Narrator
A Forest ~80 miles from Acomore city
this forest has been eerily silent these past few days, no animals nor birds dare make a sound. It was as if all the creatures in the area decided on a whim to all avoid this part of the forest as much as possible.
All of them that is except for a small band of adventurers, who decided to take a shortcut through this forest. Though it was faster and ideally safer than the plains, they couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching them, that they took the wrong path, down the wrong side of history.
Little did they know, that their fates have already been sealed.
…
A few miles infront of the party, the forest, quiet as ever, was shocked to life quite literally. Electricity began filling the air as dark ominous clouds with a slight red tint to them began forming. As red lightning began striking trees and the ground all the same setting everything around it ablaze, one of these lightning bolts curved like an ark into the air. This lightning bolt, after a few seconds condensed into a large blade of sorts, floating mere feet from the ground before it began suddenly moving of its own volition. It began its work making a slight slashing move, just more precise and slow.
It directed this slash towards the air itself seemingly, as the tip of it’s blade pierced the air and began tearing a gash in the space. When the thing finished it’s wicked work, it dematerialised, leaving the gash alone.
Unlike the last time this happened, there was no humanoid figure to pop out of it, no, the demon that appeared through was much worse. A large silver tentacle made seemingly out of metal began making a slow but deliberate movement through the hole. Spikes on the tentacle spoke of its metal nature, something that was obviously not natural. Something that seemed to defy the laws of physics itself. It tested the air, testing the world it found its limb in, before seeming to agree to follow through with it’s plan.
More of the creature started coming out of the gash, revealing more and more tentacles and metal, all of its body was silver and artificial in origin. Eventually the creature came out, and fell down onto the charred grass below, making a small thud. The ground shook from the impact, obviously, the thing was quite heavy but as it began moving, it proved that this weight does not impact it’s mobility.
The moment that it fell to the ground, it reached one of it’s silvery tentacles deep into the ground, and seemed to hurriedly pump something deep into the soil. It then retracted it’s strange limb from the hole.
The millisecond after it finished, it started moving. To where? It is not immediately obvious, but the creature itself seemed to know. As it moved, it was apparent that it does not ‘walk’, ‘crawl’, or even ‘slither’ for it seemed to glide across the ground itself as the mass of tentacles seemed to essentially hover over the ground as it proved it can move faster than any known organism to date, although it did in fact touch the ground. The thing also has a head of some sort, one that seems to be made of the same material that it’s body is made from.
The creature doesn’t seem to obey any laws of physics as it raced across the ground, every time it moved, it essentially folded itself through it’s own body as it readjusts for whatever new direction it was moving in.
Unknown Adventurer
Forest
I was excited for this opportunity, to be able to venture deep into an unknown ruin, one that just might be riddled with treasure and possibilities. It was strange how no one has discovered this ruin until now. It was just yesterday when this four person party came up to me and a few other beginners asking to higher us for this job. Although it was a bit sketchy at first, they are well known veteran adventurers. They were also offering a large sum of gold in exchange for our services, so it wasn’t entirely sketchy. Something did put me off though, not with the adventurers, no, but with this forest.
I have noticed something strange seems to be happening here, I have been to this place many times before, usually on goblin or slime slaying quests but it felt different now, the air felt stiff and cold, the ground seemed devoid of life despite the presence of plants and trees all around us, one last thing which seems the most foreboding was the color of everything almost being sucked out from the surroundings.
I felt a shiver go down my spine as one last bird that had been happily tweeting away suddenly went silent and never graced us with it’s song again.
“Jack…” I called, turning around to find my companion. After a second of searching, I saw him lagging behind the group, looking around as if he was being watched by a predator. After hearing me call his name, he locked eyes with me, and decided to quicken his pase to catch up.
“Y-yeah?” He asked, uncertainty laced with his voice.
“What the actual fuck happened here?!” My voice was barely above a regular speaking voice, but it almost seemed muted through the thick, cold, and treacherous, air. “This place used to be so bright, and cheery. But now it’s… downright disturbing.”
He seemed to agree with my sentiment. Rigorously nodding his head, after I finished. “I would have to agree, this has to be the work of a demon or something. But for some reason this place seems to be devoid of even magicules. Something that I can’t imagine being a good sign.” Then, out of nowhere, surprising us both, one of the lead adventurers in front of us asked a question.
