《Lord Of Horrors [DISCONTINUED]》
1. First Churn
"None bow before the Lord of Horrors..." An ancient whisper echoes through the infinite nothingness.
And somewhere, within finite reality, a sleeper stirs."... yet wherever he may tread, all things kneel."
A loud sniff could be heard throughout the small, white room."Auuurgh..." Followed by a groan and then, a deep, exhausted sigh.
The origin of the sound seemed to twist and turn in his warm bed, the sheets he bought, though overpriced for what they were, twisting with unmeant dexterity as he did."Grrhh..." His bones crackled and popped, his right hand digging into four pillows of varying artistry.
Lines of teal, white and ocean blue. Synthetic, unnatural.
Cheap, and efficient.
Pure white. Empty. The one he always kept buried, whether under his own body or the others.
It reminded him of his soul.
One which fell off of the bed. Crimson and orange, adorned by the imagery of three, pale blue cats with unnaturally long legs and creepy smiles.
Unnamed demons and monsters. Pointless existences which did not exist. Surely.
The last one. A pure blackness. A void amidst a sea of color. He always places it on top.
Buried face-first in the dark, he finds peace.
A peace so deep, it was like... death.
He shook his head. All this depressive thinking has made him sickened, yet he had no idea of what.
Himself?
No. He was far too arrogant of a person to ever be sickened with himself.
A blink, as he finally managed to get out of the bed, the comfy silken sheets being tossed to the side as he reached for his wardrobe. An old, mansion-like wooden piece of furniture. Something he got from an old neighbor back home...
He didn''t even remember the mans name anymore.
Then again, there was a time in his life when he didn''t remember his own birthday date.
He shook his head and looked towards a hidden tiny door at the end of the wardrobe, blocked from sight by large overcoats and other thick clothing. A place to hide his painkillers. From who?
The police? Ha, no.
They aren''t illegal.
He was hiding them from himself.
To forget they exist.
Because he was better than this. He gritted his teeth and slammed the doors of the wardrobe shut, closing the tiny door as well from the sheer force of the blow.
... and then he opened the wardrobe again. He had yet to get dressed, after all.
A pair of blue trousers. A crimson t-shirt with the sentence *Faith is my religion!* etched into it. A black, comfortable hoodie.
Socks, pure white. Cotton, like the buried pillow.
Underwear as well, of course. Though that need not be defined... not like anyone would be seeing it, anyway."Haa..." He let out a massive sigh.
He took his phone, taking it out of its charger. Somehow, the pale black surface of the sleeping electronic device managed to perfectly reflect him.
A pale, emotionless face. The beginnings of a beard, though he swore that he shaved yesterday. His friends always said that he reminded them of a certain president.
The one with a movie about hunting vampires.
He did not care enough to learn the historical figures name.
Swiping left with his thumb, the phone came to life. It was 6:39 AM.
... "Huh."
He pressed an icon on the screen. An app which connected directly to his bank account. 10579 credits.
A blink.
That can''t be right. He spent at least 400 credits last night.
Something isn''t quite right."EHEHEHHEHEHEHE."
Laughter.
There was nobody else here but him.
He turned around.
His bed had been made.
Three pillows stacked on the rightmost side. White below, black on top. As it should be.
...
The cats.
The colored pillow was in the middle of his bed, upside down and twisted upon itself. He took in a deep sigh."Well fuck you too."
...
The sound of something shattering could be heard.
Blackened skies drenched the oceans."Giving in to the darkness is not the worst thing you can do..."
"... it is however, the easiest thing you can do." Nor voice, nor echoes. Nothing, will save you from the thunder.
Reality.
It is such a cruel concept.
A woman of unnatural beauty was currently laying on top of me. She was neither asleep, nor naked. Her prone form was lowering itself... down, onto my neck.
Instinct too.
Is an incredibly cruel concept, as I am not normally one to act on impulse.
Which is why, when my right hand slammed into the face of the woman on top of me, I was just as surprised as she was. We both quickly leaped off my bed. She screamed in anger as she spat something out, a tooth I think but it looked too crooked to be a regular human tooth."Fuckers! They t-told me this would w-w-work!"This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The pale-faced woman was wearing a china-dress of some kind. She also somehow vanished in a puff of black smoke."Was that.. a vampire?" My hands immediately went to my throat. No wounds.
Guess I stopped her before she could do any damage. Good, I suppose.
My phone rang.
A quick glance at the electronic device showed that it was 7:30. It was my alarm... or so I hoped. Turns out, there was someone else. A call from one Joseph Newman, a head cook from one of the nearby five-star restaurants."... hello?"
"Hello yourself, you damn brat. Where''s the Ripstag that you promised me?!" I let out massive sigh."Don''t worry. Its ready for pickup. Just send someone over... I told you I''d call you as soon as I woke up."
"Well Luce, my customers ain''t gonna wait for your sorry ass to get its beauty sleep. Also, you should get yourself a damn drivers neurotrainer already! I know I''ve paid you enough for you to get at least five of ''em." Luce. Me.
Lucius Prodigium. A freelance hunter.
Killer, if you ask the vegans.
Slayer, if you ask the children.
Psychopath, if you asked me.
A smile etched itself onto my face."Sorry, but my lard ass is a holy relic which can only be transported by paid transport or unlucky newbies~."
"Ha! Oh well. Anyways, Michel is waiting for you outside. Just dump the processed meat into the fridge box and he''ll give you what you''re owed." ...
Michel."You sent the fucking trap."
"Ye-hup. Maybe wake up earlier like everyone else next time, you damn homophobe." There was nothing more to say. I closed the phone."Welp, best get to work."
"Such is the catharsis-driven nature of humanity..." Empty is the color of his word.
Void, is the echo of your soul."... that they cannot even process the thought of living without joy."
"So... are you gonna give me the crate or are you just going to stand there.. all fucking creepy?" I blinked.
And somehow found myself looking at Michel, aka the pink-haired *trap*. A lithe man, genetically modified by his own mother to be as womanly as possible.
Unlike most, he seems to have taken it in stride."Y-yeah, sure... sorry, ..I-what was I?.." There was a plastic crate in my hands. The kind I use to store the meat from my wild game after I skin and divide it.
I cautiously opened the crate. The correct parts were there. Nothing was wrong.
Only that I had no memory of picking it all up and placing it into the crate.
Or getting dressed, for that matter. Fuck... I was wearing the things from the dream, the hallucination that vampire forced on me."A-anyways, give my regards to the boss."
Michel tilted his head."You mean, you don''t want to be paid?"
My hands rushed instinctively into my own pockets and dragged out my Omnicard."Ah, sorry. Stable income and all that.. not really used to it yet."
He blinked but shrugged."I guess I can see that happening to ya." He took a card of his own and passed it over mine. There was a clinking sound, before his card turned to dust."Well, that''s that. Anyways, the boss told me to remind you that he sent you an email of what wildlife he wants hunted down next."
"Thanks, mate." I turned back around and went into my house, basically charging inside to reach for my bathroom. I took a good look at myself.
Short, black hair. Check!
Emotionless, pale face. Check!
One 120kg fat ass? Check!
Eye color? Bright blue. Check!
Skin coloration? White as death. Check!
I...
Somehow appear to be perfectly fine.
Or well, my version of whatever can be described as *fine*.
I found myself chuckling as I walked out of this dreary bathroom into my living/kitchen... room.
A basic, standard template fabricator laid on the limestone wall next to me. Limestone, cheap, cheap limestone.
One of the many treasures this planet had on it.
Eredea.
A beautiful, almost completely earth-like world, covered in sprawling oceans, vast mineral-rich mountains and tempestuous forests. It is a Pangaea-in-denial, as I like to call it. One gigantic super-continent which is surrounded by a large, unending ocean whose waters have already begun to carve the inside of the continent, separating it slowly by sea-sized lakes and rivers that span thousands of kilometers.
A world several star systems away from Earth, the birthplace of humanity. Mine as well, something my neighbors are more than happy to continue reminding me of, the fucking xenophobes.
Earthquakes happen quite often here, surprising absolutely no-one, other than the overly-corrupt Planetary Government who always makes a scene out of every minor shake.
The Chaos they create is easily exploitable and Eredea is a newly-colonized world, so its not like anyone really cares about its tectonic inner-workings. Not yet, anyways.
Me? I don''t really give a crap about any of it.
I''m a hunter.
A freelancer who makes a living by slaughtering the poor, passive flora and fauna of this world, chops it all up for precious bits and bobs, which are then sold to the highest bidder. Currently, this position is held by one Joseph Newman, an Eredite man, which means born here, who has a curious penchant for making good business deals.
While also retaining the honor to not abuse anyone of his partners. Gotta give it to the man, hes one of the first people to set up a restaurant which sells food made solely from stuff native to the world, even if it hasn''t yet all been properly *checked out* by our glorious government, the oh-so-glorious Singularity Of Man.
Or SOM, for short.
Based on the ideal that humanity is unique and no matter what the differences between each one of us, we are all innately Human and that we should be proud of all of our colors and cultures.
We have an Emperor who has the power to veto the shit out of everybody.
Yet we are said to be ruled by an enlightened council of businessmen, clergymen, scientists and military personnel. The Emperor, I admit, is a bit of a traditional role at this point. Even though it is all powerful and has proven its use from time to time, our current *glorious leader* is an indolent, slothful asshole that couldn''t care less for anything else other than what might *feel good* in the next five seconds.
Shaking my head out of my stupor, I find that I''ve somehow managed to turn on my computer and make coffee while not really being fully aware of doing it."I should go see a doctor."
Suddenly, the sound of a dying milkwhale could be heard echoing in my homey, homey, home."... maybe I should eat first, though."
Downing the coffee in one go, I open up the fridge."Urgh.. nothing but stupid sh-"
My doorbell rang, causing me to blink. Shrugging to myself, I walked over to the pure-white door and opened it slowly."Hello?"
A small man with blue, wave-like markings on his face appeared before me. While the markings don''t really have a name of their own, they''re a form of tattoo that the natives here use to distinguish themselves from otherworlders... well, the more xenophobic of them do, anyways."Your order has arrived, sir! Mel''s Speed-cookery always delivers!"
Mel''s?.. Oh yeah, that one fast food place two streets down from my- wait, when did I order anything?
Taking a look at the box, I realized that it was a piece of earth venison with potatoes and some kind of sauce.
Perhaps it was nostalgia.
Maybe its just the fact that I''m insane already.
But I decided not to question it and just shrugged."How much do I owe you?"
"That''ll be thirty-six credits, sir!" The guy cheerfully stated as I pressed the aforementioned amount into the mini-keyboard of my omnicard. He quickly took his own out and, much like Michel did before, I passed my card over his."Payment confirmed. Have a nice day, sir!"
I took the box into my hand and nodded at the guy but before I could close the door, he stopped me by putting his right hand onto my shoulder."... something else you need, kid?"
Okay, maybe it was a bit insulting to call him a kid, but the guy was maybe fifteen at best. Shit, that makes me sound old as fuck.
I''m twenty-two, thank you very much."The one below... infinite stares... bubbles of flesh and blood..." I blinked as the kids head tilted in a way which should have killed him, looking at me as his eyes turned crimson and started to bleed."Become my new flesh!" He suddenly screamed, causing me to send a kick straight into his nuts by reflex.
His body doubled over in pain and the crimson eyes looked like they were about to pop."W-what i-is t-this p-PAIN?! Body so... ..." He dozed off.
Or so I thought, as the kid seemed to regain his eyes and sanity within moments."W-what was I?.. ow, what the fuc- holy fuck this hurts."
"Uhm. Sorry about that, kid... maybe you should go see a doctor. Your eyes are bleeding." That caught his attention as he immediately wiped the blood off of his cheek."H-huh? Y-yeah.. I''ll uh.. do that."
I closed the door behind me. My phone rang as soon as the darkness covered me.
An unknown caller.
Ah fuck it. Might as well."Hello! You''ve reached [Insert-Eldritch-God-Here] Industries, how can I help you?"
"... I was... going.. to ask.. why you resisted... my possession..." A implausibly deep voice echoed from the other side, almost as if submerged. It clearly wasn''t human."Who knows? Maybe if you asked me nicely, I would have given you my body."
"W-what d-d-does... n-nicely... m-m-m-mean?" The figure''s voice was echoing."Oh, I don''t know. Maybe you could''ve offered me infinite power or something first before you tried to violate my soul."
The voice did not respond and the call died right afterwards."How rude." Being something that is possibly an ancient, eldritch god does not make one an exception to the rule of good manners. Then again... maybe I should keep my mouth shut.
I walked into the living room once again, only to see a piece of fish skin pop into reality at my table. On the many scales of the still-bloody piece of flesh were written the words: I''m sorry.
...
Fuck, now I feel bad.
"And so the wheel of fate churns ever-forward..." The sleeper has awakened.
... but it is not the sleeper, whom they, should fear. "... ever-defiant of the chaos it leaves behind."
2. The Tentacle Monster is bored.
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, Everybody! How are you all?
Lucius'' House - A few seconds later...
"Might as well turn on the TV while I eat, I guess." Throwing an empty plate and a bottle of trax-cola onto my table, I placed the fast food into it before throwing the plastic box which contained it beforehand into the trash, hearing a satisfying thumping noise as the plastic was crushed and consumed by the endless machinery below.
The Singularity of Man takes recycling very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they''ve connected an intricate and incredibly expensive network of cabling and machinery to every single household on the planet. This is definitely only used for recycling purposes and definitely not to spy on their beloved people.
Well, I mean... its not like anyone can deny the benefits of the system. It is free of charge to have these installed. The owners only responsibility is to pay for their maintenance should something go wrong. Aka, please do not throw anything too large into the trash pipes without compressing it first unless you are prepared to take responsibility.
It also helps that the machinery in question is shared between neighborhoods, so if you fuck up in this particular way, chances are that you''re going to be the public enemy number one in your own home. For a while, anyways.
This thankfully, can''t happen to me as I live in a newly established expansion outpost on the outskirts of the city, Authoria. Authoria is one of the three founding cities on the planet, having been settled by the colonists from the ship General Authority some thirty years earlier. Hah.. to think that thirty years ago this was all unexplored, untouched land.
Now it is a jungle of concrete, spanning thousands of kilometers with many, numberless villages all around it. These villages are bad news, though. Populated by savages, criminals, drug dealers and all other kinds of psychopaths possible. Or well, those are the names our glorious government uses to refer to them, anyways.
Most sane individuals tend to call these villagers *freedom fighters*.
Me?
I''d like to know what the hell this *freedom* of theirs even means, exactly. I can give my opinion after I learn this. However, there has yet to come a person capable of properly explaining the matter without contradicting something I''ve heard before.
In the end, its just another way to rule.
And it really does not matter to me."-eep sea miners have stumbled upon what looks to be an ancient alien structure of some kind. The strange, almost runic markings on the giant stone doors are, as of yet, of indecipherable meaning even to our highest ranking linguistic personnel. This is what Matthew Jorissten, linguistics professor working for the Nova Aeterna University of Authoria had to say on the matter." The TV seems to have turned on by itself.
I see.
This must be my new friend''s doing."I wish I could say that the runes resemble ancient Nordic or even the hieroglyphs back on Earth. However, this is simply not the cas-" My attention was taken away from the TV as the wall above it began to crack, the limestone seemingly twisting in on itself.
WHAT IS A FRIEND? "... FRIEND?"
"Huh?.. the fuck?" As I read the words on the wall in my head, the last word seemingly echoed in my own voice, even though I said nothing at all.
The voice wasn''t loud.
Or nigh silent.
But to answer your question, oh unknown being of possibly eldritch origin."A friend is... well, I can''t really say. I don''t have any friends myself, you see."
BUT YOU JUST "... called me your friend?"
Ah.
The voice was nigh silent now, almost as if trying to learn what that meant.
I guess you''re right."If I have to put it through my own psychopathic reasoning, a friend is someone who has the ability to take advantage of you but will not do so, thus allowing a bond of trust to be formed between the friend and those who refer to them as such."
SO YOU BELIeve that I can "... cause you great harm, yet since I do not do this-" I am worthy of your trust?
Looks like someone''s getting better at communication. I hope you''re also planning to fix my wall.
Just as I thought that, the imagery in front of me seemed to shatter."-ats all for now, folks. Stay tuned for more information, delivered still-steaming to you from our channel, Eredea Now!"
Looking down, I found out how my venison was also completely gone.
My phone rang again. It was 8:00 now.
The caller was unknown. Shrugging, I answered and stayed silent."... Hello? Is this [Insert-Eldritch-God-Here] Industries?" The same submerged, gender-less voice from before echoed from the other side of the phone."Sorry, no. They are closed for the day, how can I help you?"
Then my wall twisted into itself again.
IS THIS METHOD "... really any better for communication?"
"It causes a lot less SAN damage to me when you use the phone." I laughed at the thing. It seems that even eldritch gods can get annoyed.
"... what is SAN damage?" Hoo-boy!
I shook my head out of my stupor."Anyways, while continuing this conversation as it is right now would be immensely amusing to our gracious audience, I think we should start from the beginning and introduce ourselves."
"Our audience?... are you perhaps capable of detecting extra-dimensional entiti-"
"Yes and no, my friend. I was talking about the readers."
"... what?"
I chuckled again."Anyways, my name is Lucius Prodigium. I belong to a species known as Humanity, which is currently governed solely by the Singularity Of Man. My current occupation is that of a freelance hunter."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As I finished my introduction, a black tendril tore through my phone and impaled itself into my head. I felt like the worlds worst migraine tore through my skull for a few eternal seconds and then the tendril removed itself from my head. Immediately, I touched my forehead. No wounds... not even any remainder of a feeling that proved the thing was ever inside of my head.
But a few things, or better to say concepts, seemed to be at the forefront of my thoughts. Names, species, government, occupation.. the things I mentioned just now."You.. did you just dig through my brain for word definitions?"
"I felt that if I didn''t, this conversation would have ended up causing us both severe headaches." The thing seemed to take a deep breath as I wholeheartedly agreed with its statement."My name is far too incomprehensible for you to understand, but I suppose that the word *monster*, is fitting enough for now. I am a member of the species often referred to as the Dormient. We have no clear government and are left each to our own devices. My occupation, destroyer of worlds."
Finishing the remainder of my coke, I stood up to get myself some coffee."So then, oh great Mr Monster, why exactly are you giving this conversation so much effort instead of just killing me?"
"Boredom." Ah.
What an incredibly simple answer.
And how easily relatable.
Wait.."Didn''t you just wake up from an eon of being asleep or something? How are you already bored." That last bit ended up being more of a statement than a question."... friend. I sleep, wake up and feed, then sleep again, then eat, then sleep, then eat, then sleep. It is literally all I do."
Oh.
Okay yes, that sounds boring as hell."I assume that every time you wake up to feed, you actually mean that you destroy whatever civilization has happened to grow on this planet of yours?"
"Not always. Sometimes, like with your race, I wait for the number of prey to increase before I fully awaken to feast upon the world. Usually, I also use this time to build cults dedicated to yours truly or learn of potential weaknesses should the race trapped here prove to be a potential threat." I see.
"So what''s stopping you from doing the same this time? I mean, aside from boredom?" Mr Monster seemed to contemplate for a moment."To put it in very simple words... I''m full."
