Vortena

by Neven Iliev

  “Haah, haah, haah!” she panted frantically. “What the shit was that?!”

  “That was just one of my master’s memories,” Xera’s ceiling-bound visage informed her. “Seems the associated trauma caused this particular scene to become somewhat repressed and garbled, but Boxxy remembered the pain pretty well, wouldn’t you say?”

  Her face turned positively melancholic as she continued to speak.

  “Ah, that was a terrible moment for me as well. To be separated from Master so unjustly, it was truly a horrifying experience. That was hardly the first or the last time it had to experience such agony, though. In fact, I think I should share some more with you. Here, how about… this one!”

  The lich was then forced through an extremely detailed recollection of Boxxy battling the fleshmaiden roughly two months ago. Intense pain reverberated through the room every time the yet-unnamed-mimic received a wound from the agile monster. The final Spell it threw at her using all of its MP carried such a feeling of exhaustion that it was impossible for Valeria’s projected self to even stand up.

  “That was a good fight, wasn’t it?” the succubus asked, as if narrating. “A pity that I couldn’t do more, but I like to think that I helped in my own way. I was pretty instrumental to this next one though!”

  Next came the memory of Boxxy holing up in the ground as the Calamity was going off in the distance. Xera perfectly relayed the feeling of the city-wide explosion washing over the creature right into Valeria, who could do little but gasp heavily under the strain. Even if it was merely remembered pain, it still felt all too real.

  “Oh, I know! How about this one! It’s recent so it’s still fresh!”

  The lich’s green face paled as she recognised the scene. It had taken place less than a day before – when Boxxy had carved out its own MLG. The pain that blasted through the unfortunate lich was so thorough, so devastating that she felt as though she were going to break apart.

  “Had enough yet, honey? I can re-play that one over and over as much as I want. Then again, they do say variety is the spice of life, so let’s get spicy, shall we!”

  The next painful memory was the one in which Boxxy had escaped from Edward’s grasp by cutting away at its own flesh to free itself from the restraints, forcing Valeria to once again experience its agony as though it were her own.

  “You… Haah, haah… You won’t stop me so easily!” Valeria insisted. “It doesn’t matter how many times you do that, you won’t succeed! Torment me all you want, but you still can’t force me out without a Priest ritual, and you know it!”

  “Force you out? That’s not what I’m doing here.”

  “… Huh?”

  “I’m merely having a bit of fun. You know what they say, torture exists solely for the torturer’s sake.”

  The succubus gave the lich a lecherous smile.

  “Besides, I get to feel Master’s painful memories too. Though not as intense as the real thing, they’re nevertheless quite… mmmmmm, exquisite!”

  “So what? You plan to keep distracting me until your master wakes up? That’s a pretty pathetic strategy you have there.”

  Xera’s indecent smirk became an unsettlingly evil grin.

  “You know I can just crush your phylactery at any given moment, right?”

  “As if! The thing is inside your master’s body! None of you lapdogs can dig it out without this fucking box’s permission! Not even that insufferable gnome-thing!”

  Valeria had been there when Fizzy had made the Pledge of Arms, and she felt quite certain that ripping open Boxxy’s body to retrieve the item in question would warrant some kind of ‘divine retribution.’

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong, honey,” Xera gloated. “Master doesn’t have your precious gilded egg. I do.”

  “Yeah right! Nice bluff! You think I wouldn’t notice if you were carrying around something like that?!”

  “I knew you would. Just like I knew you’d try something fishy during the Rank Up, which is why I made some arrangements. Here, let me show you.”

  The Mimic’s mindscape warped once more, this time into a scene inside the ruined hedge maze within the Spire of the Jade King, with Boxxy and Xera standing opposite each other.

  “Master, I think you should let me hang onto Nasty’s phylactery,” the latter stated.

  “Why?” the Mimic inquired.

  “It might break if you keep it inside your body while it’s undergoing such massive changes. We wouldn’t want that, right?”

  “That’s a good point. Here, take it.”

