"What do you mean?" she asked, back into science mode.
"I didn't believe myself to be a grendel. I didn't want to believe it. Then my actions proved otherwise. Make no mistake: I am Eric Watley, but I'm not the same Eric Watley. The mutation changed me but only superficially. Just like Kallen said, my change from who I was before I came to this world was more fundamental than my mutation.”
He reverted to full human mode, except for the claws. Then he slitted his eyes but kept his voice at a human pitch.
“Like I said, my desire and my point of view remain the same; only seen through a new lens. Because I didn't accept this, I created a separate self—the grendel. I blamed all my new behavior on this 'creature inside of me' that never existed. In order to maintain my past identity, I created a new identity and lost control over my present actions. For how can I control myself if I do not believe myself to be myself? If I believe that ‘Evil Grendel’ is in control, then I am obviously not in control despite my efforts to control it; that is, myself.”
A third time, he changed his form, and this time, it was everything except his face. Given his metallic skin, it resembled armor. Instead of a monster hiding inside a human, this was a human wearing a monster’s hide.
“By accepting this change, seeing myself as 'Grendel,' I regained this control. My grendel is not a monster that raids mead halls, but a knight devoted to his lady."
Annala's checks, which had just then regained their normal color, suddenly turned red again.
"Stop that! We...we need to get out of here." She turned away. "If you didn't kill Gruffle, then he should still be around here somewhere. Get him and let's go!"
"As you wish."
Eric the Grendel made a gesture and said a few words. This called down the wind spell until it floated between himself and the bride. Then he dismissed it and held the troll in both hands.
“Start talking, troll.”
"It's about time! I was getting sick up there watching your nerd mating dance!"
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Why should I? There’s nothing you can do to me that you haven’t already done. If you kill me, I’ll become a reaper and kill you in return.”
Eric returned to the ruins of his body. Its chest was cut open, organs were chewed up, and all its limbs were broken. As soon as the head was reattached, the soul’s pilfered kon fixed the damages. Then Eric broke it again. More kon fixed it and Eric broke it a third time. Still more kon came; it was involuntary.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll talk! But I can’t tell you everything…I’m just a grunt, you know. They only tell me what’s necessary for the op. In fact, I doubt that I—”
Eric broke his right arm. Gruffle screamed.
“Eric, that’s enough,” Annala insisted.
He looked at her in confusion. “It’s working, isn’t it?”
“….Samael told me you caused a labor shortage for her organization and that was the reason she gave for wanting to contract me. After talking with your elf girl—”
Suddenly, Annala became acutely self-conscious of her outfit. The final words both terrified and delighted her, but the third emotion was despair. Eric, thinking only of the present, felt only delight. Gruffle rolled his eyes.
“I realized Nulso had arranged for Samael to get you out of his hair.” He continued explaining simply to change the subject. “Contract you, kill you, or keep you a monster; it didn’t matter to him as long as you couldn’t interfere with his plans.”
“To put an Order Subjugation Collar on me.”
“Self-centered bitch…this isn’t about you!”
Eric cuffed him on the head.
“It’s not. She just happens to be the daughter and honorary niece of Nulso’s ex business partners. She’s nothing but a tool in his revenge on them.”
“Why hasn’t Nulso arrived yet?”
“I don’t know! He was supposed to be here by now.”
“Then let’s leave before he does.”
The couple returned from whence they came with their prisoner. Since Eric had killed the opposition on his way up, there was no one to stop them on the way down. Nevertheless, they kept their guard up at all times. Eric marched in his full grendel form and Annala kept her bow drawn and charged. The bet wasn’t won until they left the grounds.
Few monsters bothered them and they were easily dispatched by the new Eric. His full grendel form tore them apart with ease and then he ate them. The other monsters feared him, but there was never any doubt in Annala’s mind that he remained her Eric. Thus, the pair walked out the door with minimum trouble. The biggest hurdle yet was waiting for them outside.
Nulso blocked the exit.
