for and threw it away without a care. And I knew that it could be mine as well. Raa had blessed all of his people. Our fate wasn’t the lot we were born with.”

“You really believed that?” Eric suppressed a chuckle. Nephthys shouldn’t get the impression he was making fun of his past.

Nephthys shrugged. “Yeah, I was kinda naïve, but these thoughts kept me going. And one day, I had enough of his insults. I stole the drugs and toys he wanted to use on me and used them on him. He became horny as a dolphin and dumb as an ostrich. I bound him to his bed, locked his dick, and brought him to the edge. But I never let him release.

Eric gulped. “You … You raped him?”

That man might have been a monster, but that Nephthys did go as far as to rape him? But it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand why he did it.

“He deserved it.” Nephthys’ voice deepened, and his eyes became fierce, his hatred spewing from his lips as he smiled. “I did it over and over again until he was drooling and begging. And I whispered in his ear that I would let him come if he taught me magic. At first, he refused, but after a few more sessions, and he relented. He taught me the secrets to the runes. Once I had found my runes, I gave him the sweet release. I let him come and rammed a knife into his throat.”

“I don’t feel sorry for that ass, but I don’t think that’s the end of the story.”

Nephthys shook his head. “Of course, life didn’t get automatically better for me. But living on the streets had become easier, and I started to dream bigger. I became an assassin, and soon the kingdom knew me as Queen Ghoul. Mothers would tell their children to go to bed, or Queen Ghoul would drown them. The rich whispered about a specter hunting them. The poor wondered if today, they would see a friend or an enemy. And the wicked knew off another assassin to dispose of the undesirable.”

“I’ve nothing to say.” Eric pulled his hat against his scalp. “I wasn’t there, so I can’t really say if you couldn’t have escaped your lot any other way. It’s quite impressive if nothing else.”

“Just to make it clear. I didn’t tell you this sob story so you could woe me.” He pointed his thumb at his chest and raised his head. “I don’t need anyone’s pity, and I don’t need some excuse to justify my actions. I wanted a better life, so I became a deluge flooding everything in my way. That’s all there is to it. You wanted to know how I got my runes, so I told you the story behind it. And just to be clear, I didn’t want to give you a reason to justify any discriminatory thoughts about Kemet-Raa you. Attitudes aren’t all that peachy here, either. Instead of the “Invert”, I became the invert sandworm.” He let out a scoff. “So, do you have anything else to ask?”

“Could you let me go?” Eric smiled.

“I guess we can continue.” Nephthys returned the gesture, and like the general of an army, he raised his arm to identify Eric as the target. “Go forth, my ghouls. March forward and claim my victory.”

The skeletons straightened their backs and walked towards Eric. They didn’t haste, moving at the same pace without one unnecessary action. If any individuality used to exist before within their dead bodies, Nephthys’ words had eradicated it.

Within Eric’s hand formed a whip and whirled it around. It hit the foremost skeletons and scattered their bones. He threw his whip again, rotated it in midair, and bashed it into the ghouls.

Bones flew everywhere.

He pumped more blood into his weapon. The whip grew thrice as large as Eric’s body. He swung it in every direction, and with his Twaz rune, the strength and speed of his attacks increased.

The thoughts in Eric’s mind stopped. He didn’t have to think. His movements automated as the ferocity intensified. Blood spattered. Bones scattered. In a display of graze and brutality, his blood compelled him to unleash all his might. Too fast for the eye to see, the masses depleted, the noises of the constructs clashing swallowed all sounds.

The ghouls continued to march as Eric shattered them apart. Echoes of the splashes vibrated through the ally, the bones cracked and rattled. White circles littered the ground around Eric. Splatters of his blood had mixed with their colors. He took a heavy breath and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Nephthys sighed. “That’s what I get for using inferior material.” He jumped from his throne and snapped his finger.

The ghouls that had formed his seat crumbled to dust.

“Are you now letting me go?”

Nephthys cracked his neck. “You should know that I still haven’t used my two other runes, and while your acrobatics were quite an eye candy, you look tired. How long can you continue?”

He moved his arms in a circular motion around an invisible sphere, and the Kaunan rune on his earring glimmered. It buzzed through the alley. At first, a single sound disrupted the atmosphere, then the noises increased in their volume and frequency, and a black cloud appeared between the two combatants.

“What the Hel is that?” Eric’s eyes scanned the cloud. Instead of a singular mass, it consisted of million dots that swirled around, creating the buzzing noise. “Are … Are those insects?”

As if to answer his question, the cloud spread out. The dots formed to black patches and latched onto the puddles and droplets of blood Eric’s attack had sprayed over the alley. The red disappeared within their smear-like color.

Eric could only stare at the event that happened in front of him.

His eyes didn’t deceive him. Nephthys had summoned actual living insects. How was that possible? Runes possessed power, but could they create life? These creatures had simple brains, but they were alive. Did the rune limit Nephthys to summoning insects, or could he bring forth other beasts? Either way, he had to be careful.

The dots flew away, and where the blood once had been, nothing remained.

“These are flesh-eaters.” Nephthys stretched out his finger, and one of the insects landed on it. “Blood; flesh; your very cells. They can devour it all. And, I’m going to say sorry in advance. I’ll make sure that you won’t die, but this is going to hurt.”

Nephthys spread out his fingers, and the insects mobilized. They formed back into a singular cloud that could never lay still. Every moment, its appearance changed until it resembled a spear-like construct and spurted towards Eric. Before he could react, they had flown into his mouth and invaded his body.