  Boxxy removed the gilded phylactery from its maw and handed it to Xera. However, she didn’t accept it, not right away.

  “Master, I will need your assistance in order to hide it from her. She might get some weird ideas if she sees me carrying it around.”

  “I see. Then the usual place?”

  “Yes, please!”

  Xera turned and knelt down on the ground, presenting her plump ass to the Mimic. Her versatile spaded tail shifted her lower garment aside to expose her nether regions and back door to the cool night air. Boxxy proceeded to roughly shove the phylactery into the succubus’s rear entrance. The demoness moaned and squealed with pleasure as her rectum distended to truly inhuman size in order to accommodate the egg-shaped object, which must have been at least ten centimetres wide.

  Valeria watched in abject horror as her soul’s vessel was used as an oversized butt-plug. The memory’s viewpoint was positioned such a way that she had a front row seat to the show, too. Once the last of the priceless object had disappeared somewhere inside Xera’s bowels, the succubus looked over her shoulder, her face twisted in pleasure.

  “Thanksh, Mashteeer!” she slurred. “You’re the beeeesht!”

  The scene faded away into blank grey nothing a few seconds later.

  “Do you understand now?” Xera spoke coldly. “Your ugly little soul is currently lodged firmly in my shit-chute. Right. Where. It. Be. Longs.”

  “You… sick, twisted, evil, conniving bitch!” Valeria flew into a rage.

  “Flattery will get you nowhere, honey. Or should I say, darling? Ah-hahahahaha!”

  The lich fell to her knees in defeat. Her little rebellion had been over before it had even begun.

  “In any event,” Xera continued, “I think I’ve had enough fun for now. I should really not disturb Master’s Rank Up any more. So, goodbye, Nasty thing. I’ll be sure to thoroughly wipe your pitiful existence from my memory.”

  Her face disappeared from the ceiling. A second later, Valeria felt a sharp, yet remote pain wash over her, as though her heart were being squeezed all the way on the other side of the world. Her projected self dissipated like a puff of smoke, leaving nothing behind and finally putting an end to the existence of Valeria Vortena.

  Boxxy’s mindscape remained entirely undisturbed by her passing. Its many cubes continued to idly slide in and out of the walls as though nothing had happened, their owner blissfully unaware of what had just transpired. Truthfully speaking, Valeria’s little coup had been doomed from the start, even without the succubus’s interference. The large golden building she had tried so hard to penetrate was in fact the very thing she had been looking for. If she had seen it from a distance, or maybe even a different angle, she might have understood how truly futile her efforts were.

  Because the only noticeable thing in the vapid, empty mindscape was a gigantic gilded treasure chest – the representation of Boxxy’s own sense of self-worth.

  Massive, solid, unflinching, pointlessly shiny and tightly closed off.

  Exactly what one would expect from a juvenile monster that would always put its own greed above everything else.

  Part Six

  “I’m back,” Fizzy yelled while walking into the shallow cave.

  “‘Sup squirt?” Kora greeted her. “Got a big one this time, huh?”

  The golem was dragging the body of an exceptionally large twin-tailed wolf by its broken neck, leaving a trail of
fresh blood behind her.

  “Yeah. Think this one was the alpha of the pack or something,” she said. “What’s Snack doing?”

  Boxxy’s other familiar was sitting next to the dormant chest several metres away at the rear of the cave. She stared intently at her slumbering master, keeping both hands on the chest’s lid.

  “She’s checking on the boss’s brains since she’s worried that that undead bitch might’ve left something nasty behind,” the fiend explained.

  “But she should be gone, right? We smashed the thing that held her rotten soul and everything.”

  Xera had evacuated the bitch’s phylactery from her bowels the instant Valeria had begun her pitiful attempt at possessing Boxxy. A succubus laying a golden egg was something neither Fizzy nor Kora had ever expected to see, yet would likely never forget. Once that particular spectacle had been over with, though, she’d hurried to her master’s aid with her Dreamweaver Skill. It didn’t violate the contract since, as she had stated, she was only following Boxxy’s somewhat ambiguous command to protect it.

