by Noam Oswin
“I’m... what?”
“What you just said… about being killed from the inside… that was how I lost to Erzili.” Wunder stated. “I have never lost to anyone else before that. Never lost to anyone else after that. No one has ever thought about using such a method to defeat me… except Erzili, and now, you, Janus.”
It never occurred to me, that the thing I saw in their eyes was neither recognition nor apprehension, but admiration.
“You don’t seem too displeased that I figured out your weakness.”
“Why would I be?”
“I could use it to kill you.”
“Then so be it.”
So be it? “I don’t understand.”
“Janus, there are those who do their best to hide their weaknesses from the world, afraid that knowledge of it would bring them their downfall. And some proclaim their weaknesses to the world and ask individuals to challenge them despite it. If you always hide your weakness from the world, once it is discovered, it will be exploited and bring you to ruin. But if you bare it openly, have it tested time and time again – it stops being a weakness, and it becomes a strength.”
I could almost understand where he was coming from. Almost. A part of me wanted to scoff at it. Expose your weaknesses to the world and turn them to your strengths? It sounded easy, when he said it that way. Sounded simple. Things would not work out that simply in reality. Wunder and Arol were too trusting. Too forthright. Or was it, that as nightmares, they did not possess a sense of self-preservation as I did? They did not see the advantages of deception cunning? Had they not the common sense to hold a healthy suspicion about people?
I did not understand them. They were… confusing. I did not know how I would even begin to understand them. So, for now, I would not try. I kept my chin up, my gait steady, ensuring that my backup timeline was still safe that I could retreat to, and I aimed ahead – forward. The night sky of Alamir was still beautiful, and I had bigger concerns to worry about than understanding the psyche of nightmares.
Moving further into the fort, the sounds of cheering and chanting increased. Approaching, I got a glimpse of a large number of different creatures of varying shapes and sizes, all of them gathered around something, all of them cheering or chanting or making different series of noises in different tones, pitches, grunts and rallying cries. I could hear someone seemingly giving the byplay, the further I approached, the more I could hear the voice, inexplicably neither feminine nor masculine, speaking loudly.
“Aaaand look at that darlings! Onna almost wins easiiiily! My, my my my – I just love Onna’s determination. Isn’t she a darling? Oh – and there’s Hodag! Oh, oh, my my! Beautiful darling, beautiful! Hodag is still in this – Hodag is still here!”
The voice amplified itself with neither a microphone nor a speaker. Arol led, gesturing at me to follow her, and as I did, I sidestepped the large crowd, only able to get glimpses at the spectacle the associated group of monsters were watching. A large, thick World War I-esque trench dug deep into the earth, with enough space to easily be used as an Olympic swimming pool. Within the trench, I got glimpses of a young woman with pale blue skin and white frozen hair, ice dancing and spinning off her fingers, giant snowflakes shooting from her palms like shuriken soaring from the nimble fingers of assassins. The opponent, across from her, a pug-like creature the shape of a ball, tiny bat wings on its bag and a single eye shooting out concentrated blasts of energy, knocking away the ice and melting it simultaneously.
“The battle rages on my darlings! Hodag’s been trying his best, oh, look at that spin shot with his eye! Oh my my my, things might be a little too hot for Onna!”
Finding my expectations continuously shattered and my confusion continually growing, I followed Arol and Wunder, eventually noticing the odd looks and stares I started getting for my outfit and mask. Or perhaps it was because Arol and Wunder were still carrying the kobold corpses over their shoulders. I could not tell.
I was only confident about walking into the belly of the beast because of [Duality]. In my backup timeline, I was sitting patiently under a tree, never having bothered with activating Cuvar’s Monster Link, and thus, never having met Arol and Wunder. Despite the assurance that if I did die here, I’d be safe, I felt perturbed at the increasingly growing number of eyes that kept turning in my direction as I followed the duo.
“And darlings, we have a winner! Onna was pure beaaaauty! Hodag didn’t stand a chance against the beautiful Zyvar’s frostiest lieutenant! She’s a darliiing!”
