Chapter 6

Mikael

He was cutting flesh, the blood oozing from it splashing on his hands. His mouth distorted itself from disgust, the young man not completely accustomed to his new job.

“See ? You can do it if you try !” Said Helianthine while looking at him properly cutting the lamb’s leg sitting before him.

“Thanks.” He replied with a smile.

“And you also deserve praises for being such a good teacher.” He added.

“Ha ! Trying to be charming don't work that great when you're covered in blood from head to toe.” She retorted while elbowing him in the ribs.

“Ouch ! Be careful please !”

“Bah, it’s not my fault that your stats are even worse than mine ! I mean, i’m a Novice Mage, it’s really difficult to have a worse Body stat than mine !”

Mikael couldn’t respond anything. He had arrived here, in this world, two odd weeks ago, and directly had in mind to check if his friends had come here with him, objective much harder than anticipated. For now, he was living in Kalastol, Capital city of the country of Romulan, a country besieged from every side by monsters. Life was hard, resources were limited and travels were dangerous to say the least, in particular since 20 years ago, when an event known as the Great Split happened, completely separating Romulan from the other countries, making them disappear in favour of the Cursed Lands, home to numerous terrifying creatures. Worst, after appraisal, it turned out that the stats of Mikael were abysmally low, rendering him unfit for battle and pretty much any other profession as long as he didn’t level up.

I still need time to get used to that. He thought.

The level and stats system is still difficult to swallow…

Before the appraisal, an agape employee had explained the main points to a very confused Mikael. He memorized that in this world, each being had three Key Characteristics, Body, Mind and Soul. A standard human living a normal life gained a level a year on average, each time with a KC point, meaning the average total KC of a human was equal to their age +3. But not Mikael’s, who was twenty years old and had just one point in each KC, just like a newborn. A ten years old kid was stronger, faster and more resistant than him. Normally more intelligent as well, but this was still a little bit vague since the young man had mental functions fitting his age, without his stats keeping up with this, a strangeness according to the official doing the appraisal.

“Hey ! Stop daydreaming !” Exclaimed Helianthine.

“Can I remind you that we have but a little under thirty minutes before we open the store ?” She said while preparing the family butcher’s shop for the early opening. It was saturday and the young woman was home for the weekend, helping in the shop to get some fresh air from her week of studying in the magic academy she was frequenting, where she was proudly registered to become a Mage. And she was also there, these days, to help her mom train Mikael into a proper butcher.

“Perfect, now take this knife and keep following those fibers in the meat, and be cautious not to cut this piece, we don’t want to make sausage with this kind of meat he ?” She kept going, helping him, putting her hand on his to show him the moves to do.

“Dling-dling !” Rang the doorbell, announcing a visitor.

“Sorry, we’re clo…” Started the young woman, before realizing she was speaking at her mom.

“Mom ? You wern’t home ?”

“I needed to go outside, to settle an important matter yah’see ?” She said back while showing the little girl she had in her arms.

“...Oh no, it happened again ?” Asked Helianthine, horrified.

“Yep, the little asshole can’t control himself.” Replied Nana, anger in her eyes.

“We need to talk, Heli.” She went on while glancing across the room, her eyes coming on Mikael.

“Mika, how are yah doing with children ?” She asked him.

“Pretty good, why ?”

“Yah’re going to look after this child for me, alright ? Go change clothes and come by my room to tell me when yah’re ready, I will bring her to your room so Heli and I can talk, yah’all good ?”

“All good madame.” He answered, already putting his knife and mail glove away, taking only two minutes to take of his three butcher’s aprons.

“I am ready.” He said at Nana’s door.

“Good, i’m coming.”

He got back to his room, Nana bringing him the little one soon after.

“There, take good care of her, be gentle. I’m heating water, when i’m finished with Heli we will made her take a bath. She’s called Lauryne.” She said while handing her in his arms, leaving straight away.

“Hello Lauryne.” He whispered to the little girl who didn’t react.

