Deathcreator Book One: A Flesh Golem's Ascension

by John Domus Cruo

  I made my way back. I didn't want to just barge into the tents killing everyone. That female scream from earlier seemed to hint that not everyone here was a soldier.

  Bob was doing something unspeakable to the headless corpse of a fairly large soldier. I would leave him to it.

  I approached the tent I had heard the screams coming from earlier.

  There was only one small blob in this tent. I opened the flap as the smell of filth overwhelmed me. I saw a small limbless girl tied to a bed by a rope on her neck. She had to have been in her early teens. Her face was badly swollen, blood leaked from one eye socket while her other one was swollen shut. I walked over to her and gently moved the hair off her face. She tried to move her head quickly fleeing my touch. I continued to stroke her soft brown hair as I fought to keep the rage buried inside myself.

  I felt the elder god calling out to me. It was giving me a feeling like are we ready to consume this world yet?

  She eventually began to accept my touch as her breathing quietened down. I was doing this just as much for myself as for her. It calmed me down as I could feel something unstoppable building inside myself.

  I thought she isn't that different from Lina. What if this was one my my girls cut limbless and used.

  "I've killed them all." I said gently to her.

  She tried to say something through her broken teeth but I noticed she had no tongue.

  "No one will ever do this to you again. I'll fix it, now rest." I exhaled my sleeping fog over her and she drifted off to sleep.

  I tore out of the tent in a rage. They got off too easy! I had simply killed most of them outright. That was a grievous error on my part. They needed to suffer. I, needed them to suffer.

  I felt something warm dripping onto my chest. I reached my hand up. It was more of that black oily liquid.

  A power surged within me. I felt a cold embrace as something began soothing my soul. It seemed to say if anything ever happens that you can't bear I'll make it all disappear.

  I looked around madly searching for Thads. If he was already dead I would bring him back. He would pay. Then I would consume him.

  I ran to the next tent that contained a blob. There was a big man with blood stained pants cowering in the corner.

  I rushed forward grabbing him by his shoulders. I used my strength along with fleshcrafting to tear his arms from his body.

  I grabbed him by the throat and dragged him kicking and screaming to the young girl's tent.

  "Did you take part in this?" I yelled as I used all my will to stop myself from killing him then and there.

  "I, I.. I." He stammered.

  I dragged him over next to the still sleeping girl. I exhaled more fog over her face. She didn't need to be awake for what was to come next.

  I activated fleshcrafting.

  The man shrieked in a high pitched voice for his size as I removed bone, flesh and tendons to rebuild the girl. He had a few heart attacks and at one point decided to bite off his own tongue, but each time I restarted his heart. I left him there, only a torso remaining as I went to retrieve his arms. I added them to the girl and sized them proportionately.

  I imparted all skills and abilities to her condensing the muscle and bone around her giving her unusual strength and resilience. As a last step I restored her maiden head and added internal teeth. This should all be like a nightmare to her. She now had one brown eye and one blue eye however. I could change them both, but I wanted this bastard to see his own eye staring back at him when she woke up.

  I used blend to finish the process. She now had a shape like any other girl her age. I picked up some of the furs she was laying on and covered her up. I untied the rope and I dragged this stumpless excuse for man out side. Though can I still call him a man now that I removed his pride?

  "Bob, a present for you, don't kill him however. He will still have a long day ahead of him tomorrow. Then an eternity as a torch" I didn't hide the anger in my voice.

  "Boss, you can't mean to do that to him? You have no idea what it's like. You just burn there as you lose parts of yourself." Bob said in an almost pleading voice.

  "They had a young girl chopped limbless and tied to a bed in that tent. She was laying in blood and feces. Thads was raping her as we approached and this guy also took his turn." I said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  "Why don't you describe to him what being a torch was like while you have your fun. Who knows it might make him tense up more." I told Bob as I walked to the next tent with life.

  Bob seemed to smile as he dragged the man off.

  I found three more cowards between all the remaining tents.

  I took each one to the girl verifying their guilt before stripping them limbless part by part and handing them off to Bob.

  As morning approached Bob and I gathered up all the bodies lining them up in neat rows and part groupings. I looked for Thad but I didn't see him among the dead. I would find him at some point though. I felt an echoing sentiment from the elder god inside me. When I do, he'll be my personal torch.

  I used soul steal on all the bodies, then on the bodies in the stinking pit.

  The pulling feeling finally subsided.

  I returned to the young girl's tent. I sat on her bed and resumed stroking her soft brown hair.

  "Fa.. ther.." She said as she leaned her head into my hand. The warm black liquid once again ran down my face as I suppressed my rage.

  I closed my eyes and opened the soul screen, I needed to focus on something else.

  I now had 55 souls.

  I imediately converted the sha'dwarg into mana but I was still saving the windigo for a mana emergency.

  My mana pool was now 10,088/10,088

  I sorted through my remaining 54 souls.

  There were 14 souls of a petty criminal

  8 souls of a trained infantryman.

  5 souls of a cutthroat.