We reached the source of the voice. Arol and Wunder dropped the dead kobolds flat in front of it, before bending to one knee.
“Leader Erzili, we’ve returned.”
“Celebrations! Erzili’s darliiings have returned! Oh, and it seems they’ve been rather naughty… we have ourselves, a guest!”
There were no words I could use to describe the creature in front of me. The closest would be to describe it as a shifting, amorphous slime. Yet, that was not correct. The shifting amorphous slime possessed long, equally morphing tendrils and tentacles expanding in different directions from it like a spider spitting web out of its legs in every direction. The slime, if it could even be called that, moved and reformed its color, changing from green and purple, to black and teal, to gold and orange. Semi-solid, semi-liquid, viscous, it was like a giant, oily amoeba.
Erzili
[Nightmare of Ten Thousand Forms]
[Elder One of Ecstasy]
[Commander of Fort Zyvar]
Elite Slithercreep
Level ?
“Welcome home, darlings.”
Chapter 7: Erzili
“Oh, my my my, there’s a guest, and Erzili is so terribly indecent. Give me a moment, darling.”
The slime morphed. Slowly, it took on the shape of a woman. A rich, voluptuous woman. Color began to fill in the blanks. Beautiful ebony skin that glowed underneath the sun’s ray with a sheen that would easily compare her to an African goddess. Her hair was the color of beach sand at sunset. Her eyes glowing like the moon’s reflection on a pond’s surface. Her lipstick was the color of blood. Her chest defied gravity with its size and a smooth, thin-waisted, thick-thighed body that many had no doubt died trying to achieve. A sensual, absolutely predatory grin shot towards me.
“Is this form to your taste darling?”
The desire to say yes would have been more prominent had I possessed a body capable of feeling sexual attraction. “No.”
“Oh?”
The gorgeous dark-skinned woman vanished, and was replaced with a man. Thick, with rippling muscles. Skin that shined as if freshly oiled, a freshly trimmed beard, a sharp, hungry gaze, and hanging from between his legs, a thick, bulging, erect cock that made a mockery of that of a horse.
“Perhaps you prefer this form?”
Despite the change of appearance, the voice was still distinctly impossible to place as male or female in pitch. There was something admittedly humorous about seeing a dark-skinned, ripped and hung man with such a soft-spoken voice. However, I was not going to be able to take any conversation seriously with that ridiculously sized thing between his legs hanging out without care.
“Or perhaps you prefer –”
The form changed again. Shrunk. Reduced until what was a smaller, flat-chested young woman appeared. I estimated the age to be about eleven or ten, and there was something fundamentally wrong with seeing such a hungry, predatory gaze on someone who looked like they could not spell puberty, yet alone experience it.
“If I must choose, I would select the first form,” I said dryly. “I typically prefer women above the age of consent.”
Erzili’s shrill voice laughed as it returned to the African goddess. “Age of consent? My, my darling! Erzili loves the sound darling! Erzili loves it! Age of consent. You absolutely must tell Erzili how you came up with that!”
My response was a casual, non-committal shrug. I could not begin explaining the nuance of how the concept of the age
of consent was created, nor did I possess any desire to do so. I noticed that neither Arol nor Wunder had risen from their one-knee down position, the duo both still motionless in what was a gesture of loyalty. Or was it subservience? Do nightmares have loyalty? I kept my gaze on Erzili and felt the burning envy and greed gnaw at my heart. Before me was someone capable of shapeshifting. Erzili could shapeshift. If I can get that ability –
“Rise my darlings. Rise, and tell Erzili how your search fared.”
Arol and Wunder stood, and I noticed there was a sharp difference in the way they carried themselves. Wunder had always been laidback, giving the air of an easy-going uncle, or the air of a person who put in a minimal amount of effort in anything he did. Arol, while possessing her moments of childishness that contrasted with her moments of dry wit, was also considerably relaxed to an extent.
Yet, as they stood before Erzili, they might as well have been completely different people. Wunder’s eyes were sharp, alert, and his body was straight and at attention. He carried with him a suddenly intimidating and militaristic air that had been completely absent in the few brief hours I had been his acquaintance.