I shrugged once again and opened a locked metal chest in the corner of my living room as I continued to drink my instant coffee."Ah, so not enough time has passed for you to become hungry, gotcha."
"... wait, so you aren''t interested in-"
"The race that came before us? Not in the slightest. They were probably crustaceans anyways." Limestone is everywhere on this planet. It makes perfect sense.
"-but what about their rui-"
"If there are traces of their technology or actual ruins left on this planet, its probably why the government is investing so much credit into deep sea mining operations. They''ve got it handled, I''m sure."
"... I see. How heartless. The Luncenti would howl at your emotionless presence." Yet you appear to be insanely amused by it. Oh, I just got an idea."I think your name is going to be Luncent! Or maybe.. Lucent? Hmm, how about Lunt? Or Lent? No, no, no, that reminds me too much of rent."
"Are you trying to name me in the honor of a species I exterminated?" Chances are you didn''t exterminate them."... what do you mean?"
I blinked.
Oh, so you CAN hear my thoughts."Indeed mortal, now answer me!"
Well, if they are anything like Humanity, they weren''t actually born on this world but originated from outer space. Aka, even if you killed everyone on this planet, they wouldn''t be done for as a species."Humanity has spread itself to multiple worlds? What a dangerous cancer..."
... cancer?
Come to think of it, you weren''t surprised when I said I was human. Interesting.
Another tendril of darkness erupted from the phone and impaled itself into me, this time into my chest, but there was no pain. Yet another, separate tendril formed and seemed to cut the first one off, then disperse.
The first tendril entered me entirely and I could feel a new source of heat surrounding my heart."What did you just do?"
The sound of something metallic slamming against a wall of some sort could be heard from the other side of the phone and then the call died.
"I hate phones." A voice echoed through my head, once again neither silent nor loud. There was a problem however...
While the voice was tolerable, it was my own."Could ya use someone else''s voice while talking to me please?"
"No. Get used to it." Ah. That''s rude.
But I guess I can''t exactly do anything about it. Anyways, I guess you just formed some kind of direct psionic link with me or something?
"No. I cut out a piece of myself and put it inside of you. The presence of the piece of my power has made you moderately psychic, thus allowing me to speak to you like this." Wait so, you''re telling me that you just gave me super powers?
Mr Monster, who will from now on be referred to as Lu, seemed to laugh at this. Never have I thought that hearing my own laughter would be quite so annoying."Powers? No. The shard I gave you is basically worthless. It amounts to me ripping out a hair and forcing you to eat it... that said, my power grows by eating. So maybe if you were to eat as the Dormient do, you would be able to attain some measure of power."
... somehow, I get the feeling that the definition of *eating* is something entirely different to you."Correct. However, I will not explain anything to you. The intricacies of the feast are left to the young to discover for themselves, such is tradition to the Dormient. What I can tell you however, is that the feast begins through the act of murder."
So its the classic kill people, get stronger, eh? I can work with that."Not exactly, but you''ll see what I mean, provided that you ever kill anything."
... you haven''t read by memories, have you?
Lu replied in a tone which seemed to be almost insulted."What? Of course, not! Such a thing is a sign of weakness to my people... to probe the mind of a lesser creature is the same as devolving oneself to its level and admitting that you could not have defeated it otherwise."
Hooh. So the elder gods have a sense of honor, who would have guessed.
Anyways, having finally finished the remainder of my coffee and placed the mug onto a nearby table, I turned my attention towards the contents of the metal chest. A single-shot plasma hunting rifle made by some weapons manufacturer back on Earth. The weapon itself was illegally bought, which is why there isn''t any markings or logo''s etched into the metal.
An unregistered weapon. The perfect tool for hunting the wildlife of this world, for most life on this planet is covered in reptilian scales, which have no real resistance against heat. There are creatures with armor so thick that even modern material projectiles cannot pierce it, yet are easily broken via a singular, well-placed shot of plasma.
Oh well.
I mean, its not like animals can just evolve energy shielding to protect themselves from plasma, right?
Aside from that rifle, I also had a large, fang-shaped combat knife. It wasn''t much use for skinning or butchering, but came in handy for finishing off wounded animals. And for killing charging Rakers.
What is a Raker, you might be asking? Imagine a small wolf the size of the common dog, with green scales instead of fur and four rows of venomous teeth and a bladed tail which can sever an iron pole in two or three strikes.
They tend to use those tails to literally rake the flesh of their prey.
Did I mention that they love to hunt in packs?
There was a TV show sometime back which pitted this worlds animals versus what was considered their Earth-borne equivalent. Much to the surprise of everyone, the black wolf from Earth actually won the fight with ease but died soon after from the Raker''s poison.
How did the wolf win against something like that, you might be asking?
Simple.
This worlds gravity is slightly lower than that of the Earth. While this means that us homeworlders find the place generally unpleasant to live on and are forced to be inoculated before we can even land on the planet, we also enjoy what amounts to superhuman strength and speed when compared to the locals.
Which is also a part of the reason why most people here see me and those like me as monsters.
I felt myself grin."Well, its not like they''re wrong in my case."
Beneath all the weapons was a pale blue suit. A gift from my family off-world. An article of clothing made of omnithread and all the nano-tech made available to the general public. Like an exo-suit, of sorts.
Dressing myself up, I beamed a gigantic smile in the direction of my door."Time to hunt~."
That''s it for this chapter! Here''s to hope you''ve enjoyed it!
A warning to my older fans: this story WILL be much faster in the development of its plot and it WILL have an ending.
I''m not going to throw another world into the bin.
I''m also going to be posting several one-shot chapters onto the site just to dump some ideas/see what people might be interested in.
Anyways, the story is going to be put as T for teen for now in order to help it gather some more followers, but don''t let that discourage you... This is one of my stories, after all.
Oh and the reviews here are more like comments than anything else.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!
3. Preaching Drama
A few seconds later...
My doorbell rang for the umpteenth time today as I finished my preparations. The sudden sound startled me more than I''d like to admit as I had to grab the nearby wall in an attempt to keep myself from falling to the ground."For a hunter, a taker of life, you sure are clumsy."
Lu spoke with a tone which drowning in amusement. It did not help that my belly swung around a bit before I managed to remain standing."Yeah well, I don''t need to be stable to land a good head shot or rip something in half."
As if on cue, the insufferable thing rang once again and I felt myself twitch."... maybe I should get an AI doorkeeper installed instead of this old-fashioned piece of crap." The only reason I don''t already have it is because I was going for the traditional colonial hunter style. Who would have known that experiencing something might make it much less appealing than before!
Anyways, my love for drama set aside for the moment, I walked over to the door and opened it to reveal two people in completely white jumpsuits."... hello?"
"Good morning, my good sir! Do you perhaps have a moment to talk about our only Lord In Heaven, God?" A young girl, perhaps twelve and maybe fourteen, immediately approached me with a blazing smile on her pale face. Her companion was a large man of color, whose left hand was placed on his chest, eyes closed and the right hand bearing a small black leather book which had the symbol of their church upon it, etched in gold. A golden cross, with a crimson crescent beneath it and both surrounded by a five-pointed star.
Shrugging at the two as I shook each of their hands."Sure, why not? We have some time until my driver arrives."
I let the two inside and the young female immediately covered her nose in disgust."Although, maybe the young lady should stay outside." Her companion let out a small laugh that sounded much deeper than it should have.
"You slaughtered the ripstag correctly, but you didn''t clean up the basement, did you Lu?" Lu laughed at me before offering me what can only be described as an imaginary deadpan stare."You just asked a god of death if he cleaned something."
"Being a god of death does not excuse you for having poor manners." Lu harrumphed, sounding actually insulted by that for some reason, although I do believe that I shouldn''t push him. Anyways, focus on reality, Lucius. The little girl vehemently shook her head in negative."N-no! I''ll be f-fine! B-but, oh good lord, what is that smell?"
I knelt in front of the young lady and smiled while pointing at the rifle on my back."You see the gun? I''m a hunter, young lady."
She blinked and then ran behind her companion, suddenly afraid. The preacher let out a sigh and guided her outside as I laughed and grabbed my phone, dialing the number called Authoria. One would at first think that this number represented the police or perhaps the local emergency medical service but that was not the case for me."Hello, this is the ES-Taxi service, how can I help you?"
"Yo. Its me, Lucius. Need a drive to the HZ#42." The woman on the other side let out a massive sigh."... look, today''s a busy day so I''m not going to let someone stay and wait for you. You''ll have to call and pay twice. If you''re still fine with that, someone can be there in five minutes."
"Sure." Was my rather blank reply which also got a rather blank response. Aka, the woman simply cancelled the call. Aaah, good ole Martha. I hope she never changes.
The woman who forced me into dating her because she wanted to *experience living with a hunter*. We managed to stay two weeks together before I dumped her. Why? Because I wanted to *experience putting living trash in its place*.
Ha.
Karma''s a bitch. It didn''t help that I ditched her over the phone. The taxi phone.
"S-sir? Are you alright?" The pastor seemed placed a hand on my shoulder and was actually shaking me."H-huh? Oh sorry, I-*yawns loudly*.. I must''ve slept really badly."
"A-ah.. Perhaps this is a bit too much to hear from someone who you just met but, maybe you should not go hunting in that condition?" The man appeared genuinely worried for me, a total stranger. I gently removed his hand from my shoulder and motioned for him to sit with me at the table."You want anything to drink?"
"No, thank you. I really shouldn''t." He did sit down though, his book flying open at the speed of sound."Tell me sir, how well informed are you concerning our religion, the grand Abramistic Faith?" The Abramistic Faith, or just Abramism. I felt myself grinning slightly as reality seemed to catch up with me.
I just invited preachers into my home while having a god inside of my head."... you only just noticed the irony of this." Lu began laughing loudly in my mind as I gritted my teeth for the briefest moment, hoping that the preacher didn''t catch my hostility, especially since it wasn''t meant for him."Shut up."
"Suit yourself. And to answer your question, I''m afraid that I don''t know much of anything other than the fact that you are one of the top three religions within Singularity space." The man seemed to deflate for a bit when he heard me speak or maybe it was because he felt the atmosphere change.
"W-well, then we should start at the beginning. Ahem." He flipped his book to page one, upon which appeared to be a short synopsis detailing the history of the religion."As you may know, the grand Abramistic Faith was originally three separate faiths which all served and adhered to their own interpretations of the rules set by the Only Lord In Heaven, God. These religions were once called the Abrahamic religions, as they shared an origin. Sadly, this origin has been lost to time and our scholars still cannot decide whether Abraham was a man, messenger of The Lord or perhaps not even a living being but a set of cosmic morality etched into stone."
"So what were the names of those religions?" He nodded as I finally joined him, sitting down at the table."Ah yes, their names were Islam, Judaism and Christianity."
"And how did the three becomes one?" The man appeared to become jovial because of my sudden, honest interest. Poor guy, he must be used to people spitting in his face."... on that note, why aren''t you spitting in his face?"
Ignoring Lu, I just chuckled to myself as I continued listening to the mans story."It all began around three hundred years ago upon the home world of Mankind, mother Earth as we know her today, when humanity itself was on the brink of annihilation. Nuclear conflict seemed all but inevitable as the people grew more and more restless day by day. It was during this horrible time that many noticed how morality was being drained from the human spirit as technology marched ever forwards, its champions who called themselves the Men of Science spread throughout the world, each with their own unknown and perhaps even meaningless goals."Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
I wouldn''t call the betterment of mankind a meaningless goal. That said, there are some inventions we could have done without."It was also during this time that the tensions between the religions of the world were growing at an incredible pace and armed thugs assaulted people of different beliefs, turning even the most peaceful religions into blood cults. The three were both an exception and part of the chaos. While the rest of the worlds religions focused on destroying other religions, we of the Abrahamic Faiths seemed intent on destroying each other. Then the Day Of Horrors came..."
"What is the Day Of Horrors?" He seemed to swallow down hard before continuing his explanation."Each of the three religions held their own sacred places.. and on that day, the date of which was removed from history yet forever remembered, the holiest of these sites burned. The Vatican, the Masjid al-Haram and the ancient city of Jerusalem, historic and cultural sites of great importance, removed from the world in an instant by the acts of heretics and infidels. The other religions formed a pact which which was built on the idea that the only way for world peace to be established is if the Abrahamic faiths were to be destroyed, so they sent missiles to each of these sites, causing the deaths of billions of people. They hoped that this would cause the three to blame each other and for the fighting to turn into a holy war which would cause us to wipe ourselves off of the world. Thankfully, this did not happ-" The man was interrupted as the doorbell and my phone rang at the same time. Ah, the taxi was here.
"Sorry about that, but it looks like we might have to continue this at a later date." The man nodded, his face full of appreciation. Maybe things were even worse for him than I thought?"Not a problem! If you are interested in hearing more, we host weekly sessions in the nearby Coelum each Sunday!"
Shaking the mans hand once again, I quickly ensured that I had everything I needed on me before walking towards the door."A-ah, but sir.. I know that this may be bad timing but I am afraid that I have to ask if thee would be willing to donate anything to our holy mission?"
I let out a laugh as I opened the door, revealing a really pissed off Martha leaning on the side of her car, apparently talking to the overzealous girl who couldn''t stand the stench in my house."Sure, why not? How much do you want?"
He waved his hand in front of me."A-ah, no, no, that''s not how this works, sir. You choose how much you want to give, we do not demand anything." He placed a white omnicard in my hands and promptly rushed over to the girl, apparently intent on dragging the poor girl out of trouble before she stepped on a landmine she could not see. I looked at my finances."Ten thousand, one hundred and forty-three credits, eh?" I laughed to myself and promptly donated exactly eight thousand credits."... what the fuck?"
Being inside of my head, Lu was the first to react and when I handed the man his omnicard back, he nearly stumbled on thin air."T-thi- si-sir, you may have inserted the wrong number into your card, please le-" I stopped his hand before he could reach the undo transaction on his card."Don''t worry about it."
He was shocked senseless for the briefest moment and then promptly went back inside of my house and left his holy book on the table."I- we.. The Church remembers those who are its allies." And with that slightly-menacing statement, the man grabbed hold of his younger companion and quickly left but not before they both bowed before me with a thank you.
"... whats up with them? Fuckin'' believers." Martha was the next to approach me, her face twisted in annoyance."Oh, I''m sure its nothing you''d care about."
She spat in the direction of my face, but I was quick enough to dodge it since I knew what was going to happen."No, but seriously, what the fuck was that about?!"
Lu demanded to know and I felt an immense compulsion to speak the truth for some reason. Shrugging inwardly as the woman in front of me turned back around, I spoke silently."The money wasn''t really mine. Long story short, my family is rich and my father keeps sending me thousands of credits in hopes that I''d be lured into taking over as the CEO."
"So the two thousand that are left on your account is something you earned yourself?" A nod was his answer as Martha yelled out loudly."What the fuck are you doing just standing there? Lock your house and get in the fucking car!"
Doing as I was told by the screeching harpy, I was beset by an uncontrollable urge to laugh as I sat inside of her hover-car."So what brings you here, Martha?"
"I''m here to pick you up, asshole. Ain''t nobody else out there that actually wants to so I had to since it was my call for some FUCKIN'' REASON!" This made me laugh even more."Oh come on, why don''t you just admit that you wanted to see me."
The ebony beauty turned her head in momentary rage, her hip-length pink hair swaying rather enchantingly as she did."...." Yet, despite the fury etched into her face, she quickly cooled down and turned back around. She currently wore a black business suit and had a card on her chest.
She looked fairly good in that skirt, wore black high heels and, for whatever reason, stockings. In short, she was your rather typical, stand-up business woman. A manager, to be exact. Not someone who should be out driving her passengers, though I suppose since she answered the call it must actually be a very busy day for the taxi company.
This might be worth mentioning but this is the first meeting we had ever since I dumped her."I see you''re still eating shit." She began with a cruel look on her face. Ah, insulting my weight, how very original."And you''re still cursing every two words."
"How can I fuckin'' not when this world just seems to want to fuck with me at every fuckin'' turn?!" She screeched again and I had to slam my ears from the volume. To her credit, she seemed apologetic."Sorry. Things have been just... one clusterfuck after another recently."
When it was clear that I would remain quiet, she let out a massive sigh and spoke."You really don''t give a shit about me, do you?... and whats up with the preachers? Also, the little lady told me your house smells like death, whats with that? Can''t even do basic chores without me around?"
"Woman, we were together for two weeks. We went on a single date, fucked maybe three times total and then it was over. Don''t act like you were my wife for fifty years or something." This seemed to make her focus on the road."Yeah... you''re right."
The silence was deafening."Mmmmm~, such delicious agony..."
That wasn''t your cue to speak, Lu.
Anyways, agony?"What? Are you .... curious?"
.... I am.
But I''m not going to ask anything. Its better that I don''t know."Your actions, the way you *ditched* her over the phone. It hurt her in a place she was used to hurting others. She regrets ever meeting you. She regrets ever living the way she did. She is trying to make amends, yet no one wants to hear her voice. Not even her mother."
A blink.
Make that two."... it would be so easy to make her end her own suffering..."
Ah.
And to think that I almost forgot that you were an evil, eldritch god. Oh, but then again...
I could feel the hatred flowing through my eyes. Martha seemed to speed up, her entire body twitching."H-hey, c-could you s-s-stop that?!"
"Stop what, woman?" She swallowed down hard, a tinge of cold sweat falling down her cheek, glistening in the morning sunlight."S-staring at me l-like that! Its creeping me the fuck out!"
"Come on.. Lucius... she just needs one little push~." Lu your whispers are as creepy as they are unnecessary. And besides, what the fuck do you want me to do, anyways?"I see. Sorry, I''ll do my utmost to look away from you."
"N-no, that''s not what I-I.." She let out a tired sigh, but made no further comments."Nothing much... just tell her what you feel in your heart!" That would have sounded romantic as all hell if I didn''t know what it entailed.
I felt a grin etch itself upon my frame, yet kept my cool until we reached the forests edge.
Lord Joyde The Madman: That''s it for this chapter!
Thank you for reading, please comment and review at your leisure.
This particular chapter was written on ScribbleHub, the very first time I used the site! I must say, its better than any I''ve used before and I think I will continue to use it from now on.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!
4. Animal or Man, Man or Animal?
Lord Joyde: Hello, everyone! How are you all doing on this fine day?
I must say, starting to write on SH was most definitely the right choice.
This site is far more writer friendly than any I''ve been to before.
Anyways, here comes the next chapter of The Lord Of Horrors! You''ll love it, I know you will.
A few minutes later... - Hunting Zone #42 - Lucius'' Point Of View....
"All that rage... all that hate, all of that inexorable fury... and somehow, you still let her go." Lu''s menacing laughter ran throughout my skull, reverberating like the beating of a particularly insane drummer."And if I didn''t, that would mean the end of this particular chapter of my life and possibly the rest of it as well."
His laughter did not stop as I prepared to venture deeper into the forest contained within my hunting zone."Aaah, but if you followed my will and made her kill herself here... I would have been more than happy to get rid of the evidence for you."
"And? Even if you ate her body or hell, even the entire fucking car, people would still come to suspect me for her disappearance as I was the last person she went to pick up. The taxi company has a rule that makes their employees tag their last customer before leaving HQ." A tiny little tidbit of information I learned during my long experience of using their services. They''re the only taxi company willing to work with hunters.