“Hey, have either of you seen Barenthia? I can’t seem to find her anywhere.” The man was obviously powerful, he emitted a golden glow that seemed to only stifle by a fraction of a degree in the tense air.
Barenthia, one of the oldest adventurers in the kingdom decided to join us on this little quest after overhearing us talking in the guild building. Her and her partner, Barenthudicus showed interest in joining after overhearing about those ruins. The two asked for nothing in return, but to simply join us. We had no reason to disagree, more people more protection, right? So now here they are.
After a few seconds of thinking, I responded first.
“No, I’m sorry but I haven’t seen her. Hopefully she hasn’t gone too far, these forests seem to be strange today.”
“Ah, so you noticed too. Seems something has happened recently, I was just here a day ago and it was nothing like is is now. Every instinct in my body is screaming at me, telling me that something is dangerous here, something that is watching, something that is past even the apex of predators.” The veteran adventurer’s words did nothing to lighten the mood of the conversation. Even as he spoke, the air seemed to thicken as his aura faltered further in the ever stiffening air.
“Keep your guard up! Something is here, it just came out of nowhere and nabbed yahrag!” someone from the front yelled back, even with the obvious strain in his voice from yelling as loud as he did, the people in the back could obviously barely hear him.
I heard a rush of wind blow past me as everyone drew their weapons. Leaves rustled and cracked unsettlingly deep in the forest, reminiscent of something being required to rustle said leaves.
“I don’t like this…” Jack said, holding his spear at the ready beside me. His words carried the weight and sentiment of the entire group it seemed.
Suddenly, a white tentacle shot out of the forest, unprovoked and unwanted, it latched onto one of Barenthudicus’s legs, knocking the tower of a man onto the ground and flailing for his weapon. The golden aura he was emanating earlier has almost completely disappeared, and now replaced with an aura of fear.
Snapping out of my fear induced paralysis, I tried swinging my sword down onto the strange silvery tentacle.
But, I couldn’t. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t bring my sword down any farther than slightly above my head. I trembled as I slowly looked up.
There was another one. Another white tentacle had latched itself onto my sword and began squeezing the blade. Before I even had a chance to react, the tentacle turned into a blur. It formed into a makeshift whip and ripped the blade right out of my hand, while simultaneously slashing at me with my own sword.
The force of the impact knocked me on the other side of the trail entirely. It knocked the air straight out fo my lungs, leaving me gasping for air. When I finally collected my bearings, I looked down to see the thing had let me off without one of my hands.
It was at this point that I hadn’t quite realized what I was looking at. To me, in the moment, it just looked like a red stump that happened to be connected to my body.
Until the realization kicked in, and…
“AAHHH!!!! MY FUCKING HAND!” blood began blanketing the ground in front of me, until a hand reached out and landed on my shoulder. I looked over, noticing that the hand also had blood on it, and saw Jack. He looked bloodied and bruised.
“Come on, this is no place to die.” He said while reaching around my stump of an arm with a cloth, he tied the cloth together around my forearm, cutting off the blood flow. He went around to the other side of my body and raised my arm around his shoulders.
“J-just what the hell is that thing?” He began pulling my shocked and bloodied body onto my feet.
“I don’t know, but it’s beyond us. We gotta get back to the capital and warn them, if that thing gets into a city, thousands of people will die.” As we walked towards the nearest horse, I was able to start walking on my own, and even run a bit.
Before we made it to the horse though, I looked back. The creature was in fill view now, and it is some strange mess of tentacles and metal, it has a head, but it looks more like some focal point where the tentacles converge. It has a mouth, and small beady eyes, but none of it’s features were elvan, or even close to looking like any creature I know.
We finally made it to the horse, and I began unhooking it from the carriage it was pulling. For emergencies such as these, all horses whether someone plans on riding them or they are to be used for pulling a carriage require a saddle to be present when traveling.
“Get on, NOW!” Jack said, right before the creature finished its massacre of all the other people in the convoy.
A silvery spike suddenly appeared inside of Jack’s chest, he looked down in shock and absolute horror as the spike slowly retracted from his chest through his back, and into the creature that produced it. Time seemed to slow as I watched my best friend collapse to the ground, the man I had known for years, the man that helped me out in tough situations, the man I had laughed with at bars and drank until we threw-up. He fell to his knees, and blood began seeping from his mouth. His body became limp and his face pale. For the last time, I looked my buddy in the eyes, but for something that I thought would be a tearful or even a happy occasion, I saw nothing but fear instead.