He frowned, worried, and raised her head, really watching her for the first time. A skin white and soft like satin, with a purplish bruise around her neck and marks of beating on her cheeks. Radiant hair, dirty and greasy, soaked up in sweat. A sky blue gaze, motionless like a dead fish, with immuable tears at the edge of her eyes. Mikael made a titanic effort to keep his calm and his reassuring smile, not willing to scare the girl by letting his face distort because of shock and sorrow. He thoughtlessly started to approach his hand of the neck of the little girl but stopped when he saw her shudder, a tiny little spark flashing through her eyes, one from a wounded and hunted beast. He made her sit on his bed, Lauryne not reacting like she was some kind of wood doll, checking her feet, her arms, her hands, fearing to find what he knew was there, marks of punches, bruises, contusions, evidence of someone that struggled, trying to resist to the point of being broken. Mikael then sat down cross-legged on the bed, face to face with the traumatized girl. He contemplated her for a short while before extending his hand, palm opened facing the ceiling. Nothing happened during a handful of seconds, Mikael focused, the little one lost in her world, until a tiny glow started to dance on his hand. It had not the passion of fire, the sharpness of ice nor the purity of lightning, but it was soft and warm, comforting. The eyes of the little girl came back to life just so slightly, drawn to this little atypical light.

“What is it ?” She asked weakly.

“I do not really know, something reminding me of my home or friends, maybe. A tiny light on which I can cling to down here.” He answered before handing it to her.

She touched it, apprehensive but curious. The tiny glow then disappeared, flowing in her injured body. Her immuable tears then started expanding until they pearled and flowed along her cheeks. She was sobbing louder and louder until she was openly crying, seeking safety in the arms of Mikael, the young man blindsided by so much woe.

***

She held his hand all along her bath, much to Nana’s surprise, and she even let him clean her wounded body. In addition to what he already saw, her butt was covered by red marks and long scratches were spreaded on her back. Blood and half-healed scabs stained the water with a vile colour, a filthy mix of red and brown. She stayed silent all along, letting herself be rocked by the rubbing of the brush Mikael was using to wash her, his strokes made reluctant by his fear of hurting her even more than she already was. Clean and dry, Nana quickly dressed her with a light gray dress that had belonged to Helianthine, before she took refuge in the arms of the young with-clothed man, where she fell dead asleep, sleeping peacefully unlike the first time he met her, in the church.

“She is the same little girl Roger was healing back when we visited him for the first time, is not she ?”

“Yes.” Replied Nana, more seriously than she ever was.

“And while we were cleaning her, I saw…” He said, hesitant to tackle the subject. “...Well, i have noticed that…”

“She is raped by her brother.” She interrupted him crudely.

“And it’s not the first time it happened either. This beast, he started some month ago. The first time I saw her like that, I had to force me not to throw up. Roger had called me urgently. I’m a little bit like the mom of the neighborhood, yah see, and the poor Roger, he had already seen his share of disgusting things, but this went beyond him. It's the father that brought her in. He had tried to stop it, yah see, but the issue is that Joseph, the big brother of Lauryne, he became the apprentice of a powerful Mage. He’s full of himself, he do what he want, in particular the worst.” A unspeakable wrath was burning behind her eyes.

“Even his parents are now scared of him, we can’t do anything except taking care of the little one, after he has finished tormenting and raping her.” She stabbed her gaze in Mikael’s eyes.

“If I could, I would gladly strangle this motherfucking monster myself. But I can’t.” Tears pearled on the edge of Nathalie’s eyes, and it made Mikael shakes like a leaf, he shacked seeing such a strong woman crying before him. His sorrow knew no end, he wanted to throw up, but no tears wanted to come.

This world, just a ruin, a shadow from the past that is slowly collapsing on itself, deteriorating more and more into a toxic jungle, minds and souls rotting. This is nothing but a foretaste of the horrors lurking around this place. Good luck, to change or condemn it, to save them or to destroy them, to maybe weight in the balance. But you need to know : you’re not alone. You’re never alone, Sanctuary.

???

