I thought that the Necklace of Cores eating my leg was amazing. Horrifying, painful, and disturbing but amazing nonetheless. However, watching it eat the Blade of Adite was something different.

Most things kind of shrunk down and turned into a small vortex before sliding into the necklace. With my leg, the process started where it was held and moved out until I yanked it away. With the blade, however, things got oddly fascinating. Very oddly fascinating, considering the fact that I had a sword next to me that sounded like a human crying out in pain.

Unlike anything else, the blade seemed able to fight being consumed. I watched as part of it started to liquefy, only to stop and return to its shape. Then for the first time, the necklace seemed to shoot out a beam. The beam was a curved purplish-blue light that almost had something in it. When it touched the blade, the screaming changed.

The first time it screamed, it was like a single person crying out. Like they were being lowered into a bed of ants all wanting to eat them, this time, however, it was like a mass of people crying, perhaps even wailing. I couldn’t understand the voices, but I could tell there were voices.

Renfry squinted his eyes as his muscles bulged as he fought to keep the screaming sword in place. “What is that!”

I yelled over the screaming. “I’ll tell you when this is over!”

I saw out of the edge of my vision Kasidy peaking between two of the skulls. I looked over at her and saw her wide-eyed. As she watched, the whole room dimmed as the light from the necklace seemed to get brighter.

The other woman was watching everything directly across the sword from me. As our eyes met, she dropped hers and lowered her head. I needed time to figure out what this woman was doing and thinking. However, she just wasn’t important to me. The only reason I cared was that she was here.

My mind was yanked back to the necklace when the blade screamed as little sections were ripped off. The sword fought this as well, as I saw it stretching apart like someone pulling off bits of putty. As it stretched, it was almost like a muscle in the sword trying to pull back. Trying to live as the necklace slowly broke it down.

Kasidy finally spoke. “What… what… what’s going on.”

I grimaced a little as the area I was in was heating up a bit. It seemed that the magic that the necklace was using was causing heat. It made some sense as it was energy, but everything that it had consumed had been cool up to this point. Then again, no other time I fed the necklace had it taken so long. For a good ten minutes, the blade kept fighting the necklace. The sword even tried to pull its tip out of my throne and turn to me. However, it lost about a third of itself to the necklace when it moved. The screaming and wailing from the Blade of Adite turned to a whimper and then a sigh as it finished being consumed by the necklace.

As the blade finished being sucked into the necklace, the light show the necklace had been making ended. Then the light in the throne room returned to normal. The magical lights that were placed across the ceiling started to glow brightly again.

The woman that had been holding onto the throne was now entirely on the ground with her arms stretched out, bowing. I didn’t know if this world only bowed this way in worship or if this was normal to do to nobles. If it wasn’t for her being right here right now, I wouldn’t have done or said anything.

As I shifted back into the throne, I said to her. “Get up! None of that bowing stuff.”

Then I twisted a little and called out. “Kasidy, the blade’s gone. Come back around.”

I had seen Kasidy scared before but never had I seen her pale like this. She had been through a lot in the past few months and had handled it well. However, for some reason, the screaming sword made her look like she saw a ghost. Which, with Renfry right here, was kind of funny.

As she came back around, I asked. “Did the curse change? Is it broken?”

Kasidy slowly shook her head. “No, it’s still there.”

Renfry sighed. “So even destroying an unbreakable blade didn’t remove the curse?”

Kasidy’s eyes teared up. “No, and now it’s doubled the speed at which I am losing experience and health.”

I slammed my fists on the armrests. “We need to get out of the castle to set up a Dungeon. We need more time to figure this all out.”

Right as I was about to continue, Blink’s now giant butt came wiggling out of the tunnel. As she whipped around, it was the first time I heard the woman who was still bowing scream. It seemed like seeing the cleric of Death dressed in her whites being held in a giant lizard’s mouth was the breaking point. I glanced over at her and saw her duck her head again.