  7 souls of a trained archer

  3 souls of a poacher

  3 souls of Garanthi sympathisers

  4 souls of a tortured goblin

  5 souls of a tortured villager

  At seeing the last groupings I can tell I'll have my work cut out for me tomorrow. When I'm done this place will glow like a green flamed sun with guilty heads.

  1 soul of Lenny

  1 soul of a Garanthi General

  1 soul of a crestfallen coachman

  1 soul of a devoted follower

  1 soul of the windigo

  I began stripping the petty criminals of their skills gaining.

  Skills:

  Pickpocket: level 3

  Target spotting: level 2

  Knifework: Level 2

  Social engineering level 1

  From the trained infantrymen I gained.

  Swordsmanship: level 5

  Shieldwork: level 4

  Spearmanship: level 3

  Military tactics: level 3

  The cutthroats got me.

  Stealth awareness: Level 2

  Backstab: Level 3

  Ambush: Level 3

  Daggerwork: Level 4

  I already had hide and stalk so those just went up one level.

  The archers just leveled up my archery to level 5, Military Tactics to level 4 and Ambush to level 4.

  The poachers leveled my archery to level 6, hunting level 4 and granted two skills.

  Tracking: level 3

  Traps: level 2

  None had magic.

  I left the souls from Garanthi sympothysers down alone. I didn't know enough about this world yet to know if they were friends or foes. I only knew they came from the pit.

  I opened my eyes. The girl was still asleep. I brought in the slabbering torso's that had been the survivors. I had to fleshcraft a few as they were bleeding copious amounts from their nethers. It was apparent that Bob had made additional holes once he got tired of the normal ones. I fleshcrafted their lips together. God help them if they disturbed her sleep. I laid them in a neat row by the far
wall.

  I closed my eyes again and began to conduct interviews with the petty criminals.

  Most of them just cowered, a few screamed, some just hurled cocky insults at me until I informed them of their death and what was in store for them next.

  Yeah, that lot is guilty.

  The infantrymen were harder to crack. Quite a few of them just stared at me stone faced until I opened one eye to show them the girl then a few of them even broke down in tears saying they never wanted to do it, but they were ordered. One of them I recognized as the last one I had killed in that shield wall formation just screamed when he saw me. He yelled it was all that Thads bastard's fault.

  They were still guilty. Everyone has a choice, even if the alternative is death. They could have made a stand. Given the number of tortured souls I had I knew that they had several chances to stop this. But they didn't, and so they are guilty.

  The cutthroats weren't any different then the petty criminals, I hope they enjoy what's coming to them.

  The trained archers were like the infantrymen. One just kept repeating his name and rank.

  It's sad, but they are guilty.

  The poachers were the most normal of them, but they still admitted with shame in their eyes what they had done.

  I spoke with the Garanthi sympathizers. They spoke Therossian with slight accents.

  They expressed a deep shame and dishonor for what they had done. They informed me of a plan that they were working on to kill Thads and his group to try and stop it. When I told them of what was to become of them they just nodded their heads saying it was a fitting punishment for them.

  They were guilty, but they were trying to stop it.

  I offered them a chance. I would erase their memories and use them as soldiers once more. two of them agreed but the last one just shook his head. He told me he deserved to burn, his honor wouldn't let him accept anything else.

  These guys weren't bad, but they had done bad things. I would erase the memories of the one who opted to burn and keep him as a soldier in a new flesh construct. The other two were going to be mana.

  I spoke to the goblins. After what happened with Leera, Lina and their son from a previous life, I now knew that goblins weren't soulless fodder. They had feelings. They cared for their families just like a human. They bled, they felt pain and they could even laugh like anyone else.

  They were yelling and begging. One older looking goblin readily hugged two smaller ones with spectral tears streaming down his face.

  He looked up at me and spoke. "They kill us! They make me watch! They kill my little gobs, roast them. They make me see it!"

  I could feel the black ooz flowing once more as if something was threatening to burst out from me.

  I told them I would show them a beautiful sight soon, then I would make them new bodies, even better than their old ones and guide them home. The goblin that was off to the side joined in their hug and I nodded to them as I closed out of the screen.

  I hesitated for a moment, I needed to get myself together for this next group I couldn't greet them like this. I took a few deep breaths.

  I opened the screen with the five tortured villagers.

  They were all young limbless girls. None of them could speak as none of them had tongues.

  By now I knew enough about how souls appeared to know that they manifest in the last the physical state they most remember being in. These girls had probably been kept in this state for a while. Long enough to make them feel that this was their true form.

  Most of them were crying and one of them was making gurgling noises as if trying to talk.

  I turned my head over to the torsos and opened my eyes. I then turned my head back to the intact sleeping girl.

  Most of them began to smile slightly. The gurgling one managed something that sounded like thank you.

  I told them what I would be doing with the rest of their captors and they seemed at peace.

  I will give them new bodies. I won't let this mangled form be their last memory.

  I thought about trying to convert their memories into mana as I had done for Bob, but I could only go from the beginning not in reverse and I wanted them to remember their happy childhoods and their families.