  Still, the Mimic’s mindscape was completely different when it was fully unconscious as opposed to simply asleep. Xera hadn’t initially thought that there would be much going on inside, but even asleep the place was a turbulent, ever-changing maelstrom of fragmented thoughts and images. It was so disorienting that it had nearly made her ill, and she shuddered to think what it was like while Boxxy was awake. That was why the seemingly-unnatural calm she had seen when she’d rushed to her master’s aid had taken her by surprise, though it had made sense considering the Mimic’s condition.

  Unconscious was not quite the same as asleep, though it still made the subject more susceptible to magical mental interference.

  Xera was nevertheless thrilled to have had the opportunity to see her master’s inner self when it was completely at rest. Having toyed with countless people’s heads throughout her life, she couldn’t help but marvel at how impressively sturdy Boxxy’s chest-shaped ego was. Though at least some of that was due to its significant MNT score, the Attribute in question could merely amplify what was already there. Painful as they had been, the Mimic’s past experiences had tempered its force of will and sense of purpose to the point where its mental muscles were comparable to those of veteran adventurers.

  It was almost laughable that a weak-willed brat like Valeria had thought that she had a chance of possessing Boxxy. While one could say that Xera was just as unstable as Valeria, the former was also an immortal demon with a natural aptitude for mind magic. Compared to her, the lich was essentially a petulant child, but the undead wench had been even more inferior compared to Boxxy. Even at its most vulnerable, Valeria’s attempts at dominating the Mimic’s inactive consciousness had been so pitiful that it had been like watching an ant try to topple a castle.

  The would-be invader’s efforts had been so pathetically futile that Xera hadn’t been able to help toying with her. The fact that Valeria’s mental projection had been affected so strongly by the Mimic’s recollections had indicated that it was actually her will being dominated. All it had taken had been a gentle nudge on the succubus’s part to dredge up a few unpleasant memories and Boxxy’s subconscious had done the rest. And while Xera could have easily blocked those feelings out if she’d wanted, she just hadn’t wanted to.

  Even if it was only second-hand, experiencing her master’s pain was, in essence, a form of masturbation. Not that she would outright admit to indulging in such – mostly for fear that Boxxy would forbid it. As for Valeria, she could have easily seen the lich destroyed without even bothering to interact with her, but she hadn’t been able to pass up the rare opportunity to share her perversion with someone else.

  And eventually she’d grown bored, and had Kora smash Valeria’s phylactery to smithereens.

  “I even used Consecrate on the pieces for good measure,” Fizzy added.

  “I know, I was there,” Kora groaned in exasperation, “but the Slut-Tornado thinks a fragment of the bitch might have stuck to the boss’s mind and is interfering with the Rank Up. She’s just paranoid, if you ask me.”

  “Well, it has been almost five days. That’s considerably more than the two or three days she said it originally took.”

  “Just because the boss is taking a while doesn’t mean anything’s wrong. Maybe it’s totally normal.”

  Even the thick-headed fiend could recognise that growing from a lesser mimic into a greater one wouldn’t be nearly the same as changing into a completely different type of monster.

  “Hmm, maybe,” Fizzy conceded. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  The golem flexed her metallic muscles and tossed the dead wolf onto the pile of corpses near the entrance. This was Boxxy’s ‘breakfast,’ a tribute to the Hero of Chaos by its first loyal follower. Fizzy had heard that the Mimic had woken up absolutely ravenous the last time it had undergone a Rank Up, so she’d taken it upon herself to stockpile enough meat to satiate its needs.

  She had gone into the nearby woods and started pummelling every living thing that looked as though it might make a good meal for a hungry ex-mimic. Something which she could afford to do because the fiend and the succubus were more than enough to ward off any random monsters that the Sawblade Mountains might have thrown at them.