Apparently, not everyone is fine with the idea of driving around animal corpses. Who could''ve guessed! Then again, most hunters have their own vehicles.
... I hate driving."Oh? And what good would that do for their case? They have no evidence-"
Letting out a deep sigh, I interrupted the god of death."Look Lu, one thing you''re going to learn about us humans is that we generally don''t need evidence to believe that something is real. We have the rather dangerous power of self-delusion, meaning we can lie to ourselves to hard that we forget that it was a lie in the first place. Meaning, if too much *lack of evidence* is somehow attributed to me, someone out there is going to put on their best vigilante skin suit and murder me in my sleep."
"So.. humans do not require actual proof to.. Hmm. Interesting. Very well, I concede to your wisdom, this time." This made me feel ridiculously prideful for some reason."Lu, please stop influencing my emotions, thank you."
The god of death seemed to blink several times as the image of a gigantic black eye manifested in my mind."I.. will do my best but only if you tell me how you managed to find out that I''m doing it so soon."
"Look, in case you haven''t noticed, I''m a criminal sociopath. I don''t do feelings, especially not pride of all things." Lu appeared to want to ask me something after hearing that, yet no question was heard.
Silence followed and I found myself already somewhat deep within the forest. A veritable tempest was brewing above the many kelp-like trees around us. Most flora and fauna here bore a striking resemblance to their counterparts back on earth, yet the trees here sparked very heated discussion between the SOM''s leading biologists.
Why? Because the trees here had almost the same structure as that of the Earth, with the only visible difference being that their bark was colored green, much like everything else on this planet. Hell, there are reports that some newborns have green skin too, so whatever is causing it is affecting humans as well.
The earth on Eredea was rich. Implausibly rich, that is. To quote a particularly famous geologist from the time that the world was original discovered, its like an army died on every inch of ground. To say that the earth was abundant in nutrients and bacteria which made farming particularly fruitful was an understatement. However, the lack of what the government calls *worthy ground*, has somewhat kept the farming industry in check.
You see, while Eredea is at least one point five times the size of the Earth, it has basically only fifty percent of actually available landmass when compared to the aforementioned birthplace of Humanity. Most of this oceanic world is covered in thick, poisonous marshes and swampland. Draining said swampland takes time, effort and money. Money which our government would prefer to spend elsewhere as its not like the people of the SOM go hungry at night, despite the general moral of collectivism which seems to permeate its ruling class.
A sudden beep from my phone woke me from my musings. Taking the device into my hand showed a message had arrived, warning me of my hunting license''s impending expiration date. Ah, I don''t mean as in a license which proves that I''m a hunter, though we have those too, I mean my license for hunting in this particular span of fifty by fifty kilometer land designated as the Hunting Zone #42. You see, in order to actually spend your time murdering the Lord''s little creatures, you have to buy a permit from the lands owner aka, the government.
And only a select amount of hunters, that is to say anywhere from twelve to twenty can use a single HZ at any given time. Last time I checked, 42 has only three or four hunters prowling around, that''s counting yours truly. This is not because its new, rather because its a fairly dangerous area.
The deeper into the forests, the wild lands of the world that you go, the better your chances of stumbling onto something undiscovered previously, something that can potentially brutally murder you. And 42 was veeeeeery far away from civilization. Thankfully, the taxi service has fast, flying cars.
Anyways, I quickly sent another payment to the government which served to immediately grant me another months worth of hunting time here. The app made sure to ask me for confirmation seven times and I even had to provide a fingerprint to steal the deal. Sure, I still had a couple days to do this, but if this stupid app decides to go BUZZING right as I was landing a good shot on a ripstag, then the animal would get spooked and BUZZ away.
... yes, I hate my government.
Not enough to rebel against them, all in all I think they''re doing a good job after all, but just enough to not really want to be on their side of the eventual conflict. I prefer my abhorrent, monstrous, despicable neutrality~.
"Despicable neutrality?" Lu''s voice echoed with even greater amusement than ever before."Ye-hup. Neutrality is despicable and I love it!"
Since my answer seemed to leave no room for vocal argument, Lu just let out another merry laugh."Y''know Lu, for a god of death, you sure seem to laugh a lot."
"I''ll be taking that as a compliment, for your sake." Ah.
Sorry.
Gotta stay super edgy and all that.
Keep up the appearances of being a genocidal mass murderer. Gotcha bro, don''t worry.
Your secrets safe with me!
"Fuck you." He replied quite rudely, yet I could tell that his amusement was back on track. That did not stop me from just barely dodging this random tree which suddenly decided to crash in front of me. As I dusted myself and rose of off the blackened soil which permeated the general area, I chuckled to myself as I noticed the word *TIMBEEEEER* etched into the green trunk by a black, smoky tendril of pure darkness.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Then I realized that I didn''t hear the tree cracking. I somehow dodged that.. On instinct alone."You can manipulate sound." I astutely observed.
Lu seemed to do much the same."And you are adapting to your new powers far quicker than I thought you''d be."
"What? Does it usually take longer for people to adapt to eldritch power or something?" Lu let out a snort."Usually, *people*, do not have eldritch powers. It is forbidden to give them any."
Ah.
So its like that.
The good ole trope of ancient monster gives power to a human even if its forbidden by monster law."So why''d you do it?"
"I told you. I''m bored and you are, for the moment, very interesting." I waved my hand in negative towards apparently nobody."Let me rephrase that, aren''t you afraid of potential repercussions from your.. friends? Colleagues? Ah, the other dark gods of absolute evil?"
"... I find it amazing how you can make a group of individuals with the potential to end reality itself sound so childish. To answer your question though, no I am not. Why? Because I am strong. What are they going to do to stop me from doing what I want?" Now it was my turn to laugh."Gang up on you like a bunch of screeching, flesh-hungry fish and kill you before you break their oh-so-important traditions and values of immense evil?"
Lu stayed silent.
"Wait. You mean to tell me that you didn''t thin-" A low grumble echoed throughout my head and a voice replied that was not my own."WE SHALL NOT SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN."
Once the headache finally passed, I barely managed to mutter out."As you wish. Just please, don''t scream like that again. It hurts like hell." Ah, my ears and eyes are bleeding."A normal humans head would have exploded. Be grateful that I ensured yours would not, mortal." Lu switched back to my voice, eliciting a nod from me as an answer as I fell to my knees.
Fuck, its hard to see."A-are you all right?" A new voice entered my ears as I turned my head around."I-I can''t see." I replied to the unknown voice and suddenly felt a cool hand on my left cheek."H-hang on, I''ll wipe the b-b-blood off!"
A silvery piece of cloth moved across my face with exquisite grace, almost as if the person doing this was taking in all of my features in detail. To be honest, it made me somewhat uncomfortable."T-thanks?" My sight finally cleared, I took a good look at my supposed benefactor.
What I found was a rather adorable little redhead, around one sixty meters tall, with short spiky hair. She wore a jacket, a t-shirt, pants and shoes, all made out of omnithread. Like someone that just got out of school."Uhm, sorry for asking this now but how old are you exactly and what the flying hell are you doing so far away from the city?"
She appeared taken aback for the briefest moment, her yellow eyes turning away and cheeks flushing with crimson. How damnably cute can you be, woman?! She reminds me of one of those overly-curious Pomeranian puppies.
*sniff* Shit. Ugh, oh good god...
She smells like one too."Err, I was just.. taking a casual stroll through the wild lands! And uh- I''m sixteen." Oh.
So she actually is a kid right out of school.
Interesting.
I let out a massive sigh."Okay fine, since you helped me just now I won''t ask but kid, this forest is danger-" Almost as if I just invited the devil into my home, I could hear the resounding cracking of leaves somewhere in front of us. And there, in the thick underbrush, was a medium-sized Raker, just waiting to pounce.
Might''ve been a success for the damn dog-like abomination. If it remembered to stick its giant, bladed scorpion-tail behind the bush instead of wagging it in mid-air. The situation would''ve been kinda cute if it wasn''t incredibly deadly.
The girl seemed to shiver and tense up just as the Raker made its leap. Acting on adrenaline alone, I pushed her to the side and sent my right hand flying forwards, straight into the things venom-ridden mouth."Watch out!" I exclaimed, like some kind of fucking would-be-hero, as my hand tore through the beasts insides and stopped right on top of its heart.
I felt one of its frontal fangs dig into my shoulder right as I squeezed, causing a resounding popping sound to be heard from inside of the thing."W-woah?!" The redhead''s eyes were wide in surprise and shock, yet that didn''t seem to stop her from quickly clicking something on her own phone.
... fucking teenagers these days...
Wait, phone?
Mine was on the forest floor and I quickly scooped it back up as I removed my coat and took one look at the oozing blood gathering on my shoulder before gritting my teeth."Welp, hope this works!" I bit into my own flesh and tore out a batch of skin before sucking out an entire stream of poisoned blood and spitting it on the ground, unintentionally in front of the girl."W-HA?!"
Before I could apologize, another Raker lunged in my general direction and I found my body moving before I could consciously command it to do so once again. I grabbed the thing in mid-air by its tail, somehow managing not to cut myself on the bladed end and promptly smashed its head twice onto a protrusion of stone.
Another Raker leaped from the shadows and, in my panic, I used the one I still had a hand on as a mace, sending the offending attacker flying some meters away. With a final swing, the second Raker''s head imploded once it became unhealthily intimate with a nearby tree, cracking the bark in the process. Tearing my knife out of my grounded coat, I felt a massive weight suddenly push me down as I turned around, backhanding the third Raker straight through its right eye.
This only served to momentarily stun the beast as it began to gather venom into its mouth. The fucking thing wanted to melt my face off, it seems. Rolling to my side and somehow managing to get myself back on my feet, I roared like a wild animal and stabbed the thing in its back, severing its scaled spine.
It roared too, quite loudly, quite painfully, before it finally stopped moving.
It was then I remembered that packs like these usually have a-
... To be perfectly honest, I didn''t even feel it at first.
I just took note of the massive paw swiping me to the side like a green tide of flesh and muscle and scale. It was only when my head slammed against another tree that my senses finally caught up to the pain."URGH!"
The poor girl from before was lying in a pool of her own piss, her bluish clothing doing very little to absolutely nothing to preserve her dignity as the Raker matriarch started to move towards her, the damned thing probably figuring I was dead.
And by all accounts, I should be.
However, I was not.
In fact, the pain which temporarily paralyzed me seemed to awaken something inside of me. A little something called the thrill of the hunt. Possibly, I was also really high on adrenaline, maybe my brain set off my limiters or something. What was that called again? Panic Strength? The stuff that lets people carry cars around like nothing when in a pinch.
Anyways, I rose up from the ground, head still bleeding and took the plasma rifle off of my back. Without wasting a second, I fired the first shot.
Miss. It barely singed the fur of the beast but it sure got the things attention.
Second shot. I blasted off an ear, causing it to twist itself in pain.
Third shot. Another miss as the matriarch finally turned around completely, seeming intent on charging and mowing me down.
I should be scared.
I should be terrified.
But eternity seemed to switch with seconds as the world around me slowly became colorless until the only things visible were me and the Raker matriarch. Her massive paws tore through the soil, not gaining much momentum due to the watery ground. It was raining heavily the last few days.
Kind of why I didn''t go out to hunt, as hunting during times like these is an incredibly bad idea. It may have worked in my favor right now, but if I was actually running away from the thing, that''d be another story entirely.
The fourth shot was fired, this time finally landing and ripping apart the things left cheek. Not that this did much of anything to the creature other than make it howl in pain.
Fifth shot. A glancing hit on its right eye. No penetration but it was unlikely that she would ever see anything with that eye ever again.
The beast stumbled on its own front legs, falling to its side as the wet ground carried it forwards.
Finally breaking out of my sniper trance, I leaped to the side just in time to dodge the scaled, meaty projectile of several hundred kilograms which slammed into the tree and shattered its trunk. The wood fell onto the creature, trapping it beneath its weight. The Raker howled in pain, its backside crushed and spine likely broken from the impact.
I was not far from its head, though.
I willed my legs to move yet my flesh refused to respond, the muscles in them having seemingly imploded from the strain. The things rage roiled within its one remaining eye as its fangs tore into my left leg and I stabbed my rifle through its blinded eye.
Moments before death, the things jaw seemed to loosen and I took this as my only chance to pull the trigger. The plasma exploded outwards, an overcharged load of super-heated air that spilled out from the beasts insides and splashed onto my face. Bits of brain and meat and bone and skin and scale could be seen flying everywhere.
And then...
There was no more color left in the world.
That''s it for this chapter of the Lord Of Horrors! I hope you''ve enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it!
Did you see this coming? I certainly hope not~.
As always, I will post this chapter first and then edit out the mistakes later!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!
5. Charred Memories
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing today?
An unknown amount of time later... - Lucius'' Point Of View...
My eyes open after what feels like an eternity of colorlessness.
I.. seem to be in a hospital room but... something is wrong. I..
The room... well, while I have regained some of my colors, it looks like all that amounted to was white, black and obsolete grey. Like one of those ancient movies from back on Earth.
This place is.. familiar."Father, why am I getting more injections? Am I sick again?" A voice echoed through my skull, making me slam my hand onto my forehead from the pain. Huh. Pain.
Can''t remember the last time something hurt me enough for me to actually react like this. And that voice..."No. You are not sick. You are merely, inadequate."
Tilting my head to the side, I felt myself choke on nothing. My heart turned inside of my stomach as the voices finally revealed themselves. Father and... Me?
I finally realized that I was laying on a derelict hospital bed, seemingly ruined and rusted for no apparent reason. Only one light worked within this room and it was the one above Father and a younger version of me. Even with the light on, I .. my father and I had no real features, but were like floating, faceless shadows.
My father had legs, but my younger self did not.
A quick turn back around confirmed that I did indeed have legs. For some reason, this made me exhale in relief."Inadequate?... whats that mean?"
"Enough talk! Now, be silent and let the doctors do their work." Father screamed at me and I nodded, my younger self seemingly unfazed by the raised tone as the older man stormed out of the room. I saw myself laying back down onto the other bed. The sheets upon it started to burn as my younger self laid down completely.
Then the doctor came in, his body also wreathed in shadow.
He did not have legs.. but unlike my younger selves, his appeared to be sawed off, bleeding endlessly onto the ground. He quaked in momentary terror as Father slammed the door."W-well.. h-here''s to-todays do-dose! Lets get this over with quickly."
Almost managing to appear strong, he began to inject me with nameless syringes and feeding me dozens of pills. More than enough for me to overdose, yet somehow they managed to keep me alive.
A blink and I noticed that the room we were in was only halfway manifested as its entire left side, which was supposed to be a teal wall, was actually an infinite black void... Also, there were tentacles grasping the room, almost as if desperately holding onto it.
A charred black, gigantic raven stood watching me from the beyond. It was perched on a branch-like tendril of darkness, looking directly at me with six crimson eyes."Lu." I said without actually wanting to.
The raven nodded and the room began to disappear as I felt myself being thrown into the abyss by an unseen force.
I did not scream.
For there was no air left around me to breathe.
I felt myself slamming against something soft.
Squishy.
My eyes widened as I took in the changes. I was no longer in a dreary room of grey shades.
I was now in another realm entirely.
An intricate garden spanning endlessly, filled with great arching gates, wondrous fountains whose liquid flows reached the skies and innumerable flowers of varying, splendorous colors. A plethora of life, a valley of singular beauty and glory.
Or it would have been.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Was the ground not made of bone.
The flowers growing from corpses.
Gates forged out of viscera and spines.
And the fountains spewing blood, adopting vein-like, ever-beating protrusions, like oversized, misshapen hearts.
The worst part is that this place felt so much like...
"You." Lu''s voice echoed, but not through my skull. No.. it was closer.
I turned around to see his raven form on a pillar made out of limbs."So this is my soul then?"
"Soul? No. This is what you could call your... mind." He casually explained before shrinking in size and flying over to land on my left shoulder."Notice anything, new?"
Asking me with a tone of absolute amusement, I felt my head turning around, to watch the flowers. Only to find that the ones closest to me were ... growing on the Rakers I killed just now. I looked around and suddenly, the corpses all seemed familiar. All the animals I''ve hunted, everything I''ve killed... ends up here."But why the flowers?"
"Don''t know, ask yourself."
...
I have no idea.
Respect for the dead?"Ah, but if that is the case, then explain this."
The raven pointed towards my front and the ground seemed to shift in place."I was wondering why you gained almost nothing from the murder of those poor animals. Turns out, you''ve already accomplished a far greater sin."
A lone, giant flower rested in the middle of my garden and I approached it, despite knowing what I''d find below it. A young boy, perhaps the same age as my younger self from before. Maybe... four or .. six, years old at best?
What was his name again?
David.
Yes, that''s definitely it.
The scenery before us shifted and twisted upon itself once again, adopting the same grey coloration that my memory had before.
Two young boys were playing on an empty street, chasing rodents and the occasional dog or cat with smiles on their faces on some nameless rimworld. Then the boys stopped dead in their tracks as they notice a withered old cat, carrying her newborn kittens into a dark, muddy alleyway.
It was raining heavily that day, much like it had been for the past week.
The boys followed after the cat, wondering what it was doing there...
They found the animal standing atop a puddle in the mud, something red filling the brownish waters. The first boy charged at the cat, causing it to flee from the sudden action, but he stopped the second he reached the puddle.
And within it, the boy found a drowned kitten. He fell to his knees before the puddle and vomited, tears forming in his eyes.
Behind him, the other boy writhed in his own mind.
He witnessed death for the first time. A mother, abandoning her own child, drowning it in the rains gift.
Crying broke the boy out of his unmoving state and he looked towards the other one, who was cradling the dead kitten in his hands. The boy wondered....
How would it feel to kill?
It happened in an instant, an impulse unlike anything other that the boy had ever felt, a rush of burning, infernal blood through his very core. His veins boiled as he leaped onto his friend, grabbing him roughly by the neck and pushing him down into the mud. The crying boy was startled by the act and found himself too weak to resist, the kitten flying out of his hands and catching within his open, vomit-riddled mouth.
He made no more sounds as he struggled, the mud and the water and the hairs filling his body as he desperately tried to breathe.
It did not take long for him to breathe no more.
....
The memory ended and I felt myself empty.
No sadness.
No regret.
But no cruel lust.
Or blood thirst either.
Neither a mistake, nor a good deed."They never found out who was the killer, you know? I wasn''t known for having friends so nobody suspected me and the torrential rain did the rest."
"Hmmm..." Lu''s voice echoed and rumbled, like a dragons."A murder as beautiful as this... it will be difficult for you to... surpass it."
"Surpass it?" The raven on my shoulder nodded as we switched back to my garden of carnage."Yes. In order for your powers to awaken, you need to commit a murder. One which surpasses any other murders you may have committed previously."
"So I can''t use this or any of the animals I''ve killed over the years?" He shook his head in negative."No. Not yet. The essence gained from their killings is stored somewhere deep within you, but such things are impossible to reach without you becoming more powerful first."
"I see. Like a treasure chest one finds at the start of a game and only manages to open it at the end. How annoying." I let out a massive sigh and looked at my right hand.. only to find that I seemed to have no skin whatsoever."Huh?"
Not waiting for any absolutely-amused reply from my eldritch benefactor, I rushed towards the nearest fountain of blood and looked at my reflection. Wait, does blood even- Ah.
This is my mind.
Reality is an afterthought.