Time resumed its normal speed, and his body fell off to the side. I couldn’t even move, all I could do was stand there, looking pale. Slowly, My gaze went from the corpse of my dead best friend, to the creature that took his life. The thing had stopped moving now, just staring at me with those beady, predatory eyes.
We had that stare down for what felt like an hour, until one of the multiple undulating tentacles became a blur once again. Before I even knew it, it had attached itself to my ankle, and knocked me down onto my back. Slowly it dragged me towards itself, as my instincts kicked in, I clawed at the ground, kicked at the tentacle, and screamed as loud as I could. It was all in vein though, as it began moving overtop me. I looked up in horror like a baby deer caught in the trap of an alligator.
It reached one of its tentacles up to my face, this one was different from the others though, it was round, and bulbous at it’s tip, and a smaller spike suddenly protruded from the end.
“Wha-” I started, but I didn’t have time to finish, the thing jabbed the spike into my forehead, and everything went dark.
…
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Unknown Adventurer
Forest
1hr later
I awoke in a daze, I felt like something was wrong though, I didn’t open my eyes or even move a muscle it just felt like I was awoken while sleepwalking or something. I tried to look around, but all I could see was the sky and a few trees. Depending on their position, I could tell I was lying on the ground but still it was strange, I couldn’t even move my eyes to look at things better.
‘Good morning.’ A deep, somehow unemotional voice seemed to resonate throughout my head, with every syllable sounding louder than a sabertooth wolf’s roar.
‘W-what is this?’ I tried to talk back, but I could only ask in my head, unable to even speak.
‘It seems you are awake, and it seems the inhibition worked.’
‘What? Inhibition? What do you mean?’
‘It doesn’t matter, just know, you and I are going to get real comfortable together. I have annexed your body, and you thankfully have no free will now. I can kill you anytime I want to as well, so don’t even think about trying anything, not that you can anyway.’ Suddenly, my body started to move, first it was my arm, it reached up to the sky as it opened and closed itself on it’s own. ‘I have a lot to learn about this world, and not a lot of time to learn it all.’ My hand reached down to the ground, and helped support my body as I sat up. My eyes began moving on their own as well, looking around and gaining a sense of it’s surroundings all the while not requiring me to move them at all.
‘W-what the fuck did you do to me?!’ I screamed out in terror, well the equivalent of screaming inside of my head. As my eyes moved on their own, I noticed a wound in my right leg. It wasn’t very deep, but it revealed something horrifying. A silvery tentacle was slithering its way through my exposed muscle moving and working the muscle on it’s own. ‘WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK.’
‘Please calm down, this is hard enough as it is without you screaming.’ It sounded annoyed, not that I really cared.
‘I DONT GIVE A FUCK, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!’ Slowly, my body hoisted itself upright. It teetered a little bit, before finding it’s balance. It took a step, then another, and eventually was able to fully move around in MY BODY.
‘There we go, I’ve got the hang of this now. I already told you what I did, now shut up or I will shut you up. I have got to get to town.’ The thing completely dodged my question, but I felt a slight pang of pain somewhere. Ah, I get it, that was this thing giving me a warning.
…
Unknown Adventurer
Outskirts of Whalemu City
The entire time the thing had been walking, it was practicing it’s vocalization. Pronouncing vowels, saying key phrases and, eventually, complete sentences.
“Raggedy rascals reached for the stars, can you say that without any ‘R’s.” It taunted in my own voice.
‘THAT’ I responded coldly.
“Ah, no fun, you know that one? Here how about this; ‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore.’ Say that three times fast.” This thing is proving to be about as annoying as it is deadly, I decided to not respond this time, I need a break from… thinking for a while. But the more I cleared my head the more I thought about my dead friend, and my dead comrades, and… my sister, whom was waiting for me to return home from the raid… I don’t think I could confront her now even if I tried. I would never want for her to see me in this state.
As I contemplated suicide, I noticed a cart being handeled by a farmer go past us. The farmer himself seemed not to notice anything out of the ordinary about my person, so it seems that little sliver of hope has vanished. I guess that was me just coping anyways, this thing wouldn’t have waltzed into a city like it is without knowing for a fact that no one would notice it.