She awoke and opened her eyes, which immediately saw the hungry gaze of a girl. She seemed to be about fifteen years old, dirty, her long hair unkempt and terribly tangled. She licked her cherry-red lips when she saw her prey waking up, a small flame of madness burning deep in her pupils.

“You are mine !” She said forcefully, holding the young woman nailed to the ground by her wrists, sitting on her belly and her head already close to the neck of her victim.

Then the young woman who, for the second time, woke up in an unknown place, facing a monster, became angry. Her mouth was warped with fury, and she began to strike and strike, again, and again, and again, with her forehead, till the nose of her aggressor made a filthy sound, till it was bloody, till her forehead was covered with red, and the young girl aggressing her finally recoiled.

She got up, ready to run away or fight, but stopped when she saw the scene in front of her. The room was not very large and full of trinkets, perhaps the room of the girl in front of her. And she cried, that girl who had saved her from the other children and then tried to feed on her like the others. She cried, rolled in a ball in a corner of the room, blood slowly dripping from her broken nose, her purplish face, mingling with her snot and tears.

The young woman stood there, contemplating what her fury had once again produced, even if it was justified. One or two minutes later, sensing that her prey had not moved, she lifted her head to look at the young woman.

“I’m hungry ! Please, I’m so hungry !” She said crying between pain and anger, oscillating over herself, shared by her desire to feed and to throw herself on the juicy human in front of her, and her fear of the same human who had turned out to be a more dangerous prey than expected.

The young woman felt her heart tightening and she crouched, putting her head at the height of the hungry young girl.

“What do you need ?” she asked, already relatively sure of the answer.

“Blood, I want blood !” Cried the girl in return with energy, confirming the young woman’s suspicions.

I’m gonna do something stupid again. Shitty marshmallow heart. She thought before leaning her head to the side, uncovering her neck.

"Okay, but only a little, understood ?" she said.

The girl froze, surprised by the evolution of the situation, before rubbing the face of with her filthy garments to remove the blood, snot and tears, actually smearing them more than anything else, shaking her head energetically, looking greedily at the neck that was presented to her. She leaned forward, hesitating slightly.

“Go on, don’t be shy.” Evilyn said nicely to her, and she suddenly felt the powerful bite of the girl on her neck, her blood flowing down her throat. The sensation was painful, but surprisingly not so unpleasant, becoming less and less unbearable as time passed. At one point, she started to feel to weak, and pushed the girl away.

“Enough.” She said to her, to which she replied by releasing the grip of her jaw with regret.

The young woman turned to face her, ready to ask her questions, but the girl had rolled in a ball in the pile of cushion, mattress and blanket which a priori served her as a bed in place of the one on the other side of the room. The repeated headbutts marks were still visible on her face, but she was now peaceful, a smile even floating on her face, hunger finally chased away, at least temporarily. Evelyn also feeling herself extremely tired, she naturally laid down next to the girl, falling asleep almost as quickly as she did.

***

She woke up first, her neck, arms and leg still painful, bite marks visible even in her clothes. She tried to move, noticing that the girl clung to her like a baby kangaroo to her mother, breathing peacefully while hugging her. She was dreaming, a happy dream it looked like by her smile.

“... Mom...No… Yes, stay…… Warm, Sweet… ... with me.” She slowly mumbled in her sleep, rubbing her head against the young woman’s chest, probably taking her for her mother, dreaming her as such in any case.

She patiently waited for the young girl to wake up, which didn’t take too long, feeling the one she took for her mother already awake. She opened her eyes, looking at the young woman with affection.

“Hello Mo…” She began to say, before a confused look appeared. Confusion gave way to memory, and memory to sadness, pain.

She began to cry again, wetting the young woman’s clothes with her tears, still in her embrace, and she hugged her in return, taking her even closer to her to rock her and try to alleviate her grief. After an uncertain time, the girl put herself together and dried her tears.

“Sorry.” She said as she got up.

“For that, and for yesterday. I am not myself when I am that hungry. I apologize.” She continued.

“Thank you for letting me feed on you, milady.”

“... You’re welcome. It’s not like I can let you starve.” She replied, before asking.

'What is your name?'