Arol mimicked that air, though with far less nuance and precision. Most notably, her eyes were half-lidded, and her expression was stone-faced. The childishness I had come to associate with her vanishing like the poltergeist herself.
“We were unable to find the source of the power-spike Leader Erzili,” Arol said, completely toneless. “Upon searching the area, we did however encounter the skeleton standing before you. He is named Janus.”
“Oh?” Erzili’s eyes twinkled. “Wunder, I did not sense you use the Fort Pass to allow this skeleton in.”
“That is correct,” Wunder said. “This skeleton was able to enter the Fort and survive without the Fort Pass.”
Some numerous mutterings and whispers were growing, my ears barely able to pick up all the ‘unbelievable’ and ‘a skeleton could do it?’ that washed across the crowd of gathered nightmares. One hundred and fifty-six nightmares, as I remembered the voice at the gate saying.
“My, Erzili is impressed darling.” If her eyes were twinkling before, they had gone supernova now.
“That is not all, Leader Erzili,” Arol continued. “The skeleton is a soulborn who appears to have retained a large number of his precious memories. His Nightshaman is the esteemed Lord Mavros Cuvar.”
The crowd almost went wild with cheer. Excitement galore as the numerous noises and shouts encapsulated the entire Fort. ‘Another one!’ came the cries. ‘We’ve got another one!’
An unsettling sensation landed in my stomach at those cries as I locked my gaze with Erzili, feeling her piercing stare break through my mask as she looked at me appraisingly. “My, my, what a rare treat. I never knew Mavros darling to be so experimental. Especially considering his rather old age.”
The unasked question was directed at me and I knew it. “Yes, he is… almost rather worn out.”
“Four-hundred years will do that to anyone darling.”
“Time certainly flies.”
“Oh?” Erzili’s sharp eyes almost seemed to glow even sharper. “But Janus darling, isn’t Lord Mavros only just two-hundred and forty-nine? Surely, he must have regaled you with tales of his adventures, with his grand theories of the Ninefall and his experiences as a Black Elvani during the Anathema-War?”
My teeth opened, and then shut. “No,” I said. “All he ever talked to me about was his goal of creating the ultimate lifeform. He had an obnoxious laugh and tended to only be interested in his own greatness, so forgive me if I ended up tuning out a lot of his stories.”
Erzili’s eyes widened a small fraction. So small that I almost missed it. The tug on her lips was more overt, as was the soft laugh. “My, what a surprise darling. What a surprise. You have met Mavros.”
“Was that ever in doubt?”
“Darling, darling, any nightmare can claim to be named by anyone from Mavros Cuvar to Ymir the Younger, after perhaps hearing their names once or twice. But not everyone knows about their little quirks.”
Disregarding me, Erzili turned to Arol and Wunder. “It seems you darlings have brought back a truly special one this time. Although it is a shame that you were unable to find the source of that troubling power…” Erzili’s gaze landed on me slowly. “Erzili believes this is more than enough to make up for it.”
“There… is something else, Leader Erzili.” Arol began.
“The kobolds are making a move.” Wunder continued. “We have a small platoon of them approaching from the Masakh Mountain – we have reason to believe that they may be building their numbers for a Horde, and planning an invasion.”
Erzili waved her hand dismissively. “That old fool Ghash has always been such a bother darling. Erzili was content to ignore him and his brood, but if Ghash is building a Horde –”
“Leader Erzili, a word.”
The young woman I’d seen fighting down in the Ditch approached, the crowd rushing and stumbling over themselves to give her a wide berth. Those who failed to give the amount of space in time found themselves covered with a sharp biting of frost as the very earth upon which she walked freezing with every step she took. With snow-white hair and pale white skin, a cold visage that redefined the term icy, she was a person who simultaneously gave the air of being Snow White and being the Wicked Witch.
The silk white transparent gown she wore almost seemed made entirely of a thin sheet of ice, and I questioned, for the second time, how exactly one would look at someone with such features and call her a nightmare.