  I could still feel the warm liquid dripping from my eyes.

  I felt a soft hand on my face. I opened my eyes.

  The young girl was wiping my face.

  "Don't cry." She said as she looked up at me with a small smile.

  How can she possibly smile? My lip quivered as I looked down at her. She sat up and hugged me. As I sobbed into her shoulder, she hugged me tighter. Where does she find the strength. Even someone like me is reduced to a blubbering idiot by all this cruelty and she experienced it first hand.

  I pulled myself away while using the calming effect. I saw the black liquid fading into her body as her skin color turned a slight grey where it had touched her.

  "It doesn't hurt now." She said as she examined her hands.

  All I could do was nod.

  She looked over at the torso collection at the far wall.

  "Did you do this?" She said in a small happy voice.

  I nodded again.

  "I prayed a lot in the past week. First I prayed for money so my family could eat. Then I prayed for my sister's happiness when she left to marry the Duke's son." She stopped for a moment a tear formed at the corner of her eye.

  "When the money didn't come and the coachman didn't return my family prayed that my sister would be happy in Therossa's garden. Then they sent me to marry the Duke's son." The tears were now flowing freely from her small face as she continued. "I was a little too young but they told me to say I was older. When I got here.."

  I pulled her into my arms and let her cry into my chest as she continued her story in a muffled voice. "When I got here, Therossa stopped listening. The blonde one told me I looked allot like another girl they had, just a while ago. I thought about my sister going through this. Then, earlier today, I prayed to something else. Something more evil then them. I wanted it to come and show them how it felt."

  She looked up at me as I held her shaking body. "You came." She was now sobbing again as I felt my tears flowing as well.

  That pulling sensation I can only guess was prayer. People calling the dark god inside of myself. If I had only came sooner I could have saved more of these girls, at least one more.

  Maybe I still can. I have their souls. I just have to take the next step.

  "I'm here, I'll always be here. Until the world ends." I said as I held her close for a while, until her crying lessened.

  "I have so much more to do yet. These ones here are only the survivors. They will all burn, long after today. I will make this place a monument to their suffering. Not even the dead will escape this." I said as I once again stroked her long brown hair.

  I spoke softly to her. "When this is done, I will take you back to your family, you can forget this part of your life."

  She pushed away from me. "My family is just as guilty for this as they are!" She said as she gestured to the torsos.

  "They knew! They still sent me anyway!" She collapsed back into me mumbling as she continued. "...and my sister, they knew then as well, my mother wouldn't stop crying."

  I rested my cheek on the top of her head as I let her cry.

  "If you send me back, they will just send me out again." She said as took deep shuddering breaths.

  "Then I won't send you back. But someday we will need to go to your village. We have to stop this from happening anymore." I replied while I laid her down and covered her back up. She reached her hand out and held mine.

  I breathed some more of the sleeping fog on her. Sleep will bring her the comfort that I can't.

  I could feel her still gripping my hand in her sleep as if taking solace in the fact that I was still here.

  Chapter 26: Devotion and Recompense - John

  I closed my eyes again. Now that I knew what had called me here I knew wh
at I was likely to find when I clicked on soul of a devoted follower.

  It was another young limbless girl. She had hair like the girl that was holding my hand, long, wavy and brown.

  She was different, she wasn't crying. She had a pure look of defiant hatred in her eye.

  I opened my eyes showing her the sleeping girl holding my hand, then I got up to show her the cowering, sobbing torsos as they writhed and squirmed in my gaze.

  I then sat back down and took the young girl's hand once more before closing my eyes again.

  Her eye now shown with a tender expression as ethereal tears cut long streaks down her face. She gave me a broken toothed smile.

  "Try to remember what you used to look like." I told her.

  She closed her eye as aother tear ran down her face.

  Slowly she regained her arms, followed by her legs. She opened both her eyes as she looked warmly at me.

  "Thank you! You finally came for me." She spoke as she approached me in spectral form. I could almost feel her as she embraced me.

  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude coming from her soul as it burned brighter.

  "You even saved my sister." She said as she lifted up her head to look at me. She was beaming from ear to ear. It was the second most beautiful smile I had ever seen.

  "As agreed, I am yours. Please take every bit of me. Being a part of you is my only wish." She spoke as she again pulled herself into me.

  My elder god side surged with a warm feeling as if welcoming her. I could see something in her eyes, a true depth. I could feel our souls merging as we embraced. She was speaking the truth. She was mine now, for better or worse.

  I had to speak before this went on too long. "I'm not done yet with my side of things. I'm still missing one."

  "You've saved my sister, even if that was all you did, it's enough. You may eat me, consume me or send me to the abyss, but I will still be yours." She said.

  I couldn't let her do this. "I still need to get Thads. I won't accept your offer until then."

  Her face contorted in rage. "Thads." She hissed through clenched teeth as she moved away from me.

  "In the mean time I can make you a new body and you can take care of your sister." I said in a sympathetic tone.