He wore the same clothes as always and they bore the same wrinkles. He hadn’t changed since the day Eric first met him months ago. In his hands, he carried a steel-corded leash with a metal collar written in ordercraft runes. He pulled it taut and Annala shuffled back. Eric blocked his sight of her and growled warningly.
“The girl cannot leave,” he said stoically. “Her treatment is not finished yet. I cannot discharge her.”
A magic circle appeared as Annala pulled her drawstring as far back as it would go. Its sigils flared and runes spun at a dizzying pace. Chaotic light shined as it drew on her Seed of Chaos. Flowing from her hair to her bow, it customized the arrow for ordercrafters.
“I’m checking myself out!”
The arrow soared toward Nulso's chest but slowed as it entered a cloud of spiritual and divine power. Gradually, it lost momentum and hung in the air, trapped. He plucked it from his field of force and tossed it back at Annala.
It lodged into her chest, making her wince. A bloody stain appeared around the shaft and quickly spread. Eric snarled and crouched for a sprint.
“Eric, wait!” She pulled the arrow out and tossed it aside. “I’m okay.”
“Of course she is,” Nulso sneered. “She’s immortal and you are not.”
“Shut up!” Annala shouted.
“I’m sorry I ruined your wedding dress. ‘Til death do you part’ indeed.”
Annala stood up and notched another arrow. “I said shut up!”
“By the way, how’s Aunt Triste doing? Still hallucinating?”
Annala loosed the arrow, but this time, it didn’t even leave the bow. Order tendrils emerged from the ground and grabbed it, along with Annala herself and Eric. It wrapped about their wrists and arms, pulling them behind their backs and binding them together.
“I’ve always wanted to say this, ahem, GET OVER HERE!”
The tendrils yanked the couple forward. Eric growled and struggled against the restraints but not only did he fail to free himself, they forced him into his human form. Every power he acquired in Ceiha was now shut down and useless. Annala knew she couldn’t break free, but resisted anyway. She called out to Lady Chaos, Progenitor Arin, and every single trickster, begging them for help but not one of them arrived. Both of them were soon at Nulso’s feet.
“Neither of you can stand against me because you lack faith. Your powers fail you because you do not fight a man but an instrument of Order’s Divine Will.”
He constricted Eric. “You owe Tasio your freedom and your current life style, yet you despise him for being who he is. How ungrateful.”
He constricted Annala. “You fear the very deity central to both your culture and your biology. You want her to stay away and yet you ask her for help? What hypocrisy!”
He buffeted them both with a wave of order-tainted spiritual power. “I, on the other hand, have accepted Lord Order as the rock of my life and he has empowered to deal with scoundrels and blasphemers like yourself.” He gave Annala a once over. “In fact, I can even do weddings.”
He clapped his hands together and solemnly declared, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this couple in temporary matrimony. The Cruelty of Chaos will one day rip them apart, but for now, they wish to be together.”
Annala shook her head.
“Stop it!”
“Eric Watley, do you swear to perpetually worry Annala over your mortality? To cause her nightmares over your inevitable fate, and to one day leave her alone and miserable?”
Eric glared up at him with madness in his eyes. “Go to the Abyss, Order drone!”
“Annala Enaz, do you swear to make Eric envious of your eternal health and beauty? To watch him grow frail and senile, and to spend eternity mourning him?”
Although her eyes shined with fresh tears, Annala too looked defiantly at him. “The Abyss is too good for you! Go jump in the Sea of Chaos!”
“Then, as the presiding official, I will present the ring.”
He dangled the Subjugation Collar between them. Annala gasped, realizing what he planned to do. She shook her head pleadingly. More tendrils sprang from Nulso’s aura and drilled into Eric’s head and chest. His will invaded Eric’s mind and spirit. Eric fought with all his might, but he was crushed beneath Nulso's power. Another ordercrafter would have been baffled and intimidated by the mixture of human hatred and monster savagery, but the man formerly known as Harry Butchin was well acquainted with both. Eric’s eyes clouded over and he became Nulso’s creature.
"Eric, fight him! Tasio —”
"Is not coming this time," Nulso said. "He cannot break the rules of this game or Samael will claim Eric's soul. Did you truly believe I would attempt this if he could still intervene?"