She looked at her strangely.

“... My Mistress named me Tysbae.” She replied.

"That’s a nice name. Who is your mistress ?"

“My Mistress is the one who transformed me into what I am today.”

“Um… your Vampire progenitor ?” Remarked the young woman while asking Tysbae.

The girl opened her eyes looking at the young woman, clearly surprised.

“Uh, yeah ? How do you know that, you’re… you’re some sort of vampire specialized magician ?”

“No, I’m just someone who’s either deep in an hallucination or deep in shit.” The young woman answered, massaging her temples.

“My name is Evilyn by the way.” she added, reaching out to Tysbae.

“Nice to meet you.”

The girl looked at the outstretched hand for a second, wondering what to do, before reaching out and taking it, giving birth to a smile on Evilyn’s face.

“Delighted to meet you.” replied Tysbae, looking with curiosity at the exchange of hands they were making

"Well, now that the presentations have been made, you will answer one or two questions, and I will do the same in exchange, is that all right ?"

“Okay !” the girl replied enthusiastically.

Eleonor

The adrenaline rush. The wind in her ears, a smile on her face. An enemy in front of her, tiny, surly, interesting to fight. Some kind of porcupine derived from a Pawn, using its quill like projectile to hit her. She evaded them nimbly, the stings quite slow for her and the move of the monster, predictable, thanks to her Abyss Eyes.

|Abyss Eyes : Your eyes are used to hunt in the most outlandish environments. Darkness and obscurity are of no avail on you, and the enemies’ motions are more and more predictable the longer you fight with them. Beware, you can still be surprised.|

When she exited her room, she had redone a little bit of scouting with the help of her new toys, the Black Hooks, that were giving her an newfound outstanding mobility, not comparable in the slightest with what she was capable of doing mere hours ago. While at it, she was training herself in the use of her new limbs, even starting to appreciate their sensation of touch, feeling the various grains of the stones, surfaces' textures, like someone enjoying a good wine. While doing so, she had ran into some sort of big conduit of stone in a platforms next to hers, that she had followed for ten odd minutes, reaching a vast cave full of life. Lightwells were keeping the local flora alive while the fauna was spending its time cheerfully killing each other. She quickly found something of interest. Near the entrance, the corpse of some kind of critter as big as a cow was lying on the ground, already quite thoroughly cleaned but on which their was still some things worthy of being eaten. Black blood had splattered the area, still fresh, and the guts of the creature were slowly pouring whatever it had last ate on the floor. Absorbed by the contemplation of her next meal, she didn’t have the time to dodge the projectiles launched at her. Luckily, they were stopped by her pectoral shell, barely sinking in it.

Wow, quite the effective armor that I got. Or those strike weren’t that powerful. Maybe a little bit of both.

She then turned around to face her contender, avoiding in extremis the next round with the help of one of her Hook while ripping the spike out of her armor with her bare hands. And now, this dance was going on since half an hour ago and the tiny monster seemed to be on the fringe of exhaustion. Oh, and it also seemed to have exhausted all of its quills.

“Well well well, you’re getting tired ?” Asked Eleonor, ready to fight, her fists restless.

The creature starred viciously at the young woman before it, growling stronger and stronger until it ran away, its tail between his legs. Eleonor lowered her arms, disappointed by this conclusion. She wanted to kill something, anything.

Bah, it’s a pity but I will surely have other opportunities to stretch myself. She thought, piqued, while walking toward her hard won meal.

She kneeled and started eating, ripping the pieces of flesh that still remained, removing the bones to chew them, eating the offal, the kidney, the liver and the brain. The hearth and the lungs were already eaten, a shame, but even like that she was quickly totally oversatiated with part of the corpse still remaining.

Brhhh. This taste...I hope I will never get used to it. She thought while spitting, trying to wash off the stench of the raw bone marrow she had sucked out.