I could make the sky reflect me if I wanted to.
Anyways, looking at the blood, I noticed how I was currently entirely skinless and had six eyes on my head... four of which were closed. I touched them and felt immense pain, causing me to throw my hand back down.
I was completely and utterly naked. On multiple levels.
Suddenly, the sound of a heart-monitor could be heard beeping loudly. The echo traveled all across this infinite garden of slaughter and I turned towards Lu."Let me guess, times up?"
"Correct." His voice appeared to twist itself from the modified version of my voice he usually uses to the abhorrent, submerged voice I heard from the phone.
Much like how I got here in the first place, the world around me seemed to slowly lose all of its color until I saw no more.
Sorry for the somewhat short chapter.
Been busy job-hunting recently... Here''s to hope I manage to find something soon.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Hemorrhagic Migraine
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing?
The Following Night... - Lucius'' Point Of View...
"H-..urgh.." I felt as if I had history''s worst hangover pounding directly into my skull as my consciousness decided it was finally time to return to me."Easy there, sir. You''ve had a rough night." An unknown, male voice echoed from somewhere next to me but my hazy vision did not manage to detect anyone quite yet.
A mess of blurry shapes and horrid, implausible, dancing angles was all I could see. Dizzying colors, floating and flying all around me."W-..who are you?"
The dancing colors then seemed to shift in one particular place, all becoming white or teal. I did not need to truly see the person to know that this guy was a doctor."William, William Floyer. At your service."
I shook my head in an attempt to nod yet failed miserably."... and.. what would be your name, sir?"
My facial expression immediately switched to what was probably the worlds most obvious deadpan stare."Lucius, Prodigium."
"Aha. Alright, no need to get angry. Just a routine check is all." He snorted with amusement."What happened.. to me?"
William seemed to take in a deep breath as the colors in my vision finally managed to stabilize somewhat."Well, you had several broken ribs, a torn and dislocated shoulder, several milliliters of Raker venom coursing through your veins, a skull fracture, internal bleeding on just about every vital organ... oh and, we had to amputate your left leg."
I felt myself blink several times before something caught my attention."Past tense?"
He let out a cheery laugh, which made me grab my forehead with both arms."S-sorry, but yes, there''s nothing to worry about. Ahem!"
Taking what looked like a datapad into his hands, the doctor began to speak."After seventeen hours in the Vitae Chamber we managed to stabilize your condition from just about dead to very close to dying. Not as safe as we would have liked but time was not exactly on our side so we were forced to perform surgery quickly, as usual." He let out an exhausted sigh.
Sometimes, I pity these men of medicine. Their lives aren''t easy no matter what money-hungry fanatics might tell you."After managing to remove the broken bone shards out of your skull and graft it shut with a titanium compound, we hooked you up to several blood packs for around twenty minutes, sorry we really needed a coffee break, before amputating your leg. Once all that was done, we suddenly received donations from four entirely separate groups intent on seeing you fully recovered. We decided to not take any of their credits as we would like to have you choose who pays for your recovery but we did give you a nanite infusion in the end, despite numerous protests from yours truly."
"N-nanite infusion?..." I saw the doctor nod as my rather discolored left leg finally came into view. Completely white and just about see-through, it felt like I had been sleeping on it for days. Numb beyond numb... there was significant scarring next to my hip, indicating the place where the doctors decided to cut my previous one off, I guess.
Also, for some reason, the only thing I was wearing at the moment was a pair of omnithread shorts."Programmed, miniature machines with potentially dangerous intent." He seemed to spit into a nearby sink."Not my choice, but it was the only way to ensure you fully recovered. Time, like I said, was not exactly on our side."
Wait... why can I see my legs from here? I''m laying completely down...
.... where is my stomach?"What did they ... do.. to me?"
"The nanites first spent half an hour scanning your body for all potential resources and then, once we put you back into the Vitae Chamber, they just about completely reconstructed your body. You''ve lost around thirty to forty kilograms. We aren''t really sure as we haven''t weighted you yet, but the nanites did they job splendidly." He then pointed towards a bunch of machinery to my left, the teal coloration of everything around me reflecting painfully into my eyes as I turned my head."You are currently undergoing cyberflushing."
"... I take it that means you''re flushing the nanites out of me?" William nodded somewhat somberly."How long is that gonna take?"
"Surprisingly, not much longer. Two hours at most should everything go well. I''ve put several prescriptions on your nightstand, you should get them once you''re able." I rolled my eyes."Great... more fucking pills, as if my painkillers and antidepressants weren''t enough."
"Well sorry, but you need them to help re-build your body properly. The nanites regrew your leg almost perfectly but they missed out on a couple nerves here and there. Nothing unusual really, bloody machines always make mistakes. Anyways, we''ve confirmed that your brain has managed to accept the leg just fine, which means there won''t need to be any further treatments other than you just taking some pills. You really lucked out on this one man." He laughed again but my head thankfully managed to defeat the migraine before it began.
The haze is almost completely gone now."So.. how much did all this cost and who the hell paid for it?"
"Five thousand, three hundred and seventy eight credits. Oh and, nobody yet. However the contestants fighting for the check are: Mr. Wolfgang, A random collective of people from JusticeForEredea.net, Ore-Gore Incorporated and ... The Abrahamic Church." He spoke the last one with excessive disdain."The church?" I asked, faking confusion because I wanted to avoid potential bullshit.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Oh? So you don''t know why those religious freaks decided to help you? Figures, this is all just a game of fame for them. Good heart, my ass." He spat again as I continued, quickly changing the subject."Who is... Mr Wolfgang?"
The man appeared to blink.".. you don''t know who the city governor is?"
"Look, judge me all you like, but I don''t like politics or messing with the government." William let out a chuckle."That does not excuse you from being ignorant. Anyways, Mr Wolfgang was the first to donate money for your recovery, as he should. I mean, you did save the man''s daughter. I hear that girl''s been locked in the house for a couple months after this little stunt." He kept on chuckling as I blinked."I... did, what?"
"You don''t remember the redhead who was with you when the Raker''s attacked? Well, I can show you." He sat down next to me and took out his phone, opening up an app tilted DeaTube. He didn''t even need to scroll down far or press anything into the search bar since I quickly found out what he was looking for.
Namely, a video titled: Homeworlder vs Raker pack! (warning: GRAPHIC!!!!!!).
I rose my hands to cover my head."Fuckin'' hell..."
"Ye-heap! The girl you saved is actually a fairly popular DeaTuber going by the name Foxymoon. Her channel is apparently about her walking around in wild, dangerous forests while talking about *teenage issues* and how the world ain''t fair and the government is shit to the younger generations. She currently stands at around seven million subscribers, which I think is basically the teenage population of the planet. And ALLLL of them saw you heroically, and quite brutally, save her while she was streaming." I let out a massive sigh as he turned on the video.
"Hello guise~, Foxymoon here! As you can see, I''m walkin'' around th- *sudden crashing sound*.. what the hell was that?!" I didn''t even need to watch it to know what was happening. She was close enough to hear the tree falling next to me. Thanks, Lu!
"Anytime, bro~, anytime!" He responded with all the general amusement I had come to expect from him by now."Now, this is the part that interests me the most." The doctor suddenly said and I had to turn to face the video. He paused it just as the girl approached me, clearly showing me bleeding from both my eyes and my ears."I don''t think I need to tell you why I paused here. Thing is, we didn''t find anything wrong with either your eyes or your ears. No indication that they''d even been bleeding..." He turned back towards me, fully expecting me to give him an explanation.
"What exactly do you want me to say? Maybe I breathed something in?" I faked confusion, causing the doctor to tilt his head and shrug."Maybe. Who knows if there''s some kind of Hemorrhagic aerosol going around the forests... but if that''s the case, why didn''t the girl experience the same symptoms?"
"Dunno. I go there often so maybe its been building up over time?" Now this seemed to catch his attention as William nodded."Perhaps. I guess we''ll have to send a team on site to know for sure."
William unpaused the video and let me watch through to the end in silence as I tore through a Raker with my arm, bit off a piece of my own shoulder and sucked out the blood."Oh yeah, you''ve also got a discolored scar on your shoulder now with your teeth imprinted on it." I turned around to look at the place I bit into and sighed."Just one more scar with a story on me."
The next scene of interest was me getting backhanded or.. back-paw''d, out of the way as the Raker matriarch showed up."How the hell did my neck not break from that?"
"Well actually, while your neck somehow survived, your spine was severely damaged from the blow and then you actually managed to break it in four separate places when you rolled out of the way. Don''t worry, the machines did their job, although imperfectly." Oh.
"I guess that''s why my legs wouldn''t move." Great. To think I actually broke my own spine by rolling.
Fuck...
Maybe I shouldn''t have gotten so fat."Yeah, no shit?" William laughed out loud for some reason. I guess this is all part of some insider, doctor joke?
Anyways, the video ended with the redhead speed-dialing the police and the hospital. The record of her chat showed that several people were suddenly spamming a link to the JusticeForEredea.net page which is probably how they managed to gather enough credits for my surgery so quickly.
Hmm... I guess I should let those teenagers feel good about themselves."Alright, I want you to use the money from Justice to pay for my surgery. However, on the condition that you also take my fathers money and then transfer it to my personal account."
William blinked in utter confusion."Your.. fathers, money?"
"Ore-Gore Inc." He blinked again, even more confused before his eyes widened."YOU''RE THE SON OF VITO-" I somehow managed to shut him up with a glare."A-alright. I''ll do it. But... why first take the money and then transfer it to you?"
"If you guys transferred it directly to me, he would get suspicious and I don''t want to cause your hospital trouble." The good doctor nodded in understanding.
As he should.
After all, my father''s developed a rather peculiar reputation of being an absolute psychopath with very good standing with the Government of SOM. He''s legit, but that does not mean people who fuck with him don''t suddenly become prone to accidents.
Most of the time, he does not even have to take action himself. People who want to get on his good side are not exactly rare, after all.
Anyways..."Hey doc... you think I could take that with me after this is over?" I pointed towards the canister of nanites which were swimming in some kind of blue, almost crystalline solution. William quirked an eyebrow in confusion."I.. I mean, there''s no law saying you can''t and basically they are your property now so.. yeah, sure? But, why?"
"Well, I figure those fucks over at EARA have already confiscated the corpses of the Raker pack which means I can''t get my paycheck... I''m a hunter y''see, if that wasn''t obvious enough, so at least I''d like to have a trophy of sorts to remember this by." Now he was full on laughing.
EARA stands for Eredea''s Animal Rights Activists organization, by the way."You mean, your new scars aren''t enough? Okay sure, I''ll see what I can do." With that said, the doctor finally put the dataslate back down and left the room after checking my status for one final time.
Then I closed my eyes and felt my blood rushing hotly with anger."Lu. You orchestrated all of this, didn''t you?"
"Hooh, what gave me away?" Not even trying to deflect the blame, are you? Oh well."Earlier, in my mind, you said how the "murder of these animals", didn''t give me any power so I kinda figured you summoned them there. I mean, Rakers may be vicious, but they don''t just attack everything that moves as there''s no such thing as an outright aggressive Raker, only defensive ones.. Some people even have their smaller variants as pets... granted, they also have their tails cut off."
"I see." Lu replied simply.
That''s it?
All I get?
No apologies or anything?
"You are a dick, Lu." The eldritch monstrosity seemed to burst into laughter before the image of a thousand flailing tentacles formed in my mind."Actually, I am many, MANY DICKS, Lucius~."
....
I am not even going to dignify that with a response.
Slightly larger chapter this time!
Hmm, maybe this style of writing it better? 1.5-2k words per chapter instead of forcing myself to be 2.5 and above.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7. Twin Trouble
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing?
The Following Morning... - Lucius'' Point Of View...
"You take care of yourself now, kid. And no going hunting for the next couple months, ya hear me?!" Joseph, aka my boss, exclaimed with a tone which indicated a mix of horror, anger and absolute worry. Like a very distraught, very disappointed and increasingly uncertain father.
Oh well, I mean, he was the guy who gave me a job and showed me the ropes I needed in order to fit in with the locals when I first came here."W-what? Not worried that your customers will leave due to a lack of wild, freshly-hunted meat?"
This seemed to poke a place I didn''t really want to poke, as Newman looked away in utter shame. Wait, does he actually blame himself for what happened today?"I''m sorry. I.. If I didn''t hurry you out of bed-"
"I''d still be a two hundred and twenty kilo fat ass, yes. Since you did, I''m now what seems to be a one meter and eighty centimeters of pure, manly muscle. Like one of those guys from the anime your daughter loves to watch." Joseph twitched and shivered in his seat with clear discomfort."Yeah, maybe... if you weren''t completely covered in scars, bandages and stinking of restorative cream." He joked back with a chuckle.
"Wait, you actually watc-" He shut me up with a glare."Not another word. We''re here."
His hover car stopped right in front of my homey home with trained ease.".... I''m not gonna fire you, you know. So for real, don''t go hun-"
"I know, boss. Thank you." We didn''t need to say anything else and he dropped me off at home. As I had nobody else living with me, he had to give me some of his old clothes which is why all I had on right now was a black T-shirt, jeans and some weathered sports shoes. My ripped up bodysuit as well as the rest of my hunting gear was all placed into a suitcase.
Getting out the car and waving the boss goodbye, I took the aforementioned suitcase into my right hand and the nanite capsule in my left as I started walking towards my house. Even before I heard the car roaring off on the wind, a peculiar scent entered my nose. It was also then that I noticed the fact that there was smoke rising from my roof. Either something was on fire or someone was using the stove.
Or both.
Shrugging to myself as I neared the door, I began to hear some kind of humming, coming from the inside?
I briefly wondered if I was brought to the wrong house. Maybe Martha broke in somehow?
Both ideas turned out to be meaningless as I tried to find my house key, which I usually leave under a decorative, plastic stone in front of my door, only to find that it was missing. Finally mustering the courage necessary, I casually opened the door and the peculiar scent I caught on the outside was instantly magnified.
A form of ... vanilla?
How sweet.
There''s only one woman I know of that uses this kind of scent and is also fully capable of breaking into my house."Rosemary?"
I locked the door behind me as I walked into my house to find that my entire living quarters had been... cleaned. Everything stank of detergent or whatever cleaning products people use nowadays.
I don''t.
I usually just wipe away the dust and that''s about it.
Not that I normally have reason to do anything more... I don''t exactly have parties."Lucius!" A youthful voice rang from somewhere inside of my kitchen and a strange figure came rushing out. Hip-length pink hair, black stockings and a short skirt with a long-sleeved, black sweater on top.
The female before me stood at about one sixty, had bright pink eyes and luscious pink lips. Her nails were overdone with a myriad of colors and *cutesy animals*.
To be quite frank, I nearly vomited at the sight of her."S-sister?"
She seemed to stop dead in her tracks as she began to check me out in much the same way I did to her a moment ago. Her face went from a slight blush, to pride to absolute horror in the span of one second flat."B-... b-bro?"
We continued to stare at each other for a few extra seconds before we each let out a massive sigh, our silence broken by a pot of boiling water somewhere in the kitchen."I-uh.. I''m making us some chicken kebabs with potatoes and tomato salad and uh, some mushroom soup." She suddenly said, an awkward tone etching itself into her voice.
I.. was still kinda reluctant to believe that the woman before me was my sister, but my sisters cooking was quite good as far as I remembered and so I decided to give this stranger a chance."Sure. .. I''ll uh.. go make the table."
"No need! I already put everything down just-... um.. stay there for a bit, ''kay?" A nod was her answer as I turned around, shell shocked.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The last time I saw my sister was over six years ago, basically the same day I ran away from home as I was unwilling to take over father''s mining company. Take over, hah... More like, be the main face he could blame everything on while he actually directs the company.
No thank you.
Anyways, the last time I saw her she was... just a normal girl. White skin, now chemically tanned. Black hair, now pink... I have to wonder how they did that to her since it looks almost natural.
Thing is, my sister is a music idol/voice actress. Her producer was some schmuck father picked out of the crowd so I can imagine the horrors she must''ve been through."H-here''s the soup!" To her credit, the woman managed to carry the pot over with ease, despite her elongated, multicolored nails being quite clearly in the way.
She sat down and got herself some of the soup, only to catch me staring at her. She shifted in place quite uncomfortably."Ahh, y''know, I imagined that this meeting could go a thousand different ways but this..."
"No plan survives contact with the enemy." I muttered under my breath, causing her to lightly laugh. Good to see that she still has her sense of humor, at least."So uh.. wanna be the man and start this?"
Quirking an eyebrow at her as I ate a bit of the soup she made, I let out a sigh."Do you have a phone on you?"
She tilted her head in confusion."Y-yes?"
"Download an app called DeaTube and search for: Homeworlder vs Raker Pa-"
"Found it!"
I blinked as my sister raised her hand to quieten me down as she watched the video. How in the fuck did she do that?
Anyways, her eyes widened in both fear and shock."W-when did th- wait, one day ago?!"
"Yup. Yesterday." She turned to look at me in bewilderment."B-but, how?!"
"Nanites can, apparently, do imperfect wonders." Her eyes turned away for a moment."I-imperfect?"
"I have to guzzle hormone pills and bathe in restorative cream for the next couple months." She blinked."That''s it? Geez, you had me worried for a second."
She put a hand onto her chest."A-anyways, I''m glad that you''re okay..."
She trailed off and I let out a massive sigh."Look... I know you''re an idol and that your producer probably forced you into gene-tailoring your body to better appeal to your audience and that you probably got sick of it and ran away but-"
"They wanted me to enter the porn industry." Was her simple reply."Oh." Was my supremely intelligent retort.
She let out a sigh of her own."I-.. my statistics started to fall behind somewhat and I was no longer making billions of credits-"
"So you were only making millions, then?" A sarcastic quip, because that''s just what she needs right now. Good job, Lucius.
Thankfully, my sister retained her immunity to my sarcasm and just continued on."- so I stole as many credits as I could, stored it all on an entirely new omnicard account and fucked off to the most rim of rimworlds within SOM territory."
"And that just happened to be Eredea?" Somehow, I didn''t believe that. She turned away for a moment."Okay.. maybe I figured my twin brother would be willing to let his sister crash at his place for some time?"
I could feel a vein pop inside of my head as I drank some water, nearly spitting it out in the process."You''re welcome to stay as long as you need to, Rosemary."
She seemed to shiver for a brief moment."Nobody''s called me that in years, you know?"
"Do you want to be called something else?" She shook her head."N-no, its not that its just..." Trailing off once more, she continued awkwardly eating the soup."So... why the flying fuck do you look like a sixteen year old while being twenty-two?"
A sigh, one so deep I thought her lungs would come out."Well.. like you said, I got forced into gene-tailoring my body to appeal to people more and more as my stats plummeted. Eventually, my producer resorted to some weird, experimental technology that radically changed the way I looked. Ironically, I think it also has something to do with nanites. After I woke up in this... disgusting, sex-doll body, I..." She went quiet after that, but raised both of her arms in the air for me to see.
It was only then that I noticed the white wristbands on each of her wrists. Nearly spitting out the soup yet somehow managing to stop myself, I finally managed to say after what felt like an eternity of silence."What do you plan to do now?"
"Hide... To tell the truth, the reason I chose this planet was because it ranked the lowest on my popularity rankings... I only found out later that you lived here from father screaming something about never sending you money again." Oh. That caught my attention."Did he say why, though?"
