“Is this the fucking slimehead that ate us?”
“Of course it is. You remember those tentacles.”
A knee sank into Arcen’s gut before he could speak a word. He got punched, kicked and beaten with the handle of a weapon within seconds. He rolled on the floor, covering his head with his arms as four people beat the hell out of him.
Gareth tried to stop them, but he got punched in the face. The beatdown continued until they got tired. They stomped on his tentacles, kicked his face with their heels and beat him until he was coughing blood. Everything hurt, but Arcen was glad for his mutation. This beating would’ve killed him if he was a regular human.
As he lay dazed from the beating, trying to find which way was up or down, A woman emerged from the crowd of assailants. She knelt before him. She had braided hair, a pair of sharp green reptilian eyes and fangs that sat over her lower lip. She raised his face by the chin as if she was checking for injuries. Arcen stared at her with one bruised eye, begging with his eyes.
She slapped him hard across the face.
“That’s him alright. Used to be much larger when he ate me,” She said, turning towards Morgav.
“Ah. What a nice find. He lied to my face about his Aura too.”
Shit! It’s all fucked now!
Arcen had quickly activated the Fabricate Weakness as soon as his Detonate failed on Morgav.
“Tentie fuck! I’m gonna break this motherfucker in half!” A man behind her yelled, stomping hard on Arcen’s leg. There was a crack and his knee bent the wrong way after that. The pain didn’t even get time to register as the man hopped on his stomach and started throwing punches at Arcen’s chest.
“That’s enough, Leyland.” The woman said, stopping him. He accidentally elbowed her in the cheekbone. The woman glared at him, baring her fangs. Her demeanor changed in a split second.
“Karla, Didn’t mean it! Sorry!” The man said, standing off of Arcen in a great hurry.
“I’ll break your fucking face, Leyland. Do what I fucking say when I say it.”
The man skittered away and joined his friends, who were panting on the rocks after beating Arcen. From the silhouettes, it was one tall girl and another man.
Karla, the fanged woman, tied Arcen’s hands behind his back with a thin nylon rope, making sure it was tight enough to cut into his flesh.
“W-where are we going!” Arcen asked, trying to stand on his one good leg.
“Oh, you can talk?” Karla chuckled, pulling the rope tighter. “You can talk about that shit with Morgav. I’m here to kill your ass if you try anything again.”
What the fuck is she on about!
Karla kicked Arcen towards Morgav, who was staring directly at him with the red eye. Arcen stumbled towards him and almost tripped on a rock. Morgav grabbed him by the shoulders. Arcen tried to avoid his face, but the man simply used his sharp fingers to pinch his face into position, directly staring into his eyes.
“You killed and ate all of these fuckers. Why don’t we start with introductions!” Morgav gestured at his friends with his sharp forefinger. “Karla, my friend for fifteen long years. We fuck sometimes when we’re bored.” He said, pointing at the fanged woman. She rolled her eyes.
“Isadora, she’s just seventeen by the way,” Morgav said, pointing at a tall girl with bangs and pale white skin. “and Jackson. He’s new!” Morgav added, pointing at a young man with fur on his face. He looked scared of Morgav. “Isadora’s fucking him. I don’t think he’s good at it, to be honest.”
The tall girl squirmed and looked away. Arcen couldn’t tell how old Jackson was. Anywhere from a teenager to a thirty-year-old. His fur made it hard to tell.
“Then there’s Leyland. Well, nothing special about him,” Morgav said in a lower tone, pointing at the man that almost killed Arcen. He had some sort of reptilian mutation. He’d geared up with armor plates and a strange helmet that looked like a tortoise shell.
What a way to introduce his fucking team.
Morgav had successfully made both women in his group uncomfortable, made one man shrink in shame and offended the other. They didn’t seem to want to do anything about it. If anything, they seemed even more afraid of him.
“And you, Mr. Octopus Man, killed and ate them all,” Morgav shouted. “It wouldn’t have happened if I was around. But Jackson here was our tactical mastermind. He fucked up.”
“I-I’m sorry! It wasn’t me!. It was that egg!” Arcen howled. He’d never wanted out of this tower more than this very moment. He already knew Morgav wouldn’t let him shift the blame that easily.