Eventually it reached the gate, and the guards didn’t even think twice about letting it in after it showed them my adventuring license, as adventurers get into cities for free because we keep the monster population in the area down. Before it could fully pass through the gate though, one of the guards who was inside the guard booth came out.
“Hey, didn’t expect you to come back so soon, how did the raid go?” It was another one of my friends, not one of my best friends, but we talk fairly often. Somehow, I wanted to think that he would see something wrong and call the knights, but somehow, the thing knew exactly what to say.
“Hey, no, the raid did not go well, it’s a long story, you can find me later if you want to hear it. But for now, I need to get to the guild.” He looked concerned, but also understanding. Probably because of the missing hand that the thing decided to not heal.
“Well, first you should get to the healers, if you have enough money they should be able to help you with that hand.” He had reassurance in his voice now, as if he was understanding of this false situation, orchestrated by a creature they couldn’t even imagine the power of. I cant even imagine what this thing is planning, but I certainly hope it doesn’t involve much of me, I want to commit suicide the next chance I get.
…
Unknown Adventurer
Whalemu City Adventurers Guild
It walked through the double doors that led into the guild’s main building, looking around, the thing took in the grandeur that is the main hall. From the massive chandelier, to the gold trims that accustomed the booths that the attendants worked at. The entire place just radiated wealth, mostly due to the fact that it is in the second largest city in the empire.
Around, there were hundreds of people, most of them being elves, but there were also a few dwarves, lizardmen, Mikew, and even an ogre can be seen in the crowd. Most of them were crowding around the mission/quest board, but some were also lined up at the attendant booths for various reasons.
“Hmm, well I suppose that the first place to go to would be to talk with an attendant.” I/it said out loud, I did have to ask though.
‘What do you plan on doing?’ I watched as he visibly paused at my question, before I felt a smile creep onto my/its face.
‘Why that is not of your concern. I thought you are trying to commit suicide, why would it matter what I do with your corpse?’
‘What? How did yo-’ it cut me off.
‘How did I know you wanted to die? Well, silly elf, I am in your head. I know everything you know and can think about. Just because I might not respond, doesn’t mean I don’t know.’ I wanted to protest, to tell it to get out of my head, but I knew it wouldn’t listen, I might not be willing to acknowledge it, but… I might be fated to die as some sick puppet for this thing.
I watched as it got into a line to speak with an attendant, surprisingly getting a good grasp of how the whole thing works extremely quickly, oh right, it can read my mind. That is one other thing, this is the first monster to ever have been found with intelligence, isn’t it. I mean, yes technically ogres are monsters, but their intelligence is a lot lower than that of an elf’s and they just so happened to have enough intelligence to be able to understand society and become functioning members.
…
The line took a lot longer than I expected, there must be some big raid happening nearby or something, usually when that happens there are a lot of people that try to join and for them to be officially accepted it takes a while for all the paperwork to be processed.
Eventually though, it was the thing’s turn, and it stepped up to greet the tired attendant.
“Hello, and welcome to the Whalemu City adventurer’s guild, what can I do for you today?” The attendant said in a monotone voice, she sounded like she had said that exact line thousands of times and has slowly begun to resent it.
“Hello, yes, I would like to apply for a license to kill 1000 goblins in one of the neighboring forests.” The request took me off guard, does this thing actually intend to kill monsters and become a supporting member of the kingdom? Also, why so many goblins?
“That large of a license would require several things, namely; a signature from the guildmaster, your signature on the license form itself, and a signature on a contract.” She finished off with showing the contract in question which stated that if I were so to happen to die or get gravely injured, then nither I nor my family could enact revenge against the guild.
“Yeah, could I talk to the guildmaster before he signed off on it? I believe there is something he needs to be aware of.” She looked at me quizzically but didn’t question any further.
“Yes, you would have to be present anyway.” She said, brushing off the question. “Anyways, go ahead take these papers and wait over there, I’ll let you know when the guildmaster is available. NEXT!” It thanked the attendant and went to sit down.
The next few minutes were uneventful, it signed the paperwork, filled out a few sections and waited patently for the guildmaster to be ready. I really don’t know what this thing’s plan is, but I have a feeling it might involve it asking to speak with the guildmaster.