The cleric or perhaps priestess of Death was still alive as the number of hit points she had showed it. However, she was also clearly worse for wear as it looked like Blink had just about bit through her. The woman wasn’t screaming anymore and likely wouldn’t make it much longer if we didn’t treat her.

Blink threw her prisoner to the ground right in front of me. Then she reached out her giant healing tongue and licked Kasidy, who stood beside me in shock. As Blink’s huge tongue passed over my bard, she shook. The wet rough treatment was enough to yank her out of whatever thoughts she had been having over my necklace.

Kasidy looked at Blink and asked. “Blink? Is that you?”

Blink nodded her dinosaur-sized head and thought to me. “I’m not too big, am I daddy?”

I smiled at my bonded companion and said. “No, sweetie, you’re not too big. Once I take care of this one here, we can talk about how you got this big. Is that okay?”

Blink nodded. I wasn’t sure what was happening with her, but I was glad she was on our side. I was a little worried about her being so big as I was now snack size to her, and in the past, she had taken bites at me. She hadn’t done it since she was big enough to truly hurt me, but she sometimes forgot how big she had grown. So now that she was this big, I was worried a little about getting hurt.

I pulled my mind off the fun things of the future. I had something to do that I didn’t want to do but that I knew was needed. We needed information about what was on the other side of that gate and how to shut it down. Which meant I needed to ask our prisoner questions, and I didn’t have time to play around.

I looked over at Renfry and then pointed to the cleric. “Give her a health potion. We need to know what she knows, but be ready to kill her if I ask you to.”

He nodded, and then I said to Blink. “Sweetie, go see if there are any others. I gave the undead the job of trying to capture them, but they specialize in fighting the undead.”

Blink thought to me. “You fix Kasidy?”

I gave Blink a quick smile and thought back. “I hope to.”

With that, Blink’s massive form spun around showing that even being as huge as she was now, she was still more agile than me. Then she raced down the hall, this time not switching back and forth to take up the whole space.

I sent two skeletal guards to hold up the cleric and keep her arms from moving. Every time I saw the other ones cast, they had to use their hands, so I was hoping to keep her from being able to attack. She woke up with a scream and then started to struggle.

As her eyes landed on me, she sneered and then spat. “What do you want, lich?”

I glared at her. “I’m no lich, but that doesn’t matter right now. If you want to live, tell me how to turn off the portal.”

She gave a dry and angry laugh. “Why would I do that? You would add me to your women and do what you want! With the gate open, we will keep coming until we defeat you!”

I shook my head slowly. “I’ll let you go once the gate is closed. All you have to do is tell me how to close it.”

She shook her head. “Death won’t accept me helping you! Your kind are untrustworthy, denying that the dead should be left alone.”

She started to yell and thrash even more, trying to free an arm. I shook my head slowly. I needed to know what she knew and hated myself for this. So I reached into the interface for my throne and triggered Bound Servant.

I nodded to Renfry. “Kill her quickly. She will be in enough pain.”

Renfry nodded grimly and stepped toward her. He pulled out a short blade and jabbed it in and up. The woman collapsed, and as she died, my throne pulled her soul out. Her body started to lift off the ground from her stomach, and then there was a screech. It wasn’t something that I could hear, but I almost felt it in my bones. To call it unpleasant wouldn’t do the sound or feeling justice. It was unnatural, and I felt my soul crying against my actions.

Then her soul was ripped from the body. Her dead face grimaced and then turned to a full-blown face of pain. Then as the body let go of the soul, it rested in the air for a moment before it opened its eyes at me. I could see the horror written on her face as she knew what was going on. Finally, the throne pulled, and her now loose soul flew into the open mouth of my left handrest.

Kasidy gasped and looked at me with a little bit of fear. The woman who had stopped bowing started again, showing fear and joy. Renfry just nodded to me as he wiped the blood off his dagger.

I shook my head slowly. “Now, the even harder part. Questioning a soul in torment.”

* * *