“Oh we know. Because how else would a corpo bootlicking nobody like you get that powerful in a tower.” Morgav said, laughing. “The problem for you is, They’re alive now.”
I didn’t kill them, then they’re right here, aren’t they?
“W-what do you mean?”
“It means I lost four to five million Aura each to bring them back. This whole fucking fiasco of yours cost me damn near everything.”
“Oh yeah. He loves us very much.” Karla said, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Of course I do.” Morgav said with a wink. “It sucks when I lose everything. See, I’m about to get tower sick now with all the rest of you. This is your fault.”
“I-what can I do for you, please!” Arcen said, trying to beg for a way out.
“We’re Nostrum. We’re all about return on investment. I need everything you have. All your Aura. All your money. All your mother’s money. I’ll sell your kids. Your sisters. Your brothers. I need everything. When I’ve sucked you dry and you have fuck all to give, then I trade you with Helviter for more.”
“They shot me! You’re not going to get anything from them. I’m not valuable—”
Morgav stared at him with a frown. “They shot you? Interesting.” He said, rubbing his chin. “Then I have someone they shot and recorded as dead. That’s got to be worth at least a hundred million, we’ll see.” Morgav chuckled. “The good news is I’m not going to kill you. The bad news is you’re gonna wish I fucking did.”
“I’m heading to the next chamber. This one sucks. This whole floor fucking sucks!” Karla said, picking up a backpack that was on the ground. The other three followed her, and they walked away into the darkness between the trees. Morgav stayed behind with Arcen, his red eye glaring at him the whole time.
Gareth shifted on the ground, trying to get back on his feet. He’d been knocked out by the punch that he got hit with. The sound of his boots crunching on the ground grabbed Morgav’s attention.
“And who are you?” Morgav asked, tilting his head like a snake.
“Me?” Gareth pointed at himself. “Nobody. Just hunting.”
Morgav glared at Gareth for a couple seconds.
“What I’m hearing is, you got a place for us to camp?”
“S-sure, I don’t mind.”
“You’re being very nice, but I can’t let you go now.”
“Please, I don’t even know him. Let him go!” Arcen pleaded, trying to get Gareth out of this situation.
“No, he’s coming with us,” Morgav said, grabbing Gareth around the shoulder. “You can get out when we get out. Not before that.”
“When’s that?!” Gareth asked, his voice shaky.
“When we have return on investment or when we’re done climbing to the top, whatever happens first.” Morgav said with a menacing smirk. Gareth looked at Arcen, his eyes wide with horror.
Hours later, the Nostrum team set up camp in Gareth’s cave after Karla returned from their excursion to other chambers on the same floor. They grilled two rabbit-pig creatures over the fire, gave one large drumstick to Gareth and nothing to Arcen.
They were loud, talking about all sorts of things and mocking each other throughout their meal as they ripped into the grilled meat with their bare hands like animals. Gareth did his best to get on their good side, showing them better ways to grill the creatures and fry their meat with their own fat.
After their huge meal, Karla and Leyland tucked themselves into sleeping bags and rags around the campfire. Isadora and Jackson snuck out into the darkness beyond the cave. Morgav sat on a rock outside, smoking a pipe that burst with thick purple clouds, probing everything outside with his red eye.
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“Did you really eat all these people?” Gareth asked from Arcen once the coast was clear. He’d saved a piece of meat from his drumstick. He ripped it to strands with his fingers and started feeding Arcen, who swallowed everything in a hurry before Morgav could see anything.
“The black egg I told you about, the creature inside possessed me.”
“What?” Gareth asked, bewildered. “I wasn’t really paying attention. How did that happen?”
How can I break it all down?
“Exactly as you heard. There was this black egg. There was a creature inside it. It possessed me and ate everyone.”
That wasn’t much of a summary. It sounded like ramblings of a drug addict, not much better than his previous attempt at it.
“We have to escape!” Gareth whispered. “I don’t want any part of this!”
“You should escape,” Arcen said, nodding at him. “They won’t let you go, just take your chance as soon as possible.”
He had nothing else to tell Gareth. He didn’t know enough about Morgav. He couldn’t tell how Morgav located them when they were hiding near the pond. His red eye or something else had a lot to do with it. If Gareth screwed up his escape, he could very easily end up dead.