"... something about you donating what he gave you to the church? Also, I found a bible on your desk.. whats that about? Since when did you get into Abramism?" I shook my head in negative, causing my sister to quick an inquisitive eyebrow towards me."While its true that I gave them all of fathers money, the book isn''t mine. A preacher left it on my desk after I let him inside to talk about God. This was also yesterday morning."
"I see.. yeah, that sounds like something you''d do. Never really gave much of a shit about money, did you? Good to see that still hasn''t changed." She closed her eyes, allowing me to see that even her eyelids were pink."You, .. you''re gonna go see a doctor about helping you get rid of all that gene-tailoring. Soon." Rosemary''s eyes flew open quicker than I thought was possible.
She then nodded towards me."You think.. you think this can be undone?" Her voice and eyes were full of sudden hope.
"Authoria''s hospital proved they can use nanites since they used them on me. If those things-" I pointed towards the canister I brought from the hospital."-can save me from near death and regrow my amputated leg, they can help you go back to how you were."
She stood up and walked over to me before catching me in a hug."Thank you, Luce."
I hugged her back, despite the scent of vanilla assaulting my nose."N-no problem, Rosemary. Just.. I kinda have a question."
Tilting her head once again in confusion, I felt myself smile a bit before saying."Just where do you plan on sleeping? I only have one bed."
Her cheeks flushed with an uncharacteristic red.... which also seemed slightly pink in coloration. God, fucking, dammit."I-uh.. I.. I''m not arrogant enough to say that you should sleep on the couch in your own house s-so I f-figured we could sleep together until my room gets constructed."
Huh."Constructed? You didn''t already order anything, did you?"
To my great relief, she shook her head in negative."N-no, I just-.. uh." Poor girl. She seems at a loss for words."Well, sleeping together is fine by me. I should warn you though, I sleep naked."
A blink. Make that two."S-"
"With a window open at night. At. All. Times." Now her mouth was gaping."I... I don''t know what to even say to that."
We continued eating in silence.
On a brighter note, her cooking is as good as I remembered. Who knows? Maybe her being here will end up being a good thing.
You know where this is going, don''t you?
Oooh, yes.
Here I go again~.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. Classic Misinterpretation
Lord Joyde The Madman: Hello, everyone! How are you all doing?
A few minutes later... - Lucius'' (and Rosemary''s) Bedroom - Lucius'' Point Of View...
"So why exactly were you completely silent during my conversation with my sister just now, Lu?" My amused tone echoed throughout my tiny room as I opened up my wardrobe, only to scowl and sigh as I realized that all of my clothing was now several sizes too large for me.
Guess that means I''ll have to go shopping today."Well what was I supposed to say? Did you want me to comment on the intimate, perverse thoughts you''ve been having from basically the moment you saw her?"
"Actually, I was quite disgusted, at first." A low rumbling sound could be heard echoing in my skull as Lu appeared to grumble."True, but you still somehow managed to talk your twin sister into sleeping with you."
"What? Me? She was the one who suggested it though~." I mused out loud in a completely-innocent tone as I did my utmost to find an article of clothing that was at least somewhat wearable."And you offered absolutely zero resistance to it." Lu chuckled for a moment."... the level of unity your plans jointly possessed is... amazing. I suppose that you truly are twins."
Now that, caught my attention."Excuse me?"
Lu chuckled once more, perhaps even deeper and more menacingly than I thought it was possible for my own, dammed voice."So you did not notice it? Well... lets just say that it is good you drank the water instead of the wine at the table. There were so many ways that this event could have gone and only one out of fifty includes the both of you surviving the encounter. Then again, the event isn''t over quite yet."
I blinked, more than once, as my brain tried its best to comprehend the meaning behind Lu''s words. Did my sister try to poison me?
No.
No, even if she managed to kill me, she would gain nothing from it. I know that not all parts of her story seem to fit in their respective places, should we say, but when she said that she ran away due to not wanting to go into porn... well, I did believe her and I still do.
What I don''t believe is that she ran away before giving it a try. Hmmm...
Perhaps, she did try to poison me but, not in a deadly way, should we say?
I mean, usually its the guys who drug up the girls drink, or so the stereotype goes, but who''s to say that a showgirl like her hasn''t learned some tricks from her competition. So lets say that my sister tried to drug me up, what would that accomplish? People know where I am and she had no idea that I got wounded recently.
Where and what would she do to my unconscious body?
It makes no sense, just like that last sentence.
Unless... unless she actually tried to make me horny enough to rape her. This would somehow result in the either of us dying, apparently.
Perhaps, she changes her mind in the last second and stabs me with a kitchen knife? Lu''s chuckling echoed throughout my skull once more, yet he say a word.
My musings are interrupted when I feel something stabbing me in the foot. I quickly remove whatever it was and thankfully find no wound, yet as the object strikes against the floor... My head turns to follow the sound."The vampire fang?"
I quickly pick it up and throw it into the trash can. Thank God that my sister didn''t clean this room like she did the rest of the house. Well, not that I''m aware of how vampirism works exactly but... no need to take any chances, right?
Turning back towards the wardrobe, I eventually settled on a large hoodie to wear over everything else. This one was a piece that I wanted to throw away recently because it was becoming too small for me. Suddenly, its basically one of the few articles of clothing that I don''t need to throw out.
On that note, what exactly should I do with the rest of this?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Meh.
Give it all to charity, I guess. Anyways, lets go downstairs!
In the meantime... - The Living Room - Rosemary''s Point Of View...
"What the fuck did I just..." My voice trailed off as I sat very, very still at my brothers table, holding in my hand one of the glasses full of drugged up wine before settling it down and grabbing at my own hair with both hands."What the fuck did I just try to do?!" A silent, tormented screech leaves my lips.
These pink, stained.. tainted lips. I felt my entire body recoiling in disgust as I remember how they shoved me those movies, made me meet up with... those glorified whores!
I can''t believe Steinn wanted me to become one of them!
Who knew my producer was such a -...
A deep sigh escapes me as I rise from the table."Lets just do the dishes... take my mind of off all this... shit."
Maybe I should take a bath too? Rip my fake nails out. Don''t want to see that dammed, laughing kitty anymore than I need to.
Lucius though... he sure has changed.
I mean, there''s the obvious and, rather sudden, loss of weight but... He''s...
Different.
He was always different.
But now he''s.. calm.
Dreadfully calm.
This almost felt like I was talking to a corpse, even if touching his skin was like putting my hands into a flame.
Tch, whats with all this sudden drama?
Anyways... thank whatever god out there is watching out for me right now...
Thank you, for not making my brother drink the wrong drink.
...
Huh?
I felt myself blinking in confusion.
I was suddenly... sitting at the table again?
All the dishes were done but...
I don''t remember...
The sound of steps coming from the stairs woke me from my trance and, perhaps a moment too late, I noticed that the only things still on the table were two glasses of wine.
My heart feels like it could burst at any given moment."Hooh? What''s this? Didn''t take you for such a drinker, sis. I mean, you''ve already had a glass during lunch."
Lucius'' voice echoed from behind me as I found myself glued to the table in fear. No... this isn''t fear.
Anxiety?
Unease?
... horror.
My chest feels as if its being crushed by a boulder made of guilt."I- I. uh..."
Like a crawling, slithering serpent of shadows had coiled itself around my heart and started to squeeze, its jaw open wide yet never quite biting."Hmm?" He approached closer. I could feel him now.
A vast, endless ocean of heat behind my back.
Yet I felt myself shivering.
I want to leap from the chair.
I want to run.
I want to flee and forget this ever happened.
My brother chuckled behind me as he put a hand on my right shoulder."Say, sis... did you know that when psychopaths like me go around killing people..."
... what?
My soul froze at his words as I tried to turn my head around, only to feel as if every inch of my throat was bound in ice."Its usually because our brains misinterpret a very peculiar emotion... do you know what that emotion is?"
Swallowing down hard, I somehow managed to mutter out."... n-no?"
He put his arms around me in a makeshift hug and lowered his head to my ear, whispering with all the poison of a viper and yet, the passion of a lover."Lust..."
I felt his tongue dragging itself across my neck, leaving an inhumanly hot trail behind it. I felt his tongue clearly with every pulse of my own, traitorous heart.
It was beating so fast, I could barely even think.
A strange sound suddenly broke whatever horrid spell caught me as I felt something wet touching my cheeks, my brother planting a cheeky kiss upon them before bursting out in laughter."Hahahaha... sis, Rosemary.. you should see your face!"
Heat quickly built up within me as the aforementioned face flourished with crimson, embarrassment making me shove both hands onto my face, covering myself in shame."You''re an asshole..."
My voice trailed off and I nearly choked on my own words. Thankfully, this didn''t seem to affect my brothers newfound amusement in the least."Thanks! I''ll take that as a compliment. Anyways, I''m gonna go take a bath. Oh, and sis?"
"Y-y-yes?" I quipped uncharacteristically as I finally managed to turn my head around to see my brother was equally as crimson as me."... I really don''t know why someone like you would ever need drugs to seduce anyone..." And with that, he rushed into the bathroom.
I blinked.
Make that twice.
"W-wha?!".... So he knew... but still...
You''re my brother, you know!
Brothers aren''t supposed to say something like that to their sisters! Twin sisters, especially so!
Quickly turning back around in order to stew in my own seat for a moment, I decided to take those stupid glasses of wine and rid the world of their contents before anything even worse happened. Yet, another wet sound caught my attention as I was reaching for the wine.
I didn''t dare look down, as the sound came from my chair.
It took me an entire minute of mustering courage before I finally turned my head.
... a hand reached for my underwear and I felt myself shivering again.
I was drenched.
... and it wasn''t urine.
That''s for now! Hope you enjoyed it!
Things are heating up, quite literally~.
Got to say that I don''t comprehend the was SH''s ranking system works. One day I''m on the front page, then on the second and now the story''s nowhere to be found?
Popularity is weird.
On that note, thank the five of you who''ve rated this story! Five outta five, pretty damn good so far~, I''d say!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. Something Else
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing?
A few moments later... - Lucius'' House (Bathroom) - Lucius'' Point Of View...
A single look downwards had me recoiling in shame."What in the world." My sentence ended up being more of a statement than anything else as I turned my head around, ironically enough to face a mirror. An entirely new, unknown body stood before me.
My black hair seemed to be even darker, if such a thing was even possible.
Skin, white as death, now covered in patches of scars that were almost see-through.
A face full of bleached spots and thickening bruises.
And a stomach covered in bloody, crimson stretch-marks.
To think I thought my sister looked horrible.
On that note, just what was I about to do?!
Did I seriously lick her neck?! What the hell."Lu. Tell me, did you have anything to do with this?"
"Its very easy for you to twist the blame on me, isn''t it? Sadly, for you, I was busy manipulating someone else." Manipulating someone else? So much for not making any cults."I''ve never said that I would not create cults, only that I normally do it earlier. As in, before being discovered physically."
... true.
And, you''re right, I''m just shifting the blame here."Good God, what is even happening to me? Am I going insane?"
"You have an elder god speaking directly to your brain and you''re asking yourself if you''re going insane?" Shut up. I was depressive, sure. Maybe even cripplingly so.
But I was sane up until now. I know for certain that you''ve manipulated at least a few recent events... however..."I''m not the only thing out there with an interest in your life." I felt my bones crackling, almost as if laughing at their own host, as Lu confirmed my hypothesis.
Something else is influencing me and I do not know how or why."Lu... could you tell me what exactly you''ve done so far?"
"Concerning you? Not much, truth be told. I dissected that animal in your basement, tried to make you kill Martha and orchestrated the Raker incident." And all in a single day. I wouldn''t exactly define that as *not much*. Also, you avoided mentioning how you manipulated my emotions in hopes of making me your slave.
"And since you found me out in under two hours, which I think is the record by the way, I promised to stop and thus, have not done so since." Shit. Fine.
I trust you to be a man... monster?.. Dormient, of your word."I am male. Man, will do just fine."
Well thanks for confirming that. I''m sure someone out there would have taken your unknown gender out of context if that wasn''t cleared up."... I am unsure of what you mean."
"It does not matter." I spoke out loud as I realized that I was staring at myself in the mirror, a hand pressing down onto my sink. A secondary figure in the reflection caught my attention, a mass of pure black shadow, with a mouth full of white, fanged teeth and crimson eyes.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The thing stalked me from behind, its gaping maw poised to tear my neck to shreds. Within seconds, I turned around at the speed of light, my own right arm poised to backhand whatever was behind me.
Thankfully, I managed to stop myself from slamming a fist into my sisters face."AIIihhh!?!?!" She screeched in surprise and shock as I squeezed my own fist so hard the skin slowly turned blue before releasing it."R-Rosemary? What are you doing here?"
She blinked in momentary confusion before her cheeks adopted a slightly pink coloration."I- I was... ugh.. what is even going on? I heard you screaming and... talking, to yourself. So I thought I should check up on you." She swallowed down hard and I helped her off of the ground."W-when I walked in you... were just staring at the mirror and.. were totally unmoving.. like, if someone just hit your pause button or something. I called out to you but you didn''t respond and then I saw..."
She quieted for a second and turned to look at me directly before her expression twisted with horror and confusion."E-eh? N-no way! But... what?! Am.. am I going crazy?!"
Her words made me blink."Rose?"
Rosemary shook her head in response, expression filled to the brim with disbelief."W-when I came in... you, you were bleeding, from your eyes and ears.. I SWEAR YOU WERE! L-like in that video."
Another look towards the mirror confirmed how there was no blood on either my eyes or my ears, nor any evidence of the aforementioned bleeding. Just like the doctor said."Lu, I thought you caused that?"
"Before, yes. Now? No. Bleeding from your ears and eyes is normal when experiencing psychic or magical phenomena which are beyond your current ability to grasp as your mind struggles to comprehend the events in question." I nodded, seemingly to myself as I turned back towards Rosemary."I see. Well, everything seems to be fine now, right?"
She swallowed down again."... yeah... hey, Luce?"
"Yes?" I watched with keen interest as she turned her head down and away from my gaze before continuing."We could... do stuff." She whispered the last bit and I admit that I took a few seconds more than I''d like to admit in order to comprehend her meaning. My own expression must have twisted from confusion to arousal and contemplation in a singular second."I... uh.. see... We could."
Now it was my turn to swallow down hard."... but the question is, should, we?" A rather needless emphasis on should was placed as I fought with my own tone of voice in an effort to not sound absolutely regretful of even asking this idiotic question instead of taking the chance to leap onto her.
Rosemary turned to look at me with worry and desire in her eyes, both emotions dancing in equal amounts."... no, but I want to." Her eyes then went downwards, eliciting a smile to form on her lips.".... and so do you."
Coughing into my right hand, I took one look at my newfound virility and decided screw it."Fine, you win. The bath?"
Rosemary quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at me before finally noticing my Jacuzzi and blinking in realization."Is that... an AI-..." Her question was answered by a nod from yours truly.
A five thousand credits, AI-powered bath of bubbly goodness."Vedran, please fill the tub, fifty Celsius."
"Command acknowledged, delivering water, temperature set: Fifty Celsius." The bathroom AI responded without missing a beat. My sister seemed to quiver and shake in fear for a bit."A machine intelligence? You do know that the government uses these to spy on people, right?"
"So what? Its not like I have anything to fear from the government and there aren''t any cameras in my house, anyways." She let out a massive sigh before relaxing her posture."You''re right. I should ease up a bit. All this paranoia''s making me itchy." Then she offered me a rather enchanting, mischievous grin."And you''re gonna help me scratch that itch won''t you, big brother~?"
"We''re the same age, you know? Not that I didn''t like that just now." I returned her grin with a smirk of my own as my hands coiled themselves around her hips, to which she responded with an intimately heated exhale.
Just a short tidbit which was honestly supposed to be a part of the previous chapter.
This is a prequel to this story''s first Lemon, so be prepared~.
I haven''t written anything sexy in so long, apart from RP stuff, in so long...
Time to scratch that itch, indeed~.
And I totally didn''t write exclude this from the lemon because I wanted it to be chapter 10, no sir!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10. Slipping In The Bath <3
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you today?
Since a bunch of people asked for a Discord server (again), I''ve decided to reopen damn thing.
I have to warn you, I''m not that active on it, if at all. -https://discord.gg/9B4nEJT-
Also 10/10 five star ratings? Woah. Thank you!
A few moments later... - The Bathroom - Lucius'' Point Of View...
"Mmmmnn..." A euphoric moan escaped my twin sister as our lips met for the very first time and I felt my hands drifting across her ebony body, exploring every nook and crevice it had to offer. Soon enough, what little clothing we both hand on our upper halves was flying off. Lowering my right hand a bit more and giving her a squeeze elicited another heated exhale to strike against my bare flesh.
I could feel her nails scraping across my back as I held her closer and closer, pulling my sister in, deeper.. more intimately than I ever dreamed I would."Rose..." I whispered as I leaned into her right ear before biting the nape of her neck. Rosemary beamed a smile towards me before giving my neck a long, hungering lick, trailing across my skin and reveling as I felt shiver after shiver dancing across my spine.
"Alert: The bath is full." The machine intelligence interrupted our heated exchange, causing us both to lightly laugh before tearing off the remainder of our clothing and throwing it all to the side. The bathroom''s growing more and more heated by the moment.
We approached the Jacuzzi with our hands still intertwined."Ladies first." I cooed with a grin, one which she returned in equal measure."Oh? But how and where should this lady sit? There''s no seat!" This made me blink in confusion before a delightful realization struck me."Oh."
My grin then grew from ear to ear."I love the way you think, baby."
Sitting into the two-by-two meter tub, I promptly spread my legs, creating her desired royal seat."Your throne is ready, your majesty." Rosemary offered me a quick chuckle before entering the bath and exhaling in relief as the heat shook against her writhing body. With another breath, she finally sat down, leaning into me with her entire self.
Her scented hair enchanted me the moment it came into contact with my body, making me take in a very deep breath as I leaned backwards. Yet as I did so, junior decided it was finally time to rise up to full, grinding feverishly against my twin sisters velvet cavern."W-woah... I knew you were huge from the way your pants looked but... woah."
Rosemary gawked at my size with adorable yet hungering interest as I let out a cheery laugh in response."Thanks. Think you can take it?"
She smiled once again as the heat of the room kept on rising, our chests heaving endlessly with increasingly heated breathing."We shall see~." She whispered, licking her lips in a very suggestive and erotic fashion.
Thing is, while most of my good looks have been destroyed by the nanites, it seems that they decided that the size of my junior wasn''t good enough before. I don''t really know my current size, but its around eight inches long, width notwithstanding.
Without another word, our lips joined together once more, my tongue dancing together with hers as I reached for her nether with my right hand as my left trailed across her bare abdomen, slowly inserting a single finger as she took my length with both hands.
A moan escaped the each of us as Rosemary began to move her hands, stroking my member with a firm, tender grasp. As our lips separated, I turned my head around to watch as her hands went up and down, delivering wave after wave of pleasure to me. I took her left hand into mine as she quickened her rhythmic movement.
My other hand rose from her pussy to her breasts, the massive mounds made of dreams which held my undue attention for the better part of this morning. They must be double d''s, at the very least."Mmmph!" My sister moaned quite loudly as I squeezed her chest which caught my attention."Oh?"
