Part Seventy-Four

It felt like he was immersed in sludge. His body was heavy, and his mind sluggish. He tried to move his fingers, but found that they were too stiff to move. He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t smell anything. It was like he was dead, and was just waiting for his soul to move on.

For what seemed to be an eternity, or maybe just seconds, he laid in that darkness, waiting for something. He’d never been very religious, but he had begun to wonder after World Decay began. Something of this scale and magnitude had to be the work of the Divine. So was this a trial sent by God, or the work of the Devil? The feeling that he’d screwed up, and was now denied entrance to paradise worried him. And the darkness surrounding him only compounded this, causing his thoughts to spiral deeper and deeper into a pit of fear. Madness was but steps away.

No. I will not break this easily.

A voice, perhaps his own, echoed through the darkness, bringing him back from the brink. And with the voice, came light. The inky darkness was banished by the light, and his eyes, which he hadn’t noticed were closed, opened. Far, far above him, he saw a sea of stars, brighter than he’d ever thought possible.

It was strange. He was in a large city. Light pollution should’ve kept the stars from being this bright, but there they were. Twinkling merrily like they were happy he was seeing them again, and the sight nearly moved him to tears, so happy was he to see something besides the darkness. So happy and moved, that what occurred next should’ve been expected.

::Individual has met requirements. Unique Skill: Star Light, Star Bright has Awakened.::

The World System’s voice broke him free of his fixation on the stars, as did the more mundane voice that followed.

“Awake are we? Good, good. You startled me quite a bit earlier, I must say. I never expected a Human to absorb all of that Miasma.”

An odd figure came into view. Wearing what appeared to be a deep blue tuxedo and a wedding veil, the figure clutched a massive staff made of ebony, and was leaning over him. The man's face was completely obscured due to the veil, but his voice and build helped identify him as a man. The situation being what it was, he found this man to be highly suspicious.

“Who, who are you?”

“Oh good, you can talk. I was worried you would jump up and try to eat me. I know that when a single, fresh corpse absorbs that much Miasma so soon after death, then they could come back as a Revenant, but one can never be too sure. Stranger things have happened. Very strange things indeed.”

Corpse? Death? The figure nonchalantly spoke words that sent a chill down his spine one after the other, showing no signs of paying any attention to his reaction.

“Eherm, sir? What are you talking about?”

“Huh? Oh, you of course! Come, come. Get on your feet, and I will tell you all you could ever want to know. That is what a responsible Necromancer does. Not like some of those fools who run about creating Undead willy-nilly without a care in the world for how it makes the rest of us look! No! I am not like them!”

“I, I never said you were?”

“Oh, sorry. I got a little worked up. It happens to the best of us.”

This man isn’t sane. It’s not just his fashion choices, but his thought process isn’t normal. I need to be careful what I say around him.

“Oh dear. Please do not look at me like that, like I am crazy. Because I have yet to show you crazy, and I would rather not do so.”

“It’s just this situation, it’s crazy to me.”

“Oh how foolish of me! Of course you would think I am crazy! You come from a world without magic, so to you, I am crazy! Ahahahahah!”

I’m not sure this is a laughing matter.

“Eherm. Introductions! My name is Edulácu Dés Vándás, but you may call me Edulá. And your name would be?”

“Er, Leland Decker?”

“Non! You must say your name with confidence! A man’s name is his stamp upon the world, and he must both cherish and protect it. To mutter it in confusion is to do neither. So once again, but with feeling!”

“Leland Decker.”

“Yes, very good! Now, onto orientation. Hm, I know I have it here somewhere. Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right with you.”

The man let go of his staff, and began searching through his pockets and the bag on the ground beside him. After several fruitless moments, he finally pulled a black leather-bound book free from the bag's depths.

“Ah, here it is. My copy of the Necronomicon, or the Book of the Dead, as laypeople would call it. I prefer Necronomicon, it just sounds better, does it not? Ah, but you would not know, would you? You are all kinds of confused. Well, take a gander at this, and be enlightened!”

Edula handed him the book, and after looking at the page it was opened to, Leland began to understand his situation.

Revenant – A special kind of Undead that only occurs due to Necromancy. Revenants are created when a corpse whose soul has yet to move on, is exposed to the effects of a powerful Necromancy Spell, reanimating the corpse with its memories and personality intact. While not enthralled by their creator, Revenants are still considered to be Necromantic Familiars, and are still bound to the laws governing them. They will always know where their creators are, but will not have to answer their summonses if they do not want to. Additionally, having a Revenant as a Familiar doesn’t strain the caster, allowing them to create more Familiars without any trouble.

Physically, Revenants look no different than they did in life, besides the decay all Undead experience. Fresher Revenants usually only have some slight discoloration or may still have the wounds that killed them. Older corpses turned into Revenants may have begun necrosis, though most will not turn when near this phase, as their souls will have finally moved on.

The oddest thing about Revenants is that they are the only kind of Undead that can be connected to the World System. The leading theory is that this is because they used to be mortal, so the System merely allows them to continue on as if they’d never died.

It was that, along with his surroundings, that finally allowed Leland to grasp his current situation. Corpses lay in every direction around them, and the scent of blood was heavy in the air. In fact, there was a drying pool of blood where he’d been laying, which Leland instinctively knew was his own. It could only mean one thing.

“I, I died, didn’t I?”

“Of course you did. Can you not feel the changes within yourself?”