Eric lifted Annala’s veil and she continued pleading with him. He raised the collar to her neck and she squirmed in distress. The ordercraft runes glowed in anticipation of dominating her. Then, before Eric could secure it, she stepped forward and kissed him. His hand froze in surprise. Annala drew back, blood dripping from her mouth from where she bit her tongue.
“I may not have faith in Lady Chaos, but I certainly have faith in you! I believe you will keep your promise. If monsanity can’t turn you against me, then ordercraft can’t either. Wake up!”
Eric nodded. Removing the Subjugation Collar from her neck, he swung it like a flail at Nulso’s head. Since it was enchanted with ordercraft, it sailed through all his barriers and struck his head squarely. He collapsed like any other out-of-shape and middle-aged academic when beaned with a metallic object. Dropping the collar, Eric picked up Staff-Soiléir and cut through the tendrils restraining Annala.
His eyes were still clouded over and Nulso’s tendrils were still deep in his mind and spirit. Technically, he was still under ordercraft mind control, but his master had changed due to a vow he made long ago and confessed this very night.
“I thank you, my monstrous knight,” Annala said with a curtsy. “To reward your devotion, allow me to empower you further.”
She drew one more arrow, configured it on her bow, and then stabbed him with it. He roared as its energy flooded him. It was painful, but not how he remembered stab wounds. This was more like heat after a long period of cold. It felt like immunization. It resonated with the Chaos Tip. His enlightened Razor Spirit understood it. He bowed his head to his lady and then turned to the threat against her.
Nulso was just now standing up. The power of Order drew mana from the environment to aid his recovery, but he was still unsteady on his feet. Without preamble, Eric slashed from low to high to break his barrier. Stepping forward and changing hands, he slashed high to low and split open Nulso’s chest. Chambering his spear, he lunged forward and impaled the ordercrafter.
“You’re grown stronger...” he croaked out, “…but not strong enough!”
He repelled the boy with a burst of spirit power, then sent his order tendrils to occupy him while he himself recited a prayer.
“No soul escapes the All-Seeing Eye. No power exists beyond the All-Controlling-Hand. Resistance is Forlorn.”
A spirit pillar burst around Nulso and converted into the eldritch light of Order. Space distorted all around the couple and order constructs crawled out. They were surrounded by hands, claws, tendrils, and other forms. The aura retracted and fit around him like ghostly plate mail, the Armor of Stability.
It froze his injury in time. His eyes glowed a solid grey and radiated power. He reached out with a spear of his own, forged of his divinely enhanced spirit, and impaled Eric in his turn.
Past his barrier, past his grendel skill, and deep into his being it penetrated. Reaching into the far regions of the boy’s soul, it condemned the structure as chaotic. A system-wide subjugation was the only cure.
“Obey me! By the power of Order, I demand your compliance!”
Eric spat on Nulso’s face.
“Impossible…This is the power of Absolute Control…”
The Orderly Spear had encountered Annala’s immunization. It was a shifting mass of mana and chaos driven forward by a vow of love. Together with the order tendrils, it formed a firewall around Eric’s spirit. He executed one spear combo after another, chipping away at Nulso’s armor with every strike.
“One cannot serve two masters,” Annala said. “Nor is it lawful to poach someone else’s servant. You can’t control him anymore.”
Eric smashed into the chest plate dead center and punctured it just a little bit. His mouth was open to reveal his fangs and his eyes screamed madness. For just a second, Nulso felt the Universal Dread in those eyes. His resolve wavered, and his faith flat-lined. Thus his armor vanished and Eric ran him through. Then he lifted the ordercrafter and pile-drove him away from the exit.
“My lady! Now!”
Annala raced for the exit, voluminous skirts in one hand and Gruffle’s head in the other. The Death Killer bow was over her shoulder. Nulso threw constructs after her, but Eric slashed them and kicked him in the teeth. He wanted to rip Nulso apart, feast on his organs, and then shit on the corpse. Kill the threat! his instincts screamed. Instead, he followed his lady outside.