Onna
[Fort Zvyar Lieutenant]
[Blight of the Frostlands]
[The White Death]
Yuki-Onna
Lv. ?
She was cold. Freezing. The further she approached, the more I felt the temperature drop. Frost gathered on my gauntlets, locking them stiff. My cloak became rigid as if injected with a bucket full of starch. Arol, standing before Erzili, muttered some distasteful words underneath her breath as she shot blatantly unsubtle glares at the ice-laden being. Wunder’s face lit up, his expression one I had seen many a time-worn on the faces of self-proclaimed pick-up artists who had found their mark
“Is there a problem Onna-darling?”
Erzili seemed amused by Onna’s presence, amused even more so by the interruption. The White Death as my nightscripts said she was called, turned to me, pupils blue and glowing. For several seconds, she simply stared, as if searching for something. Then, coiling her nose in an expression of distaste, she returned her gaze to Erzili.
“Is it wise to discuss any strategies we shall devise in front of it?” she said coolly.
“It, has a name,” I responded. “And I could care less about whatever you want to do to the Kobolds.”
“Leader Erzili, forgive me, but a mosquito seemed to have buzzed in my ear. Would you mind if I were to remove it?”
“Onna,” Wunder spoke up. “I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this skeleton if I were you.”
“It is exactly for that reason that you are not me, Wunder. I know better than to stick my hand into the soil and present a worm to my queen.”
“Don’t call me that.”
The snarl escaped me before I could stop it. Onna’s nose scrunched in distaste. “What? A worm?”
The world started to go hazy. My teeth gnashed against each other with enough force to be audibly heard. Numerous pairs of eyes turned in my direction. My breathing was loud. Unsteady. I could hear Oblivion’s voice, softly, I didn’t turn you into a worm Janus. I could remember the sensation, crawling, on my stomach, across the earth.
“Call me that again, and I will kill you.”
“Janus…” Wunder warned.
Onna got up into my face. With frosty eyes and frosty smile, her lips opened. “Worm.”
I would later tell myself it was intentional. That I was fully aware of what I was doing once I heard the word for the third time. That I meant to
snarl like a beast, point my hand into Onna’s direction and fire off a rapid [Diamond Bullet].
The supersonic crack was all it took to send everyone into action. Wunder fired off a quill, intercepting my bullet and bouncing the two projectiles in different directions. Onna’s right hand outstretched and I found myself in a freezing blizzard. My passive skill [Body Temperature Regulation] sprung to life, doing its best to prevent my bones from becoming brittle glass from the obscene cold. My Iron Gauntlets froze over in seconds, too stiff to move and even stiffer to be able to flex my fingers. My body was locked in place, my Iron Brogues being no match for the cold. I was immobilized in a flash, the very armor I created to protect me becoming the very thing that entrapped me in place.
I channeled [Weak Acid Secretion] into my hands in an attempt to melt off the ice restricting my gauntlets, but the effect was too weak. Too slow. Onna’s ice was below freezing, almost as if I were being assaulted by an aerosol spray of liquid nitrogen.
[Warning!]
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Frozen]
You cannot move until [Frozen] is mitigated.
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Brittle]
Your odds of being instantly killed by a sufficient physical force is 100%.
“Enough Onna.”
The reprimand came from a nightmare that dwarfed most others in sheer height. Frozen as I was, it was hard not to miss the appearance of it. The freakish creature was thin, unbelievably so. Pale and slender, a long demonic tail trailed in the air behind it, an expressionless face followed and matched the elongated, noodle-thin arms that were disproportionately longer than its entire body. Its arms dragged on the ground as it moved, each step a slow, agonizing process where its head sloped behind its body as if it were too heavy to move in tandem with it. Stiletto-sharp fingers raked the earth as it advanced, and several other nightmares gave the creature a significantly large berth as it moved.
“He entered the Fort without Leader Erzili’s blessing and did not die. That alone makes him worthy of some respect.” Standing at nearly nine-feet tall, the creature’s head bent forward like a streetlamp. Empty white eyes locked itself on me. A smile appeared on a row of inexplicably sharp teeth.