He wanted to tell Gareth, but he couldn’t bring himself to. If anything, Gareth should’ve figured all of that out himself. More than that, Arcen had just realized he was truly alone in this world in his current predicament. There was no one he could ask for help. Gareth clearly wasn’t powerful enough to do anything about Morgav.
He still had to do something.
“If you do escape, my brother and sister, they’re in South Seattle East Block. Building 228, 78/B. Tell them to take everything and run. I don’t care where. As far away as possible. Fucking Alaska or Thailand, whatever that can be done as fast as possible, as far as possible.”
Gareth frowned at him. “You gave up trying to escape already?”
“Telling you in case I fuck up.”
“What if I die and you make it? He said he wasn’t going to kill you.”
“I’ll help yours, of course.”
“Well, my wife’s right here in Wensik, Tower 29, 12B/17. Son’s in New Manning. General Hospital. She’ll tell you where. Move them back to Tennessee.”
“Got it. Move to Tennessee.”
They zipped their lips when Morgav cleared his throat, tucking his pipe into his waist pocket. Gareth shuffled away and crawled into his sleeping bag next to the campfire. Morgav walked up to Arcen and lifted him by the arm, lifting him off the floor.
“We need to chat, Tentie boy.”
“Can’t we do that here?”
“No. Just you and me.”
Morgav dragged him to a dark corner far from the camp. He used the smallest possible Radiate on a tree nearby to give just enough light to see each other’s faces.
“I know you’re trying to escape. I know your family’s in East Block 228, 78/B. I know Gareth wants his family to go back to fucking Tennessee. I know that rat bastard is tip-toeing out of the camp right now at this very moment.”
Holy shit, this fucker can hear everything too?!
His mind raced. The worst person he’d ever met had just overheard his home address. He felt his stomach drop at the thought of Nostrum assholes bothering his siblings. Kysa wouldn’t even know what to do.
“Please-“
“Shut it, I’ve heard it all before,” Morgav said, raising a hand. “I’ll give you an out, though. There’s one thing in this tower that I want. You know what happened to it.”
“What is it? I’ll tell you everything if you let me go!”
“I’m not letting you go until I have it,” Morgav said, smirking. “The black egg. It can cover the damage you did. It’s worth over three hundred million. Maybe even five.”
That’s why it was important to everyone?!
That number made sense. Helviter was willing to spend one and a half million just to probe it. Arcen couldn’t guess the utility, but the oily girl had stolen it for some other reason than money. She was climbing with it, not escaping the tower with it.
“It’s not here anymore. I don’t know where it is!”
“I know that. It’s up there somewhere. It didn’t pass me by. I would know If anything with that much Aura was nearby. So, who has it? Where did they take it?”
“This girl, this kid, she attacked the camp. She‘s the one that took it.” Arcen said with a gulp. “She’s the one who found this shortcut up the tower. She wanted me to help her steal it.”
“Juicy. Tell me more about this shortcut, Tentie,” Morgav said, his red eye gleaming in the dark.
“It goes up four-hundred floors. That’s where they met this queen creature. Meronolith, have you head of them before?”
“Doesn’t ring a bell. I don’t want to fight those. I just need the egg.”
“That’s where the queen put her egg on one of the climbers. Norm Lorraine. You probably know the guy. The queen killed him. Helviter wanted me to see what’s inside the egg. The girl wanted to steal it. She took it after… everything that happened.”
“This girl, you got a name?”
“No. She goes by Ivy. It’s fake name. She’s about twelve, thirteen.”
Morgav whistled. “That little bitch stole half a billion dollars?!” He chuckled. “Weird world we live in, huh?” he said, rubbing his hands. “This shortcut. You gotta tell me where it is.”
Now’s the chance.
“I don’t know the exact location. Never saw it on a map or anything,” Arcen said, making up a half-truth. He could tell Morgav exactly where it is because he went there as Norm, but that wouldn’t give him any leverage. For all he knew, Morgav could just kill him and chase the egg from there. “I know it’s on floor twenty-three. I’ll know it when I see it.”
“Ah, you’re keeping yourself useful,” Morgav said as he stood. “Fine. It better work. You’re coming with us to floor four hundred or wherever the fuck it is.”
“You’re gonna let me go after?”
“We’ll see about that when we find the girl and the egg.”