Nulso stood up and created another storm of constructs. Annala notched another arrow and inscribed another magic circle. Eric brandished his spear and chanted a spell. At the moment before they all attacked, a lightning bolt struck the ground between them. It became a noble lady with pale skin and a black gown.
"Thanks for the assist," Eric said.
"Don't thank me," Samael said. "I simply lost the wager."
"See!" Annala said. "She's a sociopath!"
Samael ignored the comment and turned to face Nulso. He was clearly upset at being upstaged by the reaper. With her usual serenity, she said, "Nulso, you have my sincerest condolences for your failure in capturing the elf girl."
"I'll capture you instead! Death is no match for Order!"
With a scream, he directed the constructs meant for the children against the death goddess. She pulled a scythe out of thin air composed of a mythril blade and orichalcum shaft. With it, she effortlessly destroyed them all. Then she vanished and reappeared behind him with the curved blade encircling his neck.
"Don't make me destroy you."
“I swear as an ordercrafter that they will be safe from me for ten local hours."
"Good. Now go away."
Samael returned to the couple and dismissed her weapon. Touching Annala’s forehead, she dispelled the starburst on Annala’s forehead.
"As promised, I shall drop the charges against you and forgive the elf girl's assault against me. However..." She pointed a gloved finger. "Mark my words, Eric Watley, there will be consequences for your inaction. Until I find a replacement for Reno Grade, the dead will not rest. All over this world, spirits will languish in isolation. In every nation, spirits will strike out. In every family, there will be someone who suffers the same pain as your elf girl. In every case, it will be your fault."
"Go away!" Annala shouted. "Or I'll stick you full of arrows again."
Samael curtsied and disappeared.
"What did she mean 'the same pain'?" Eric asked.
"It doesn't matter!" Annala said fiercely. There was no sweetness, just pain. "She was probably lying. One world fruit is too big for anyone to police; even one universe is too big."
<
br /> “I remember something like that, but it’s foggy. Hey, how about we celebrate by taking lunch at the library tomorrow?”
Annala smiled fondly. “There’s the Eric I remember.”
“So it’s a date?”
Her smile faded. “A date…?”
“I thought about you every day during my exile. I drew sketches of you because it was the next best thing to the real deal.” He took her hand in his own and kissed the back of her palm. “As far as I know, grendel live for a long time. I want to spend as much of it as I can with you.”
She jerked her hand away. Eric looked in confusion. Her nervous habit of ear tugging was now worrying rather than endearing.
“Sorry, Eric. I’m busy tomorrow.”
She dropped Gruffle’s head, turned around, and ran away.
Chapter 4 Grendel with Girl Trouble
Eric stood motionless in the street. He didn't notice the wind or the cold. Both his human memories and monster instincts were trying to make sense of what just happened. Neither of them understood it, and their confusion united in his demon mindset to leave him stunned.
Gruffle rolled himself towards a fallen monster, one of the wolf humanoids Annala killed. He stuck himself against its neck and willed his stolen kon to fix himself to it. It took a minute to figure out how to use his body and, at that point, he sat up. The grendel was still staring down the street where his bridal crush had run away.
Gruffle could have stabbed him through the heart with his new claws. The boy wasn’t likely to notice him, but if he did, then he himself might be killed for real. The boy no longer needed him alive and he would not hesitate to strike decisively. It was better to sneak away, steal more kon, and kill him later. Besides, Tasio was no doubt hovering over him at this very moment.
When he was safely several blocks away, he thought aloud, “It’s obvious that girl hurt him more than I ever could anyway. What a loser.” He snorted. “Now I can make my report to Her Majesty.”
“What report?” the wolf head asked.
“You’re sapient, huh? Then I’ve got a joke for you. I have to report the success of the mission she assigned. That bitch thinks this was her idea. She told me to put Eric through this gauntlet to ‘reinforce his sapient intelligence in a trial by fire,’ in order to, what was it, oh yes, ‘prove that even in the worst circumstances, the new demon will not relapse into monsanity.’ It was Lunas who set all this up, but with that choker on, she believes every word he says. She’ll believe she ordered me to attack the Summit too.”
Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) Page 14