  That said, she had still made a point not to stray too far from ‘base’ just in case something serious went down, so her body count was not nearly as impressive as it could have been. Nevertheless, she might have gone a bit overboard dragging over thirty carcasses back to the cave… but she was getting Metal Golem Levels along the way, so there was really no reason to hold back.

  Unfortunately, it would seem that Kora didn’t share her point of view.

  “By the way, aren’t you gonna clean up some of the older bodies in there?” the fiend complained. “They’re starting to smell worse than a ghoul’s rotten asshole.”

  “Whaaaat? When did that happen?!” Fizzy responded in mock surprise.

  “It’s been three days! In the summer! Living things tend to rot under these conditions!”

  “Ah, something like that. I see, I see, so that’s how it is. Sounds really bothersome.”

  “Stop nodding to yourself and fucking do something about it!”

  “Why should I?” Fizzy shrugged. “This is a meatbag problem, it has nothing to do with me.”

  “Well, I’d love to do something but I can’t carry them far enough away from the cave because I have to stand by the boss’s side!”

  “Still failing to see how this is any of my concern.”

  “Why you little-!”

  “Will you two stop flirting?!” Xera shouted.

  “Who the fuck is flirting?!” the other two answered in unison.

  “Just shut up and get over here! I think Master is waking up!”

  Kora and Fizzy immediately stopped their bickering and dashed over to see what Xera was on about. Looking at the state of the wooden chest made the ex-gnome realise why the succubus had suddenly grown so worried. Though it had looked fine when she’d left for her hunting trip about an hour ago, the Mimic’s chest-shaped shell had become thoroughly… rotten, for lack of a better word. The polished wood-like surface had grown splintery and pitch-black, and looked as though it would crumble apart at the lightest touch. It was almost as if the creature had contracted some kind of flesh-eating disease even nastier than the Blight.

  A series of loud snapping noises came from the frayed wooden chest. Xera jerked back in surprise, backing warily away from the monster. The rotting faux-wood surface suddenly fell apart and collapsed into a ring of formless, dead flesh.

  Inside was a small blob of viscous, pitch-black jelly. A pair of round yellow eyes stared up from its surface, reflecting the sparse light pouring in from outside. The reflective amber orbs darted wildly between Xera, Kora and Fizzy, seemingly at random.

  “… Master?”

  The monster stared back at the succubus maliciously, like a preda
tor sizing up its next meal. Its yellow eyes shifted again before it could pounce, this time settling on the corpse pile that Fizzy had prepared. A few tense moments later, the glob of slime exploded as something smaller than even Fizzy leapt out and buried itself into the mountain of decaying flesh.

  *HROMP CRUMP HRUMF MUNCH SQUISH*

  An orchestra of thoroughly disgusting noises came from the massive mound of flesh, bone and fur, which was rapidly decreasing in volume with each stomach-churning verse.

  “Holy shit! Look at it go!”

  Kora cheered at the carnage unfolding before her. Boxxy’s feeding frenzy had proven much more violent than she’d thought it would be. Then again, this was the first time that she’d seen her master turn borderline feral from hunger.

  Fizzy, on the other hand, was struck speechless. She had honestly expected the meat she’d gathered to last a few days, at the very least, yet the rate at which it was disappearing made her doubt whether it would even be enough for ‘breakfast.’

  “Masteeer! This is so not fair!” Xera whined. “You should’ve eaten me first!”

  A trio of dark-coloured tendrils shot out from somewhere deep within the pile of mangled bodies, wrapped around the succubus and pulled her straight into the bloodied mess. Her screams lasted for only a few seconds before she went completely silent.

  “Hey, Kora? Was that okay?” Fizzy asked.

  “Well… I mean she got what she wanted… So, it’s probably fine?”

  “I thought Boxxy couldn’t get nutrition from you guys.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Doesn’t mean it can’t use us as seasoning, though. I doubt that rotten meat tastes very good.”

  “I see…”

  “By the way, did you get a good look at what the boss looked like?”

  Fizzy shook her head.

  “Not really. It zoomed right past my head before I even realised. I couldn’t track it with my eyes at all.”