A mischievous smirk formed upon my features as my hand repeated it previous motion, twisting her nipple with as much delicacy as I could muster."Mnn!" Another moan, to confirm my suspicions."Found your weak spot, sis~."
I said as I kissed the nape of her tender neck, leaving marks wherever my lips touched her flesh. Rosemary then returned my smirk with a knowing look yet said nothing as she reached for the tip of my member and began dragging her thumb roughly across my crown.
Gritting my teeth as she did her magic, I recoiled from the pleasure, the steam, the rising heat of the room coiling around my mind until I could barely even think."Haa... haaa.." An exhalation of air escaped me as I feel something primal awakening, growing, gnawing, from deep inside of me.
I could feel the air growing hotter and hotter by each exhilarating moment.
Suddenly, Rosemary stopped working on my member and exhaled in much the same manner as I did just a moment ago. Then, she practically leaped, twisting her body around and positioning her entrance at the top of my crown."Enough foreplay~." She exclaimed with glee and lust boiling beneath her skin.
Just touching her entrance made my skin crawl in excitement, every muscle I had tensed up in exhilaration and every bone seemed to constrict as I watched her spread her lower lips."My body craves for yours, dearest sister." I admit to her, shamelessly, dramatically as she moans again, her voice echoing in my ears, sending waves upon waves of ecstasy.
Rosemary leans forward, planting my face in between her generous breasts as she whispers huskily into my ears."Then lets feed its-, no.. our, urge, dearest brother."This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I could feel a click resounding in my head as whatever meager thread of self-restraint we each had left burned away unto nothingness. I grasped the edges of the tub in preparation as I watched her descend, each of her lips coiling around my crown, liquids flowing freely downwards, coating my entire length with her sweet nectar.
A shiver is sent, trailing up and down my spine as I felt her eager walls constricting around me, making it tighter, harder to push through."Mmmhn!" Another moan caught itself in my ears as I placed my hands onto her behind and pushed her down, the animal inside of me unable to wait any longer.
Rosemary yelped in surprise and pleasure, biting her lower lip in the process. Settling into a cross-legged position as my twin sister caught me in a leg lock, we turned to look one another directly in the eyes once more. I could feel her flesh quivering, shivering at every single one of my touches.
Her greedy womb kissed my crown, her walls already starting to milk me for all I was worth and more.
Our lips joined, a deep, passionate, loving kiss, a final barrier to break before we began to fully indulge into each other.
Without another word, we both began to move and I felt her tightening around me even more. My arms coiled around her waist as I buried myself in her breasts and felt her hands ruffling through my hair and caressing my neck.
At first, our movements were erratic, passionate and slow, each of us eager to explore and feel everything we possibly could of the other.
Suckling upon the nape of her neck, I began to go lower and lower until I reached her breast and then up again. Her nails dug into my flesh as her moans filled my ears, causing me to start moving quicker, rougher, faster.
My muscles tense up again as I continue to thrust into her, feeling every inch of her velvet cavern sucking on my member, as if she never wished to let go. Rosemary gives out a scream of pleasure and I kiss her again, our tongues lashing against one another, eyes glazed with lust and desire.
My rhythm increases, a rabid tempo rising, growing as I feel her tight, welcoming womb clenching onto my length as she orgasms, sending shivers of pleasure up and down both of our spines. Feeling my own orgasm coming, I speed up to my maximum, letting go of every remaining tinge of constraint as the urge to fill her with my seed reaches its peak.
A moment of silence passes as Rosemary realizes whats going to happen and yet... she does not stop me. A wordless, euphoric nod is my answer.
Another deep exhalation escapes me as I grit my teeth and begin to slam in and out of her with as much force as I could muster, causing both of our eyes to go backwards from the pleasure.
With a final slam, all the tension that had built within my body is immediately released as I pull her closer to myself, more intimately than ever before. She squirms and quivers as our bodies connect, every pulse sending spurt after spurt of hot seed straight into her eager, hungering womb.
"Haa..." We kiss once more, with more passion, more lust than ever before.
Not even bothering to pull out, I stand up, carrying her with surprising ease as both of my hands grab her firm behind. She swallows down hard, her eyes glazed with even more desire, her body writhing in sheer euphoria. Then she leans her body backwards, hands grasping at metallic handles on the walls above the Jacuzzi.
Reforming her leg-lock, she pulls me closer, deeper inside of herself."Agile, aren''t you?" I plant another kiss on her luscious, pink lips, as the taste of sweet cherries rushes upon my tongue.
I take another look at her quaking form, detailing the raise and fall of her chest, exhalations of ever more heated air. The entire room is covered in steam now as it catches upon the walls and furniture alike.
With a deep breath, I begin to move once more, squeezing her wet flesh as I regain my rhythm.
My hips moved continuously, without missing a single beat, almost as if on their own. I could feel every pulse of my heart beating in unison with hers as I began to move faster and faster, the blood within our veins rushing through us in perfect sync.
I could feel something primal taking over me as the world seemed to disperse, leaving only me and my twin sister in sight. Our quickened breathing, the rise and falling of her alluring chest was mesmerizing.
Gritting my teeth, I gave her ass a firm squeeze as she caught my shoulders, ditching the metallic handles. Her hands coiled around my neck, catching me in an intimate hug, pressing her breasts against my chest.
Another deep, passionate kiss as I bit on her lower lip.
Rosemary then planted her head onto mine, burying me into her bosom once more as I started to pound her, her body adopting a crimson coloration from the sheer ferocity of our joined movement.
Tension welled up inside of my body once again as I neared my next orgasm, her eager pussy constricting around me more and more with every push.
My twin sister and I each let out another scream of pleasure as I filled her womb with my seed once again, every pulse delivering another load deep within her, forcing me to grit my teeth again as I felt my body becoming unwound.
With that, I fell back into the water, my torso somehow managing to stay above it as I watched Rosemary caressing her stomach with glee."So much..." She moaned and looked at me in an accusing manner before offering me a smirk and a smile and leaning down for another sweet, passionate kiss.
"Are you trying to get me pregnant, big brother?" She cooed into my ears, forcing me to swallow down hard as I felt the primal urge rising up yet again. And she felt it too, as my member quickly regained its full potential while still inside of her."O-oohh..." She moaned out and placed a hand onto her abdomen, caressing her womb from the outside."So? Its not like incest has any drawbacks in this day and age..." My words escaped me before I even registered what I was saying.
Rosemary adopted a rather adorable, if pinkish blush on her cheeks as she stopped caressing herself and instead seemed to be trying to pleasure my member from the outside."So you''re saying that you wouldn''t be against having a baby with me, Luce?" Her eyes appeared almost hopeful.
This made me pause as I turned to look at her abdomen and nearly felt as if I would cry."You.. don''t mean..."
"A pregnant sex doll is useless, after all." She confirmed my assumptions with a horrible, tormented smile."... We''ll fix it, somehow."
"Eh?" She quipped, her voice and tone uncertain, yet full of rising hope."You heard me. I- we, will find a way."
Her blushing expression returned in full force as I felt pride bubbling up inside of me as Rosemary caught me in another hug, her heart no longer able to hold back her despair as she began to cry and I patted her head and caressed her bare back, my fingers rushing through her hair."You should have come here sooner, sis."
She sniffed and nodded in response."Y-yeah, I should h-have." Neither of us said anything more.
We simply sat in the Jacuzzi, enjoying and reveling in each other.
Yet beyond the pride I felt.
Below the rising hope.
I could feel something else boiling within my blood.
.... and when my twins wretched tormentors finally came for her, and I know they will, I''m not entirely certain that I will be able to stop myself from ravaging them.
Or that I would even want to.
There we go~.
That''s it for now!
Hmm, this kinda started out weird or even bad but after the 700 word mark, I finally regained my sense of perversion.
Probably because I started writing this late at night and was really tired.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11. Black Instinct
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing?
A few hours later... - House Prodigium (Living Room) - Lucius'' Point Of View...
So after our little bit of tragic fun-time in the bathroom, me and Rosemary went shopping around town, or should I say city?
Anyways...
Turns out, much the same as I was in the aftermath of my physical transformation via nanite magic, she also required a whole bunch of new clothes as she couldn''t bring half of what she needed with her when she ran away. Honestly, her story is getting less and less connected as I learn more about it. Also, what she managed to bring already amounted to more clothing than I would need in a year. No joke, but I suppose that''s just how she is.
Two things are certain though: her escape was rushed and she has lost the ability to become a mother.
I don''t really know why, but the second one sickens me to the core. And while I did say that I wanted to impregnate her and that we would ahem, find a way, I''m not actually that into the idea.
Not that I dislike my sister, quite the contrary, but the idea of having children while being so young terrifies me. I ain''t ready to be a father.
And she most definitely isn''t ready to be a mother.
That said, the thought of having the possibility itself taken away from me is...
Horrifying.
It makes me angry, no, furious just thinking about it.
Rumors say that castrated men often tend to act as if nothing matters to them anymore and while that isn''t too far away from how I am already, I''d like to keep that barrier between myself and the extreme in question.
Anyways, going shopping for clothes was a very... tumultuous experience, should we say?
Its a whole new world you see once you realize that absolutely nobody recognizes you. This, combined with my sisters general need to stay hidden, preventing me from even saying her full name on one occasion, has made me quite aggravated.
If we didn''t have sex before going out, I might have gone crazy in the middle of the city. Thankfully, our driver realized what was happening and somehow managed to calm me down by telling me stories about himself and his wife. The old man seemed to have the entirely wrong idea...
Or did he?
I mean, Rosemary has cooked me some lunch, cleaned my or rather our house and is currently exploring our wardrobe while being on the phone with a building company in an effort to organize the construction of her own room.
If we even need a second room anymore, that is.
... a bigger bed wouldn''t hurt, though.
A beeping sound from my front wakes me from my musings as I turn towards the 2000x2000 pixel screen in front of me. Ah, my computer has finally managed to turn itself on.
... Did that just take an unusually long time or did I lose track of the aforementioned function of reality?
I let out a sigh.
Possibly both."Hey, Lu. Are you there?"
"... yes?" The eldritch abomination writhing inside of my head and using my own damn voice to speak to me seemed almost confused as he replied."... is something wrong?"
"Nothing much. I am merely looking into all the possibilities of your future and find myself... intrigued." I.. see?
I''m honestly not sure that is a good thing."It is not. For you, that is."
Another sigh escapes me as I absentmindedly double click on an icon called HZTracker on my desktop. A government-issued program which tracks all hunters and their respective Hunting-Zones, with a link to each persons profile and general information. All regulated by the government and supposedly only accessible by other hunters.
Selling this information is illegal, of course. And the SOM has been rather... effective, at dishing out direct punishment to any who abuse the system.
Turns out, when psychopaths rule, they don''t like to share their power unless absolutely necessary."As it should be. Strength, no.. Power, overrides everything else. So long as one possesses enough power, anything is within their grasp!"
".... but when is enough?" Lu''s darkened laughter echoed terribly within my mind."Never."Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Beside myself, I let out a chuckle as I scrolled down on my screen until a name caught my eye. A hunter by the name of Igor Faust, who appeared to be a sixty year old man with greenish white skin and light, auburn hair. A middle-aged man who seemed to have nothing about him that was out of the ordinary.
He had a wife and three children, two boys and a girl. One thing caught my eye; his HZ was right next to my house. Hunting Zone number three, to be specific.
If I owned a license to this one, I wouldn''t even need a damn taxi to drive me around. I could just carry what I kill back home.
Hmm... maybe I should buy this plot of land?
Wait a moment.
Why am I suddenly trying to switch hunting zones? There''s nothing wrong with mine... the recent incident was purely Lu''s fault, after all.
The aforementioned eldritch monstrosity continued laughing, the implausible tone of submerged chaos booming deep inside of my skull, yet he said nothing.
A blink.
Then another.
A man.
A normal, innocent man.
With a perfectly normal wife.
And three children.
A girl.
And two boys.
...
A blackened smile etched itself onto my features as realization finally hit me.
It would seem that I''ve found my victim.
Immediately, I called the mans number, generously provided by our ever-so-diligent government. The phone in my hands rang as I felt horrid excitement rushing through my body, mind and soul.
My heart burned.
I feel... so..
Alive.
"H-hello? Who is this?" A mans voice echoed from beyond and my smile twisted into a grin."Hello, this is Lu. Are you Mr. Faust?" The eldritch abomination now seemed to become utterly consumed by laughter.
I could almost feel the man blinking in confusion."Just Lu? E-er, anyways, yes, I am Faust-"
"Good. Look, I don''t want to waste either of our times so I''ll just get to the point. I want to buy your hunting zone license for number three." Faust let out a laugh before replying, my words seemingly alleviating the mans tension."I''m sorry, my young man, but my license isn''t for sale."
"Not even for a grand?" This seemed to make the man pause for a moment."Eh- I me-"
"How about a grand and three hundred?" I made myself appear somewhat annoyed as Mr Faust seemed to bite his own tongue."Loo-"
"I can''t go over a grand and five hun-" This time, he interrupted me and I felt myself laughing on the inside as I heard him speak."JUST SHUT UP FOR A DAMMED MOMENT!"
Letting him fall directly into my trap. I somehow managed to stifle my reply and my horrid chuckling."... you actually went quiet? Woah, okay. Why does that never work with my kids?! A-anyways, by grand, you mean one thousand credits, yes?"
"... correct?" I replied, sounding incredibly annoyed now as the man stumbled on his own words."I- I see." He muttered something about *fucking rich kids* before replying."Alright, you got me. One thousand credits for an HZ? You''ve got yourself a deal but I... want to know why you want my HZ so badly." He stated without missing a beat and I went silent for a little while.
What do I say?
Panic caught me and I nearly shut the call, yet a flash of inspiration hit me moments before I pressed the big, red button."Sir, have you heard about what happened at HZ42?
"... you mean that one lad who killed off an entire raker pack on his own? Oh. OH! I got it. You''re a hunter from that zone and now you want to get the hell out of it. Well, I can assure you that number three ain''t got any of that bullshit. The raker''s here are all defensive sure, but not one of them will actually attack you unless you attack first." I nodded, mostly to myself."Well, its not the only reason. Number three is actually pretty close to my house and I''ve been wanting to buy a license for it for a long time now just... never really had a good reason, y''know?"
"Till now, I suppose?" Faust let out a massive sigh before taking a deep breath."Alright. One grand''s fine but ... I can''t just sell it to you without allowing you to at least survey the place."
"Survey? What do you mean?" The man seemed to swallow down and start to whisper into the phone."Alright look, my family and I are going on a little picnic later today in my HZ. Since you said your place was close to the HZ, I figure I can give you a ride there and you can just explore the place while we do our thing."
A blink."Erm, sure thing, Mr Faust just.. can I bring my gear or?"
"No, that''s illegal. Hmm.. but I suppose you walkin'' around without a rifle is pretty dangerous and I won''t be there to protect you... not to mention that you''re from #42.. Alright, fine. I''ll let ya take my ol'' Bestie out for a stroll." I think that means he''s gonna give me his hunting rifle.
I am going to murder this man and his family with his own weapon. A spree of laughter escapes me before I can stop it and Faust seems to mistake the reason for my laugh."What? You tellin'' me you don''t name yer guns? Fuckin'' newbie..."
"Its alright, Mr Faust. I''ll send you my coordinates via PM. When can I expect you?" Igor seemed to ponder the answer for a moment."Well, me and the family are gonna have lunch now and start packing at around the thirteenth. I suppose you can expect us to arrive by your place at half past that."
"I''ll see you then, Mr Faust." And with that, the call was ended with an approving harrumph from the person on the other side. Suddenly, a hand was placed on my shoulder and I turned to find my sister standing behind me with an amused look."Who were you talking to just now?"
"Why do you ask?" I quirked an eyebrow at her, forcing my expression to be as emotionless as possible."W-well, you seemed to laugh several times during the conversation so I just kinda figured you were talking to your girlfriend or something." She turned her head away from me.
Ah.
So that''s it.
I felt a smirk form itself upon my features as I put my phone down onto the desk and rose from my seat, coiling an arm around Rosemary."Rose, I don''t have a girlfriend, I was talking to a fellow hunter."
She blinked and seemed instantaneously relieved, if a little bit flustered."A-ah, that''s... good? No, wait, I mean-"
I interrupted her with a kiss, as passionate as I could possibly make it. Just a small, silent joining of the lips, without a touch of force.
More than enough to quieten her down and make her blush crimson and pink."Why would I even want a girlfriend, anyway? After all..."
The smirk now turned into a full, beaming smile that went from ear to ear before I leaned down and whispered into hers."... a sisters all you need, right~?"
That''s it for this chapter~.
I sincerely hope you liked it!
As per usual, I will be posting this chapter first and editing out mistakes at a later date!
A very special thank you to those twelve individuals on ScribbleHub who rated my story 5/5! You guys and girls are doing wonders for my morale, so thank you again!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12. Ravenous
Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everyone! How are you all doing?
Its been a while since the last chapter and I must say, those 16/5star ratings aren''t making things any easier.
You guys love putting pressure on me, don''t you?
One hours later... - Lucius'' Point Of View...
"So, since my beloved husband has decided to throw you into our little party here without any mention of it to anyone else, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself, my dear?" A grey haired, but not elderly woman glared at me from the front seat as I twisted in the back of the van. Mr Faust seems to be a bit forgetful sometimes, as I didn''t exactly think I''d be shoved into a hover-van without any seat."My name is Lucius, though people usually just call me Lu."
"Just Lucius?... how rude." I shrugged at Miss Faust."There''s no need to worry, miss. I''ll be out of your hair as soon as we arrive."
Mr Faust, to his credit, just let out a massive sigh."Right... I threw my stuff into that blue box in the corner next to ya, kid. Might be a good idea to gear up before we arrive." Just as he said that, the hover-van jumped as it hit against a bit of wind, causing me to nearly hit my head on the ceiling."I''ll do my best."
"You''re Lucius Prodigium, right?!" The couples only daughter, who also seemed to be the eldest of the trio, a teenager to be exact, suddenly jumped up from her seat in excitement."Um.. yes?"
"OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I''M IN THE VAN WITH THE HERO!" She screeched at the top of her lungs, causing us all to cover our ears, her younger brothers each giving me the biggest stink eye I''ve ever witness in my life."Hero? Clara, darling, what are you screaming about?" Her mother, whose name is Clarice by the way, asked with sudden interest within her gaze.
"DON''T YOU GUYS WATCH THE TV?! HE''S FROM-" Her father had enough."QUIET! Boys, keep your sister down." The two younger siblings eagerly pushed their overly-energetic sister back into her seat. I coughed into my right fist."Remember how I said I was from HZ42?... I''m the guy who killed those rakers."
Mr Faust blinked in surprise."Oh. Oh... Oh, I -... I understand." The mother seemed adamant on prying more information, but her husband turned towards her with a negative shake of his head."No, honey. Let the boy be, he''s been through too much."
"Lemme go, you little shits!" The girl rummaged through her entire attire and I let out a massive breath of relief once I realized she couldn''t find what she was looking for."Ah-fuck!... where the fuck is my phone!?"
"I took your phone and locked it away at home. The same goes for you, boys." The mother replied with an arrogant smirk and tone. I would have thanked this woman, but I don''t feel like it. Her personality is genuinely bad... then again, I am about to murder her entire family so maybe its just her motherly instinct acting up.