She then step back one or two meters away from the corpse, arms crossed, thinking about the best way to bring back the greatest amount of piece back with her. She returned to the dead body and, as best she could, started skinning it with her bare hands. After thirty lengthy minutes, she had multiple useless straps of skin, a certain amount of armored plate, and a skin piece more or less interesting to move things around. She stacked the skin and the plate and made a bloody bundle out of it, using the biggest bone she could find to make the knot around. Moving around with a big bloody lump wasn't maybe the best thing to do but, luckily, she didn’t attract any bad attention while going back at her room. She arrived alive and in one piece, just so slightly injured.

Well, it was a lot more smooth than the first time did it not ? She thought while throwing her haul in the black tar of her pool, making big waves on it.

Haaaa, it’s so good to not being hungry nor thirsty ! She told herself while stretching all the way, extending her tentacles by reflex and loudly hitting the walls with them.

“Ha fuck !” It hurts ! She thought while retracting them quickly, rubbing her painful hands.

Ok Eleonor, let’s stop doing foolish things , it’s time to see what Genèse can do to me with what i brought back ! She thought while effectively stopping to make a clown of herself, her heart beating fast because of her excitation. She slipped herself in the genesis pool, welcoming this warm feeling that came with it.

That’s it ! It’s like taking a bath ! I knew this feeling was familiar. She thought while discovering the reason of her comfort.

A tentacle then kindly wrapped itself around her abdomen.

YOU MADE IT QUICK, MISTRESS, AND THE HARVEST SEEMS QUITE GOOD.

Not bad, yes. I got lucky, a predator had just finished its meal and left the corpse lying in the open.

OH, AND I SEE THAT YOU FIGHTED.

Barely ? Whatever, what can you make with the things a brought back ?

LARGE AMOUNT OF CHITIN, SKIN AND BONE. I SUGGEST SOME OFFENSIVE OPTIMIZATION, WITH THE AMELIORATION OF THE OUTER SHELL WITH THE SUPPLIES LEFT. THE CREATION OF A STORAGE ORGAN IS ALSO CONCEIVABLE.

Hoho, some storage ?

AFFIRMATIVE. THE LARGE AMOUNT OF SKIN MADE IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE SOME KIND OF STORAGE SAC, EVEN IF IT MAKE YOURSELF MORE VULNERABLE.

Because biological tissue would be used to make the sac, and that it need to be extensible ?

...AFFIRMATIVE.

And where would you put it ?

IN YOUR LOWER BACK, JUST ABOVE YOUR KIDNEY. MOST STABLE AND LESS TARGETABLE PART OF YOUR BODY THAT IS STILL VIABLE FOR THE MODIFICATION.

Question : couldn’t you shield the interior part of the sac that lead to my internal organs ? This way, if the sac is pierced, it’s not that bad since the strike should be stopped by the internal armour, no ?

...ACHIEVABLE. I WILL DO IT AND COLLECT DATA ON THIS SPECIFIC MUTATION THE NEXT TIME YOU WILL BE MENDED.

Perfect ! And by the way, I could need something sharp, like claws. It would help me a lot when I eat and work on the corpses I find, and it could be useful in fight too. If there is still some room left on the biomass, some armor on my forearms could do it, so I can ward off some strikes.

OTHER SPECIFICATIONS, MISTRESS ?

Hum… could you modify my taste buds so that meat and the other things I eat doesn't taste so bad ?

I CAN ALWAYS TRY, MISTRESS, SEE IF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS FIGHT AGAINST IT OR NOT.

Perfect, perfect ! I don't know for you, but I think I’m doing great today ! It give hope for tomorrow.

...MAYBE.

Ha, i forget that you don’t have feelings like me. Whatever, let’s do this analysis, I’m eager to go and kill things !

YES, MISTRESS.

She was pulled deeper, in the innermost part of the genesis pool, her body quickly swallowed by the black tar.

To rise and to fall, sides of the same always spinning coin, just dependent of the point of view. Is this the end of something ? The start ? Both ? In any cases, i’m eager to see what this hive-shaped poisonous insect jar while held. It’s always dangerous to make a Kodoku...

Said the voice, but the young woman was already sleeping deeply and didn’t hear her. Those words were lost in the void, auspicious of a uncertain and chaotic future...