He hadn’t noticed until now, but it was quite obvious. His heart wasn’t beating, nor was he breathing either. All of the ordinary biological functions that occurred with no input from him had stopped, and their stillness was unnatural. And staring at all the flesh just laying there, he could feel an alien hunger beginning to form, one which terrified him.

His fear caused him to hesitate to do anything else, and Edula felt that. He gently took the Necronomicon from Leland, and stashed it back in his bag.

“Now, I two more pieces of advice for you. One, you should endeavor to fill your stomach as quickly as possible. Undead such as yourself have a high tendency to go feral from hunger. Second, examine your Status. It will help you understand your new body. Now, I believe I have fulfilled my obligations to you. Gooday.”

And before Leland could process everything, Edula had simply vanished, like he’d never been there in the first place.

***

[Chris's POV]

“Call the patrols back. We can’t be bleeding men like this.”

“Director, are you serious? If we cut back the patrols, then the monsters will have free-.”

“I know, damnit! I don’t have much choice in the matter. Five patrols have been attacked in the last week, and another three disappeared altogether. It’s those Gluttonists, I’m sure of it. They’re closing in in us, and we’re woefully unprepared.”

The Kyushu Buffer Zone, a space of about fifty kilometers between the edge of the disaster zone, and the first encampments of the Defensive Line. At any given time, there should be nearly a hundred squads moving through there, thinning the monster’s numbers to help preserve the Defensive Line. But now, they were being attacked all along the Buffer Zone, showing that the Gluttonists had begun to breach it. They were only weeks away from the Line now.

“Well, at least the attacks have slowed down. That should give us some time to prepare, right?”

“Maybe. The attacks have begun to become more infrequent, but they’re still increasing in intensity. One encampment was attacked by thousands of strange eyeball creatures, and another faced swarms of giant locusts. The monsters are banding together, just as desperate and afraid of these Gluttonists as we are. I’d feel pity for them, if they weren’t coming straight at us.”

It was only due to Chris using his personal connections and funds to procure as much support as he could that the Defensive Line still held. No matter how many weak monsters attacked, they wouldn’t be able to break through now. But that wasn’t what worried him.

“The trouble is this.” He slid a report he’d received earlier that day over to Saito. It’s contents weren’t good.

“Greater Gluttonist? So they have an Evolution. That’ll complicate things. So who discovered these things? One of the patrols?”

“No, actually. It was a group of mercenaries. They won’t say what they were doing there, but the fact that they reported this is honestly a miracle. According to them, this creature is about three times the size of the original, and possesses some kind of Sonic attack.”

“Tch, that’ll be tough to deal with. How’d they get away from it?”

“Luck. They said that they just happened to be wearing headgear that partially neutralized the Sonic attack. It still disorientated them, but they were able to get away relatively unscathed.”

Anyone who knew what these creatures were capable of would think these men idiotic, but they’d managed to bring them valuable intelligence that may save lives. If a Greater Gluttonist had suddenly shown up on a battlefield, it could’ve led to massive casualties.

“Haaah, well. I think it’s safe to say we need to hurry. Based on their progress, I think we have two or three weeks left, maybe less. We need reinforcements, and fast.”

“So it’s come to this? Director, is this really the best way?”

“It no longer matters at this point. If those creatures make it across the Kanmon Strait, then all of Japan could fall. We have to stop them, even if it means selling ourselves to the Devil.”

The idea of these creatures, which could even threaten Ouka, attacking innocent civilians finally gave Saito the resolve to go along with the Director’s plan. They needed help, and there was someone who was willing to give it. He just hoped he wouldn’t ask for their souls in exchange.

***

Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea…..

“They’re watching us again. Why the heck are they watching us!?”

“Can it, idiot. They’re always watching. They’ve been keeping shifts since this shit started. So knock it off.”

“Yeah but, it’s different this time? I don’t know, it just feels like they’re watching us differently than normal.”

Sensing the uncertainty in his companion’s voice, he sighed to himself while bringing his binoculars up. Looking through them, he quickly found the two lizards watching them, one a deep red, the other a light green. The two monsters were indeed looking directly at them, but that was nothing new. They’d been doing that ever since they took the island over four months ago. By now, no one was foolish enough to try attacking the monsters, as all previous attempts had ended catastrophically. But there was still a need to watch them, so here they were.

“Eh, I think it’s your imagination. They look like the same overgrown lizards that have been there the while time.”

“Uh, maybe? I really thought I saw something.”

“You’ve been here too long. Maybe we can get some vacation soon. Sitting here everyday isn’t good for our minds.”

***

“Did they see?”

“No, they did not Brother. The one nearly did, but has convinced himself otherwise.”

“Good, the Brood-Mother would be dismayed if the humans caught on too quick. Delay your work for now. We must remain cautious.”

“Yes Brother. By the way, how long has that pup been there?”

“What? Well, where did you come from, little one?”

A short distance from where the two Dragons were conversing, sat a small Dragon pup with deep purple scales. Its large amethyst eyes stared eagerly out to sea, as if it was fascinated with the water. Or what was floating on it.

“Yip! Yip, yip!”

“Yes, yes, little one. Shush now. It is dangerous for you to be here. Come, I shall take you back to the hatchery.”

“Yow, yow!”

Even though the pup clearly didn’t want to go, it was unable to prevent the much larger Dragon from scooping it up, and carrying it off. But the whole time they flew away, its eyes never left the small ship floating on the water