Anyways, I promptly ignore the family''s antics and decide to check out Mr Faust''s gear. The second I opened the blue box in question, my eyes went flying wide open."Is this... a kinetic, repeater shotgun?" Oh my.
Faust swallowed down hard and turned around to give me a pleading look. I shrugged and nodded, much to his wife''s curiosity."What? Is something wrong with my husbands gear?"
I blinked as I stared at her in a disbelieving manner."No, miss. Its just... unusual. Most people simply use rifles, but I don''t blame your husband for using a shotgun. You can never know what you''ll run into on this alien world." To explain: shotguns are illegal as hunting weapons.
Perfect for me. Looking back into the box, the guy seems to have a pair of gloves as well~.
"Alien? ... oh, greeeaaat, you''re a homeworlder too." Now she was rolling her eyes."Excuse me?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just stay the fuck away from our picnic." My jaw was wide but I didn''t reply."FUUUCK THAT! You''ve gotta come eat with us! Pleeeasse?!" The daughter exclaimed with a begging tone, directly mainly at her mother."Sorry, little lady, but I''ve got surveying to do."
She quieted down, seemingly in understanding."Um, okay but, will we see more of you?"
I blinked in confusion."Uh, what do you mean by that?"
"Will you be doing a collab with Foxymoon?!" I tilted my head, even more confused."... what?"
"I mean, you''re her b-boyfriend, right?!" Now, I was completely flabbergasted."... erm, no?"
"... but she commented on -ah, never mind! That mean''s you''re free, right?!" I shook my head in negative as she pointed towards herself suggestively, much to the chagrin of her younger brothers."No, thank you. I already have a woman in my life and I do not want or need more."
"Smart man..." Faust muttered out and nonchalantly blocked a few slaps from his wife with an arm."Awww... how boring." Thankfully, that seems to be the last we heard from the daughter.
And I decidedly kept my mouth shut, even with all the obviously excessive weaponry that Mr Faust carried around. Hmm.. for a hunter, even if there''s a thousand credits at stake, he seemed quite willing to throw away his zone. How very suspicious~...
"We''re here." The man in question suddenly exclaimed, waking me from a short but valuable trance. The hover-van landed fairly easily in a forested clearing. The trees around here were freshly cut down and remade into fashionable wooden furniture, perfect for a family picnic in a peaceful place far away from civilization. It seems these two decided that their kids were too much into technology.
Or well, the mother decided it. We all got out of the van without a problem and the man spent a few seconds addressing his children and wife before turning around towards me and blinking in surprise, panic and confusion."H-hey! You can''t bring that with you! The govs will have my head if you hunt with it!" He whispered with a tone of uncertainty.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
What I had in my hands was the very illegal shotgun from before. I turned towards the and smiled wickedly as I positioned the weapon to his chest."Good thing for you then, that I won''t be hunting with it~." With a sing along voice, I pulled the trigger.
Time seemed to slow down, much as it did when I fought the raker matriarch. His head burst into smithereens as his family''s faces immediately twisted with horror and despair. I felt my expression twisting alongside theirs as the blood covered the rich, blackened soil.
It seemed that the rain hasn''t stopped during the short time I was away.
The two boys both fell as they turned to run, their mother covering them with her body.
Not that it did much to help anyone, as my next shot blasted a hole through her entire back. And since she was kind enough to hug her boys tightly, their faces went alongside her own flesh. I began chuckling madly as I slowly approached the now silently screeching fangirl.
And laughed as I watched the yellow pool between her legs. Her mouth was agape, her eyes already blaring with grief. Suddenly, she turned her body and slammed a hand onto the ground, sending a patch of dirt directed at my eyes. Alas, even blinded, my shotgun was positioned towards her and I fired.
This did not kill her immediately, unlike her family. No, it filled the forests with a beautiful scream as her foot was separated from her right leg, an explosion of gore and blood that covered me further. Cleaning off the wet dirt took a while, enough time for her to reach for a stone.
She tried to pull it out, possibly hoping to throw that at me too. Alas..."Shouldn''t have skipped leg day, eh?" I laughed out loudly as I aimed directly at her head and wasted no time blowing it off.
The adrenaline died down as her life was extinguished and I felt myself suddenly... weakened.
Numb.
... in much the same way one feels after an incredible orgasm. The gun fell from my grasp and I took in a massive breath, enjoying the already forming stench of death to the fullest."Haa..." A deep exhale left my body and I felt even lighter, like a long-lost treasure had finally been returned.
The feeling...
Of murder.
Crimson, eldritch energies surged from the ground as the world seemed to lose all color once again.
Yet this time, only red remained.
Their blood covered everything.
The soil, the trees, the rocks.
The sun, the skies and clouds too.
Everything was red.
Everything was blood.
Everything was...
A sharp pain formed within my abdomen. It was.. a familiar kind of pain yet not one I experience frequently.
A pain I haven''t felt since I ran away from father and found some sense of stability in my life.
Hunger.
No..
Starvation.
Then the crimson coloration receded and left the world nearly colorless, only the corpses and the blood splatters on the ground were still red, still colored. I found myself staring at the girl''s broken body... her young flesh, her teenage meat.. it looked so..
Good.
So..
Delicious.
So... hungry...
With my right hand, I reached for her bleeding flesh, spurts of blood still leaping for the air from the shattered meat. And I found that my fingers were... long.
Her body was... within close reach.
I do not remember it being so close?
I blinked.
And the confusion devoured the haze that had consumed me, even if only for the briefest moments. There was a pond nearby, I could smell the water. My hunger forgotten, I rushed towards it and found the springs crystal clear. It gained coloration, almost as if I just remembered that water was supposed to be blue and not grey.
Another blink as I finally reached the pond. It seems... I have transformed.
My current body was around a meter and a half tall, given that I was hunched over. My legs had become like that of a lion, with the addition of deer-like hooves at the ends instead of paws or feet. My torso was grotesquely elongated, but humanoid nonetheless. My hands, stick like, with clawed fingers which seemed to be made for the exact purpose of slicing or impaling.
On my forehead was a set of deer-like antlers, protruding and twisting backwards. Upon each antler was rotted skin, showing the bone beneath, almost as if I was malnourished. My back, broad and muscled, was covered in mycellian fumaroles, almost volcanic-formations made out of white, deathly meat and bone.
My skin, if it could still be called that, was more akin to bark than anything else, as it formed a think barrier between my flesh and the outside. I felt smaller than I was... the bark-skin was dead, like hair, without a trace of blood rushing through.
And my face...
Appeared to be shaped like a caved-in human skull without any skin upon it, though it was covered in my bark, with the lower jaw seeming very much broken. Near my forehead were also four extra eyes, one of which was open now.
Three open eyes.... yet, my vision did not really change much. It seems, while open, the eye was still blind. I tried to open my mouth in order to see my tongue and found that my lower jaw could be dislocated and reformed at will, sort of like that of a feeding snake.
My tongue lashed outwards and struck against a tree, managing to slice it in half. Its uppermost part was covered in sticky slime, which nearly made me swallow a branch. Thankfully, I ripped the branch off of my own tongue before it could land inside. So I have a bladed, toad-like tongue?
Interesting.
Anyways, I assume this new form is your doing, Lu?
The ancient being merely chuckled at my question and replied seemingly in its own voice rather than my stolen one."No. This form... is of your own making. It seems that your profession has seeped into your very soul. And that hunger... hmm! Maybe, even if your power were born of my energy, it seems that you won''t be able to grow stronger in exactly the same way..."
"What do you mean?" I turned back around and ran towards the corpses I left behind, smashing the shotgun on my way there as I began to gleefully consume the remains of the Faust family. The taste of the flesh was... euphoric!"Us Dormient are able to gleam power from every murder, regardless of how that murder was committed. Naturally, the greater the sin, the greater the power that may be gleamed... but it seems that you are bound by a few... limitations."
I blinked in confusion and grumbled as the last of the corpses was gone, consumed entirely, even the clothes. My gaze wandered around the forest and I found them settling on a peculiar shade of red in the familiar shape of a ripstag...
A lone ripstag? Must have lost a fight against a rival and was exiled from his herd. What an unlucky day for this guy~. My charge toppled over a few trees as I rushed the poor animal and sent it flying into the air as my right arm punched its abdomen from below. I felt myself leap into the air after it, my jaw unhinging wide open.
The way my throat took on the shape of the ripstag as I swallowed it in its entirety was almost comical.
... the sound of its tearing bones and ripping flesh was not, but I took great joy in it nonetheless. Anyways, you were saying something about limitation, Lu?"Hmm, yes. It seems that you are only capable of consuming the essence of.. *worthy* kills. Meaning that weak prey will only feed your hunger, but not the need itself."
Huh.
That almost sounds like a vampire or werewolf. How werewolves can eat animals but they still have the risk of transforming and vampires must drain their victims dry or be left unsatisfied."WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THAT?!" A man screamed from a nearby bush as I turned my head around.
The world was still completely grey, but everything living was emblazoned red. I felt myself chuckle.
Only prey was visible to me now. How wonderful.
Looks like...
Its time to hunt.
kILl.
bUTCher.
mUrDER!
RAVAGE!
That''s it for this chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it!
And a special thank you to all those who have already reviewed and/or rated the story!!!!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. Alienothrophy
Lord Joyde The Madman: Hey, everyone! How have you all been?
Sure has been a long, long time.
A lot has happened. Too much to say in but a few short sentences, really.
At the very least, my life has finally become... stable, for now.
A few moments afterwards... - Lucius'' Point Of View...
Without another wasted moment or breath, I felt myself charge forward, the ripstag I just devoured already completely forgotten. My newest target however, appeared to be a large, robust and very much armed man.
Though, not exactly dressed in the same colors as our glorious governments army, but a shackled-together combination of black road leathers and combat belts."HOLY FUCKING SHI- SHOOT! Shoot! Damn you!" His body was quite robust indeed, not exactly completely muscled, nor something you''d call fat.
His head was clean shaven, which made his panicked expression all the more comical as the aforementioned head was blasted off of his body with a single strike of my right arm, the blood splattering the ground much like an artist''s brush dances across the canvas."GRHROOAAR!" A loud, unfamiliar sound ruptured through my throat and unto the world, waking the other twelve soldiers out of their stupor.
Eight of them started shooting, most with poor accuracy, while the other four were all the way in the back, one standing perfectly still, frozen in fear. The other three? They started to run.
...
I can feel my blood boiling.
Rushing.
Urging me..
TO CHASE AFTER THEM!
The bladed grass rustled and the leaves gave whimpers of horror as I rushed through the hail of bullets, not stopping even as something heavy tore through my right shoulder and left knee. With another surge of adrenaline, I felt myself leaping into the air towards one of the fleeing trio, completely passing by the frozen guy as I landed on top of my fleeing target, crushing his entire lower half into the dirt, my tongue immediately flying out of my mouth, intending on severing the next guy in two. To my surprise, the man seemed to sense this and, in one truly epic motion, shot the guy next to him with a pistol before throwing the body at my tongue, which was then promptly torn apart.
A moment of silence passes as the splendid coward and traitor continues to run, causing even the soldiers behind me stop shooting in shock.
Then my foot crushed the remainder of the one below me, eliciting a wondrous scream to echo through the forest. I turned around just in time to get shot in the eye, causing a surge of pain unlike any other to ravage my brain. It was then that I finally realized what exactly I was fighting. Every single one of these motherfuckers had a meter and a half long, blue rifle.
Anti-AI guns.
A brief flash of memory strikes my vision as I remember that this HZ was close to an android construction facility. In other words, these guys are anti-government saboteurs. The sound of another shot rang through my ears, thankfully it was also one that missed, which served to wake me from my stupor. A deep fear rose up from within me, the terror of a potential death.
My clawed hands trembled for a brief moment and I hesitated, part of me considered running away. However, running away now, getting some ground between myself and them.. would be a bad idea. Those rifles are incredibly inaccurate at short range, which is likely why I''ve even lived this long. And so, one eyed and bleeding from wounds I''ve yet to discover, I focused myself, sent my bladed tongue in an arc forwards and aimed in between two people, who artistically dodged the assault and allowed me to impale a third man through the chest.
Wasting no time, I charged forward, slicing off another soldier''s legs by the knees with a return of the tongue as I sent a full-body kick into the most armored man in the group, took his rifle and turned to throw it. Just as I launched the rifle at the soldier behind me, he also took his shot, his eyes filled with cruel intent and I watched in disbelief as the heavy bullet tore through the same form of weapon meant to fire it, eventually raking through one side of my throat."AARUUUUUUUGH!" Another howl echoed through the forest as I grit my teeth, panic taking over as I didn''t even bother checking out the damage he dealt to me. Instead, just as he leaped backwards in order to reload, I charged forward, extending my own mouth much like I did when consuming the ripstag.
"SHIT! SHIT SHIT! SH-*snap*" He wasn''t fast enough. And who can blame him? Those osmium bullets are likely heavier than six or even ten kilograms. As I devoured the man, I felt a surge of energy coursing through me which caused a forced chuckle to escape me. This one, was a worthy kill, but somehow, I also know, that the one who ran, would be worth so much more.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
On the notion of people fleeing me, the rest of the soldiers dropped their weapons and ran away as quickly as they could."RETREAT! SITE DELTA-1299! RETREAT!" For some reason, I couldn''t bring myself to give chase.
In fact, I promptly fell over as I finished my feast, surprisingly leaving only my enemies head and left leg intact. Suddenly, the grey and red world around me stopped blaring and had its colors slowly returning as I seemed to grow smaller and smaller. Ah, actually, I''m just transforming back into human form, ain''t I?
Immeasurable torment raked across my body, as my bones broke and flesh sundered itself, constricting the very muscle and organs within. I was left twitching and squealing in horror after the ordeal.
"OH COME ON! I will do so much worse to you if you don''t quit that ceaseless, infernal shrieking!" Lu''s voice intruded rudely, but I can''t say it wasn''t expected by now."E-easy for y-y-you to s-say, assh-hole!" With that said, I forced myself to stand up, checking myself for any wounds and thankfully finding none.
How could I check everything out so quickly, you might be asking? Well... it was pretty easy, honestly. Not much in the way of blockage when one is completely naked, after all."A-and no magical i-inventory to j-j-just pull my g-gear out of..." I groaned as I surveyed my surroundings, eventually settling on looting the corpses around me for some of the aforementioned gear.
One of which was my "worthy kill"''s Anti-AI Rifle."Sweet~. Bet this thing could poke a hole even in your tentacled ass eh, Lu?" The elder monster merely chuckles."Perhaps, but if you fired it at me, you would be lucky to live long enough to see the bullet reaching my flesh."
Well, there''s that too."U.. ugghh..." A soft voice caused me to blink as I quickly scanned around. Left, right, above, below, no directed offered any-"Uuuhmnn..." Ah.
The frozen-in-fear guy was still here. I felt myself sigh heavily as I pointed the rifle at his head."Welp, tough luck kid."
"You call him "kid", but as far as I understand, you are barely older than him." Lu''s laughter echoed through my skull as I grimaced."Shut the fuck up. You''re making it harder to aim."
With another sigh, I took the shot, splattering the kid''s brains out with a loud bang. Thing is, just as the kids brains went flying, so did my entire body, as the perhaps-obvious-recoil on this bloody thing was powerful enough to both rip off my right pointer finger and shatter my shoulder as the gun dug deep into it my flesh.
"U-rugh... god fucking dammit." Surprisingly, this didn''t hurt me at all. In fact, I could barely feel a twinge of pain, likely due to having every single pain receptor fried mere moments ago when I de-transformed. Ripping the weapon out of myself, I watched in wonder as my bones seemingly punched themselves back into place, my flesh having apparently gained the ability to regenerate."Interesting. You did not possess this power in your true form!"
Which explains why I was bleeding all over the damn place. Still, is this an evolution of some kind?"... or something you gained from the soldier you just are?" Lu''s thundering tone was equally amused as it was curious.
I guess that means he actually does not know.
Anyways, I quickly got back up and dressed myself with the cleanest bits of clothing from several of the men. Most of it was the same as they were wearing, armored road leathers, retro-biker style, but I gotta say that these combat boots were a damn fine fit. Might even keep them, once I clean them.
... or get my sister/wife to clean them for me~.
A blink.
Then another."Fuck."
I looked around myself and noticed how the place was already getting dark. In disbelief, I looked behind myself, where I had fallen after shooting that rifle only to confirm my suspicions: I hit my head on a rock."Bloody Hell... that felt like seconds!?"
"It was four hours. You''ve certainly gained regenerative properties, but there is a reason why you couldn''t really move while you watched your bones pop back into proper place." Well, at least I found out the easy way.
As I ran back towards the truck where I slaughtered and ate the Faust family, I noticed the broken-in-half Anti-AI Rifle which my monstrous form threw. The gun''s barrel was melted, likely by being shot and the entire thing was split in two across the chamber from falling onto a rock. Rifles this powerful, but also poorly made...
Yeah, I definitely just killed a bunch of rebels. Ughhh... all this makes me shiver when I think of getting shot by the modern, "real deal" versions of these guns. Either way, I picked up both pieces of the rifle and stored them in a black, military grade duffel bag I looted from one of the fallen. Why? Well, I''m a hunter.
I have this ... thing, for trophies, you see.
It kinda comes along with the profession, really.
... just like naming your weapons does, apparently.
One last look behind myself as I observed the scene of carnage made me laugh loudly as I found my way towards the Faust''s truck to find it still turned on, with the keys inside. Looking around, I quickly found the remainder of my own, pre-transformation clothing, alongside the rest of my gear, identification cards and other.. cards, as well.
Feeling like I''ve got nothing to lose, I also took the credit cards of the two parents I devoured, as well as their identification cards. Running it through the vehicle, I deleted all previous record of ownership on its built-in computer, turned on auto-drive and set the destination to back home.
Today''s been a very busy day, indeed~.
"Hey, Lucius... there''s this strange new emotion bubbling up from the inside of your skull. Its bright and blinding. Very annoying, too. What the hell is it?!" Well Lu, I''m not completely sure.
I felt myself smirk."That said, it just might be..."
My smirk turned into what could only be described as a savage grin."... Joy."
That''s it for this chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it!
And a special thank you to all those who have already reviewed and/or rated the story!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!
14. Abhorrence
Lord Joyde The Madman: Hey, everyone! How have you all been?
Yo!
Not much to say so here goes nothing!
A few hours later... - Lucius (and Rosemary''s) House - Lucius'' Point Of View...
Apart from a random tree falling directly onto the road in front of my self-driving truck, the drive back home was largely uneventful. In all honestly, even the tree itself may have been little more than Lu''s attempts at keeping me awake. Anyways, after stashing pretty much everything but my essentials and clothing back into the truck''s backseat safe, I was finally back home again.
A spree of laughter escaped me as I walked up the limestone steps towards a two story tall, teal-colored building which looked like a recently renovated house back from the nineteen nineties. Small, with an upturned V roof, supported by sturdy plastocrete walls and only two windows for the entire building. One for my room and one for the living room. The sound of a gigantic fan can be heard in the background, the outlet of more than six air conditioner units.
I felt myself sigh as I remembered their price.
Hmm... price... a blink and a few moments of stupor later, I lazily reached for my phone in order to check my bank account. The instant that the banking app came to life, several red warnings plopped into my screen, basically blasting the area around me in red almost as if the program had control over my android''s brightness level.