Arcen stood up, limping on his aching leg. He needed to rest.
“You’re making mistakes, Tentie, It’s not cute anymore,” he said, grabbing Arcen by the neck. “Four hundred is not a place you just fucking waltz in. You need Aura. Or you die halfway there. I’d say around one and a half million. Nobody in my team meets that requirement. We’ll have to fix that tomorrow. Here you are, happy-go-lucky. ‘Let’s go to fucking four hundred’. No reaction, nothing. Now why is that?”
Shit.
“Because you know you don’t need it. You’re not worried about getting tower sick. You already have millions,” Morgav said, breathing on his face. The man smelled of damp carcass. “It’s not going to be easy keeping you alive, when my people have to work their asses off to catch up to a quarter of what you got for fucking free. They’ll want to kill you for your gold, and I look weak when I don’t let them. They’re gonna think you got me by the balls.”
“I-I,” Arcen stammered. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”
“You better find this fucking egg for me. You have no idea what I’m gonna do to you if you fail.”
“I’ll do my best. You’ll have it, p-promise.”
Morgav scoffed, flashing his sharp teeth. “Good Tentie. Now I’ll go grab your friend from the next chamber,” He said as he walked into the darkness. Arcen followed the same path back to the cave.
Ten minutes later, Morgav dropped Gareth into the cave. He had a large purple bruise on his face where he’d gotten punched. He was missing two teeth on his right side and had blood flowing out from his nostrils.
Arcen quietly used Restore on his face to fix it as Gareth held his two teeth back in their slots. He groaned loudly in pain as the white light wrapped around his flesh and mended all the wounds, fixing his teeth back into the gums.
“He knew about my wife and son!” Gareth said as soon as he could speak.
“He can hear everything,” Arcen said, gesturing Gareth to shut up. Morgav was back on his rock, smoking his pipe. He turned his head slightly towards them and nodded.
“Shit,” Gareth whispered under his breath. “Talk to you later.”
Arcen kept thinking about his situation long after Gareth snuck back into his sleeping bag. He looked up when Isadora and Jackson returned, and Morgav got down from his rock and walked away. The man didn’t need sleep, for some reason. He wondered what it could be.
He was startled by gold veins weaving in his eyes.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TRADE ╰︶
????
GARETH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONNECTION ╰︶
????
POSITIVE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WORTH ╰︶
????
1,329,000
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ INITIATE ︶╯
What the fuck is this?
He’d seen this once before. A contract trade. It had come from Gareth. He looked through the gold veins and saw Gareth staring at him, hiding under the sleeping bag. Arcen’s eyes wandered back to ‘Initiate’. The world turned gray, as if time itself came to a halt.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ PRICE ╰︶
????
FREE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ PROCEED ︶╯
╰︶ ABORT ︶╯
He’s giving his contract to me?
He couldn’t confirm it with Gareth in any way, but since he initiated this trade, there had to be a reason. He was trading something clearly more valuable for just one Aura. Arcen proceeded with the trade. The color returned to the world as the gold veins retreated. He gestured ‘why’ at Gareth with a frown. Gareth nodded his head and turned around.
What was that contract?!
╭ ╰︶?? OSIRYN ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DUALITY ╰︶
????
DEATH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TYPE ╰︶
????
SUB
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ RANK ╰︶
????
SECOND
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ USES ╰︶
????
UNLIMITED USE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
CREATES A CRATER OF
VORACIOUS WORMS ON
THE GROUND BENEATH
THE TARGET
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶
????
TARGET MUST BE IN
CONTACT WITH THE
GROUND
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ COST ╰︶
????
127,000 AURA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He wants me to trap them!
Gareth had given his contract away knowing Arcen had no problem with Aura. He likely didn’t have enough Aura to spend more than a hundred thousand on it, because he wasn’t in the tower to climb it.
Arcen would’ve activated it right here if Morgav was in a sleeping bag with the rest of his team. He didn’t know how big this worm crater was going to be, but it sounded like something that could get rid of them all in one go.
That wasn’t a solid plan. There was no way to escape if Morgav could catch up to them in minutes. He also didn’t know about the other team members’ capabilities. He couldn’t clearly remember what happened before he ate them the last time. Calming his nerves, Arcen let the gold veins retreat.
I have to wait.