Honestly? Wouldn''t be surprised if it does. "... large sum... special payment... government tax exempt...?!" I felt my heart stop as I saw that my balance was, in fact, zero. I tried wiping the messages away, store them for later, but the giant red bar wouldn''t move from the screen. It forced me to read it, even had a return function whenever I tried to scroll down quickly.
Shaking my head, I noticed a flashing icon in the top left of my screen and absentmindedly tapped it. Much to my surprise, the hologram of a masked ... male, human?; creature, came into view. He, she, it, seemed unnaturally tall and slim, wearing a pointed, multicolored tuxedo and what seemed to be a golden joy-mask. The figure then saluted me and made a very familiar symbol with its gloved hands, by placing its left fist perfectly straight under its flat, right palm.
This caused me to blink. This symbol, you see, is used by government agents. Using it as a citizen is an offense punishable by death."Citizen E1-1996. Your killing of rebel forces has been observed via orbital satellite and you have thusly been promoted to the rank of agent, as well as applied as a potential recruit for the SOM Super soldier program, also known as PROJECT: Deus. You will be visited by another agent within five standard Eredean days who will collect a sample of your blood. A specialized vial has been delivered to your house and placed in a black suitcase which can only be opened by your retinal scan. Please endeavor to fill it by the time limit!"
The figure appeared to clear its throat as my mouth went agape."Furthermore, your preferred bank account has been wiped clean and fresh government funds have been sent to compensate your loss. Your new pin code is 11996. We have upgraded your credit card to OMNICARD-X status. That is all, central out."
"... What the fuck just happened?" An incessant laughter could be heard echoing through my skull."Your government works quick! They''ve already found you out. Truly, you humans have impressed me with your cruelty and efficiency in these past few hours." Strange gurgling followed after it as several booms tore my earlobes apart."Kkekekekekekek, to think they already managed to penetrate my outermost barriers! What lively prey have stumbled into my trap~."
"You.. certainly, seem, urgh.. pleased.." Unable to help myself, I vomited onto the grass at my side, just barely moving my phone out of the way as the disgusting projectile lashed onto the soil. Shaking myself out of my stupor, I wiped myself clean as best I could and then finally finished reading the government contract.
... Looks like I don''t even have the option to refuse.
Still, its only been a few hours since I slaughtered that group of rebels...
The speed at which this has been processed, the fact that they don''t give a shit about me being a monster...
Hell, if it wasn''t obvious that we live in a fabrication of society to me before, it certainly is now."Mmmh..." Cracking both my knuckles and my neck, I steadied myself as I watched what was previously a couple hundred credits twist into tens of thousands, perfectly ending in twenty five thousand credits. No more and, no less.
How, totally, definitely, not suspicious, at all~.
Anyways, it feels good to be part of the winning team. Pocketing everything back in, I finally walked inside of the house, the creaking wooden door giving away my arrival like a hyper bell-AI on steroids, despite the crackling of soup being cooked in the kitchen. What I saw in that particular kitchen however, made me close the door nigh instantly.
"Welcome home, big brother~." Rosemary''s voice echoed out in a singing tune, as she seemed to dance while cooking.
Dance, that is, while wearing nothing but an apron and headphones."Uhhmm... Yeah."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
She smiled knowingly as she put the headphones down and continued to shake her hips even without the apparent techno music ringing in her ears, which I could hear reverberating from her headphones all the way from the door."So how was the trip?"
I coughed rather lamely and quickly looked away, acting like some blushing schoolgirl, despite the fact that I was rather intimate with this same woman just a few hours prior."It went uh.. not so great, I guess?"
Rosemary appeared to blink in surprise."Eh? He didn''t sell you the zone?"
"He couldn''t sell it to me anyways." I laughed."The government owns the land. We hunters just rent out the rights to it."
She rolled her eyes."Oh come on, you know exactly what I meant!"
Throwing my essentials onto the table and subconsciously turning my head back around to stare at my twin sisters naked ass, despite my uncharacteristic surge of shame, I laughed and replied with a grin."Yeah, I guess I do." A large, but rather obviously fake sigh escaped me."His wife wasn''t happy about her husband taking a stranger along for their family picnic, so the guy just handed me his gun and told me to go explore. Now, I didn''t really like the place, too many rivers, way too slippery." I clicked my tongue, following one lie with a truth, just like an expert psychopath always should.
"Let me guess, you wanted to buy it despite the rivers but his wife didn''t even let you two finish any kinda deal~?" Rose retorted with a snort. I swear I could almost feel her eyes rolling as my own mouth twisted into a smirk."She wanted me to wait for their picnic to finish, somewhere where she couldn''t see me."
"So you waited a bit, got sick of it and came back home." My smirk turned into a grin."Actually, remember how I mentioned stuff being slippery? Well, I kinda lost my balance and hit my head on a rock, knocking myself out for a couple hours."
She went rigid for a few moments, then slowly turned around while blinking, allowing me a perfect view of her perky and very much erect, nipples, whose presence under the apron was incredibly enticing."Dude, bro, what?! Are you like, okay?"
Lamely rubbing the back of my head, I realized that the place where my skull joined itself with a rock was still bleeding."Yeah, I''m fine. Its just a scratch." A laugh and a shrug escaped me before I could stop them. Naturally, she wasn''t convinced and rushed towards me while simultaneously turning on the living room lights.
Then she stopped again, just as she looked at me under the light."What? Something wrong?"
"No, but what was wrong with the clothes I dressed you up with earlier today?" She seemed to pout for a moment but didn''t let me answer as she quickly checked out the behind of my head, moving hair aside as her surprisingly cold fingers trailed across my skin."Huh.. guess you weren''t joking. Still, that looks like its gonna scar... ehh? Ew."
Turning around, I managed to see her wiping some semi-dried across her apron, which served to further reveal the glistening skin beneath it. I swallowed down harshly which she caught and grinned."Oh, my~. What''s this? Was this evening not enough for you, dear brother?"
I shrugged and replied in a joking manner."Eh, to be fair, I usually masturbate at least two to four times a day." She blinked in surprise and disbelief, followed by a rather suggestive licking-of-the-lips. Within an instant and despite the apparently disgusting amount of dried blood in my hair, she coiled her arms around me and grinned while whispering in my ear."There''s a pleasurable solution to that problem, you know~?"
Her hands reached downwards and into my pants as I felt myself grinning. Without missing a beat, I already joined my lips to hers, softly exchanging heated breaths. Yet, perhaps predictably and before she even had a proper grasp over junior, my dear sister gagged."Augh-OAH-gr- what the fuc- *gurgling* OH MY HolY- blech-" She slapped her mouth shut as she straightened herself with the speed of lightning, apparently doing everything she can to prevent herself from vomiting.
I blinked. Oh yeah... might have been a good idea to wash my mouth before making out with my sister.
One of her hands basically threw itself to the side as she, quite angrily, pointed directly towards the bathroom. I raised my hands in defeat."Sorry, sorry... sorry.. I''ll make it up to you, promise!" With that, my sorry arse found itself sprinting towards the aforementioned bathroom quicker than I thought was plausible for a human body to move.
Rosemary''s Point Of View...
"URGH-Wh-*belch*" Unable to help myself, I rushed out of the house and fell hard on my knees as I emptied my stomach onto the ground."Holy-fucking shit!? What was that sti-..." A blink.
Then another.
Followed by so many more that I lost count, as the scenery in front of me finally manifested. The place I just vomited onto... was already stained.
As gross and disgusting as it was, I saw my own hand reaching into the bile plastering the grass... and pulled out a small, pearly white bone, one which held the unmistakable shape, of a human finger.
Dread and horror took hold over me as I slowly turned around and looked into the house. Thankfully, my brother wasn''t behind me right now, as the sound of rushing water soothed my mind.
I felt myself swallow down hard.
Lucius is a... cannibal?
...
In all honesty, I don''t know how long I had spent, absently staring back into the house, listening to the sound of rushing water, as I held someone''s half-processed finger in my hand. Eventually and thankfully before he found me like this, my brain managed to somehow wrap itself around the situation.
Actually, once the initial shock passed, I found myself eerily calm.
Almost as if... I''ve expected this.
I felt my body rise and attention turning to the side, almost as if guided by some alien mind, unknown and beyond my own control. I saw myself opening a small, red-colored tool shed and taking out a holo-shovel. Returning to the pile of bile, I quickly upturned the earth, burying everything I''ve seen and, perhaps even my own memories to a degree, into the soil.
By the time that my body finally felt as if it was under my control again, I was back in front of this pale, teal door, listening to the same water''s rush. I swallowed down hard and began to shiver as the cold, windy-air of the Eredean night finally caught up to my senses, its freezing touch forcing me back inside without too much thought.
Yet, as the door closed, I found myself reaching down across my apron, to the place where I wiped off the dried blood... taking some of that same blood onto my fingers again... and licking it.
...
...
...
I could only start to softly cry as reality hit me.
After all, I bit him just earlier today so, I quite fully remembered its taste.
Cold, harsh shivers ran up and down my spine, somehow managing to not be completely unpleasant."Big brother, ... this blood..." Hot tears streaked down my cheeks as thunder could be heard striking the ground somewhere outside as the wind howled louder."... it isn''t yours at all, is it?"
That''s all for this time, folks! Hope you''ve enjoyed it!
A special thank you to everyone who has rated this story!
You''re all wonderful and infinitely kind!
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15. Auto Dread
Lord Joyde The Madman: Hey, everyone! How have you all been?
Sorry for the missed "scheduled update". Bad work weeks are bad, but I managed to pull through!
Yay for me.
The following morning... - Road To Authoria - Lucius'' Point Of View...
The night went by without any further incidents, as I found myself cruising around in my newly pilfered auto-car, being driven across the road to Authoria. The city has been on fire lately, with news of rebel activity all around, a staggering increase in arrests related to drugs in one way or another and gangs of thugs and mafia alike, turning on each other for no apparent reason.
My own escapades with the raker pack did not go unnoticed, unsurprisingly not because one man managed to slaughter an entire pack of wild animals and heroically save a young woman no, but because that same person seemed to bleed heavily from the eyes and ears prior to the attack. "Haa..." I heard and felt myself sigh as the memory returned to me in full.
Can you imagine waking up to a call from your personal doctor, saying that you need to come get your health checked out because an entire horde of people stormed the hospital and demanded to see your health record. Alas, the one good ol'' Sammy could provide, was the one from a couple days ago when I woke up in the hospital. Apparently, this isn''t "recent enough", for the horde of absolute ingrates, so now I have to get driven around in my stolen van-type auto-car, wearing civilian clothing which is the only thing concealing a black, government omnicard, to the hospital, to get a check up, so someone else can feel "safe".
...
Another sigh escaped me, with even greater intensity, for the sole reason that I could understand. Hell, I likely even fueled the apparent threat when I said that it might be an aerosol. In hindsight, I should have kept my mouth shut. Taking a look around, I felt myself smile somewhat, at least my surroundings were pleasant.
Well, if you can call entire plantations of mushroom, pleasant. Palmorhea gigantea agrilux, to be specific; a purplish, spotted, glowing mushroom the size of an Earth palm tree. Why would people be farming these like apples, you might be asking? Well, to make a long story slightly less long, their flesh is edible, more than once!
... provided you cook it with high enough heat to neutralize the poison inside of the gills. These particular mushrooms hold a special place in my heart and its not just because they''re delicious, cheap, easy to grow, easy to cook; okay, you get the point. Thing is, back when I came to this planet, these fields were one of the first things I saw. Naturally, my childish, twelve-year old self couldn''t help but ask the kindly grandfather stranger-person about the pretty shrooms.
"Man, the face I made back then... *chuckles*." Imagine being told that the mushroom in front of your eyes grows a hard, coconut-shaped fruit that explodes when enough passive heat is gathered or when someone plays around with it for too long, covering the area in acid capable of dissolving iron-based material with ease.
Yeah, made me nearly break my own foot with the force I used to stop myself from kicking what looked like a white ball of shroom. I wonder how Old Feldman is doing these days? Haven''t seen him in a while. Anyways, back to the shrooms, while the explosive acid isn''t valuable as anything other than perhaps a weapon or for mining, if its "young" form is extracted from the stalk and drank, it works pretty much like any other delusion-inducing chemical you can expect.
Difference being that the acid in the fruits has been exposed to the sun and has gone bad or spoiled, whichever way you want to call it.
Me? I''ll just keep myself to the semi-edible gills, thank you.
"Hmmm..." Humming to myself as I continued enjoying the scenery, a small dirt path catches my eyes in between two of the plantations ahead of me. If I remember correctly, a guy that buys used auto-cars lives there, so perhaps he is someone I can use to my advantage. Which is to say, I want to "buy", my pilfered auto-car from him so that when the police runs me down, I at least won''t be suspected for car theft.
The console offered one of those slightly-too-loud clicking sounds as I changed the self-drive''s direction with a smirk. Well, the good doctor can deal with the crowd of understandably-paranoid people for a while longer, can''t he? Either way, I arrive at my destination without much ado, considering it was only a couple hundred meters away from where I set the destination.
"Oooh, that''s a fine lassie, she is!" A fat man wearing red overalls basically charged the car as I got out of it, he stood at about one eighty and was completely bald, despite being in his forties at the max. I felt an instant sense of annoyance from this guy, like I wanted to be as far away and deal with him as little as possible."Whot? New custamer? Well yer''s a bit too skinny fer ma taste, but creds are creds!" An incredibly incessant, annoying laughter echoed from his mouth.
Now I know why I don''t know this man."Yay."
My low-energy and highly disinterested tone caught his attention as he grimaced."Ay fukkers, yet one of ''em city types. Coulda sworn I''s seen ya drivin from the country si-" He went quiet.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Oh, thank the lord, golden silence.
What made him shut up, you might be asking? Well..."You know what this is, yes?"
Not only was he quiet, the man was now kneeling on all fours."Lyeon Robinson, at yet service, ser! Please, just... don''t hurt mah family.." Interesting response, but also very much expected, considering someone just showed a government omnicard in his face."Lyeon.." I tested his name on my lips for a moment, purely for drama, of course.
Then I remembered that I have a doctors appointment and that I do not actually hate the man behind the white mask."I''ll be clear; this van belonged to a rebel, who is now dead. I require it. You will first buy it from an "anonymous" seller, then sell it back to me. Do you understand?"
He feverishly nodded his head before looking up, somewhat confused."Aye but, hows am I to find this "annonimous" sellah?"
"I am already here. All you need to do, is prepare your method of transaction." Hearing him swallow was intensely amusing, as the man ran back into his house without so much as a word."That went well~."
In the meantime, I pressed a small button on the back of my omnicard and revealed a holo-screen with multiple functions present, all of which I imagine are very useful to all of the governments agents. The one I''m currently looking for however, is the "anonymous transaction" option, which basically makes it so nobody other than the government itself, can see when and where you purchased something. Thankfully, the options are set in alphabetical order, which means this one was easy to find.
Lyeon rushed out of his standard template home with an old card reader in hand, one which thankfully had the option of being powered by sunlight. He wiped the dust from it and quickly scribbled a receipt, taking whatever information he may have needed from the car itself, as I watched him do his work and planned to never again sit on the same part of the passenger seat.
Wordlessly, he approached me and extended the hand with the card reader. I thought to myself for a moment, then shrugged and promptly sold it to him for exactly one credit, causing the man to blink but say nothing as he finished the transaction, only to repeat the process as I returned my omnicard setting to normal behind the van.
"So Lyeon, how much would you sell this van to me for?" The man shivered and thought for a bit, actually giving the thing a look-over."F-front''s got bullet shapes etched into the plating... Tire''s are good, lights work, paint''s seen better days..."
He swallowed."It''ll go for twenty thousand, ser!" Oh wow, what an opportunist.
I found myself blinking and laughed before paying the man."Pleasure doing business with you, Robinson."
"L-l-likewise!... uhh..." And with that, I was gone.
Really didn''t feel like spending another second next to him, though I can''t really say why. Its not because he''s overweight, right? I mean, I was heavier than him just a few days ago... well, probably.
"Bwhahahahahahha!" Ah, good morning, Lu. I was wondering if the government managed to kill you overnight due to how silent you''ve been so far."They have not, but I admit, they''re putting up a good fight!"
So to what do I owe the pleasure of your voice this time?"You make it sound like you don''t like having a voice in your head, ha!" I would probably like it a lot more if that same voice didn''t sound like a drowning version of me."Kekek, you''re gonna have to deal with it. Anyways, I found the "other thing", that''s been plaguing your life."
This gave me pause as I reset the pathing on the van''s self-drive, trying hard to remember what he meant. The past few days were quite active, after all..."What do you mean, "past few days"? It was a mere thirty six hours ago when that thing attacked you through your own bathroom mirror!"
Oh, you mean that black, vampire-like shadow?"... what is a vampire? Never mind, I''ll just dig the information out of your skull later; this is important so listen well."
I shrugged and watched as the outline of the great city finally came into view. Towering, plasteel buildings and permacrete flooring as far as the eye can see, a true jungle of concrete, filled with monsters and men alike. I felt myself chuckling."I''m listening, Lu."
"First, I need to have some things confirmed. You humans have not yet found a way to achieve eternity, yes?" If by that you mean we haven''t found ways to make ourselves immortal, then yes, you are correct."Then I have found an anomaly of some kind. A strange, female type human..-oid.. pure white skin, deader than yours and unnatural, pale blue hair. Somehow animate even as her body is clinically dead. Her soul is composed of very specific essences, not unlike what I''d expect from one of my own kind. The carbon in her rotted, but somehow preserved flesh dates back to around seven of your human centuries, more than six times the approximate life-span you claimed your kind to possess."
So, an old lady vampire is playing around with my life?"Vampire... that word again, yet the information in your brain seems to be conflicted between fact and myth. Hmm, I''ll have to dig deeper... no, elsewhere." And with that, Lu''s presence vanishes from my mind as quickly as it came.
... why is this happening to me?
Why now?
What''s different from say, a couple months ago?
...
I felt myself sigh.
Shit does tend to hit the fan only after it accumulates and not a moment sooner. Subconsciously, I turned on my phone and began browsing the internet for any woman with the features described by Lu but found absolutely zero of them, which was strange in itself. Either this woman isn''t real or she is going very far to make herself that way.
An illusory creature, amidst a crowd of sheep. Hmm, perhaps my friends at the Abrahamic Church could help? No, if I went to them without proof, they''d just chalk it up to the delusions of a recently wounded man. Hey, what about that fang I punched out of that one vampire girls mouth? Maybe if I try getting it analyzed at some scientific institution, I''d grab the attention of some hidden groups who may or may not provide me with answers?
Would they even take the bait? These people are in the shadows for a reason, after all.
But, I threw that fang into the trash, didn''t I? Who knows, maybe I can get Rosemary to dig it out? Maybe, its not too late. And even if it is, well...
...
My vision goes red once more as a familiar hunger tears through my very being and I find myself licking my lips at the very thought of hunting vampires. A grin etches itself across my face, stretching from ear to ear."This is gonna be fun!"
Juuuuuust have to make a quick stop at the doctors beforehand, yes. I''m a good boy, after all~.
That''s it for now!
Hope you liked it!
I don''t have much time right now, so I''ll edit out the grammatical mistakes later, sorry and thank you for your understanding, as well as patience!
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!