“He will speak with you now, Mr. XXXXX. If you would please be so kind as to follow me.” The attendant said with a polite bow. It returned the gesture after getting up, before following closely behind the attendant. She lead us through a back door that lead up a couple of winding staircases. It was strange though, the staircases wrapped around each other in a sort of double helix structure, acting as the backbone of the entire building with multiple other smaller branches breaking off from the main one, leading to different floors and rooms.
The attendant lead us to one of the staircases and up several floors, passing by multiple people that all seemed busy dealing with work and the guild’s affairs. After several of these floors and people were passed we eventually reached our destination, near the top of the building sat a lone walkway, leading to a single door. A door which had a giant gold plate centered at about eye level reading one word: “GUILDMASTER”
…
Unknown Adventurer
Guildmaster’s Room
The attendant opened the door to reveal a relatively small and quant room compared to the rest of the facility, there were bookshelves lining either side of the room and a massive window overlooking the town below at the opposite end. Right in front of the window sat a graying middle aged man sitting at a rather large desk that took up nearly three quarters of the width of the room. The man looked up with a veterans gaze, a massive scar on the right side of his face being present, right above a surprisingly small beard.
“Good evening, I am guildmaster han-drakus the overseer of this here guild, I trust that the service has been satisfactory today?” He had a cool steely gaze that seemed to pierce the very soul, but obviously not deep enough.
“Yes it has,” The thing said, walking into the room and finding a suitable chair to sit down in.
“Well, I see that you wanted to… what was it?” He said, opening a file on his desk. “Ah, yes, a license to kill 1000 goblins huh?” *whistle “Thats a lotta goblins, got a thing against them or something?” He asked with a quizzical expression.
To be honest I kind of wanted to know the reason as well, I couldn’t imagine a monster wanting to kill other monsters, unless they were feuding over territory or something, though, that thing does seem to be a bit more than just a simple monster.
“Well, to be honest, I recently got ambushed by a couple of goblins recently and from what I could tell they were being lead by a goblin lord. I don’t know where the goblin lord is, so I think if I hunt enough of them, I can draw the thing out.”
Bullshit, I call bullshit, that can’t be the reason. This thing is way more powerful than a goblin lord, and it would have mentioned something like that to me. Also, it would have to have happened before it attacked my party.
“Well, that certainly is a predicament.” He rubbed his chin while looking down. “I can see where you are coming from now, alright, as long as you don’t get yourself killed I’m fine with it.” He pulled a quill out of an ink jar, and began signing the paperwork. “I would recommend getting a party before you do this though, you know, added protection and all, less likely that someone will die.” It nodded my head in understanding.
The guildmaster got up from his seat, and motioned for me to do the same. “Congratulations, remember to keep an ear from one of each of the goblins you kill, and show them along with your license to the gate guards when you enter the city.” He reached his hand out to shake my hand, to which it was happy to oblige.
The two shook hands for a few seconds, before the guildmaster got a slightly concerned look on his face, “My, what a firm handshake.” He commented, probably hoping that the thing would let go, being satisfied with the ego boost. But it didn’t. It continued the handshake, all the while looking at the guildmaster dead in the eyes, the smile slowly fading from it’s face.
Before I even knew it, the Guildmaster suddenly collapsed, directly onto his desk no less, throwing small rocks and other small items all across the room.
‘This is where we part ways,’ The thing said in my head.
‘R-really? I-I can have my body back?
‘Yes, I promise I will leave your body now.’
‘I thought that I would be stuck like this for months or even years! This is great!’ The thing placed my hand onto the Guildmaster’s back. I don’t know what it is doing, but it seems this is how he intended to leave my body. I watched as a silvery tentacle came out of my hand and after grossly wiggling around a bit, pierced the Guildmaster’s back. It started to move into it, pulling more and more of those tentacles into the guildmaster’s body.
‘Just know, you might have preferred if I had stayed.’
‘Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?’ I tried to ask, but before I finished I saw the last of the tentacles finish coming out of my hand and into the guildmaster. The moment the last one left, my body completely went limp and collapsed onto the floor.
Wait, what is this? I thought I could have my body back. For a few seconds, I was utterly confused.That all changed though, when the guildmaster’s body began moving. I couldn’t see the movement, but I could hear it.
“You know, I was telling the truth. I said you could have your body back, but I never said that I would give you back control over your body.” He grabbed my by the head, and turned my face to look at him. He was crouching down by the side of the Guildmaster’s desk with the strangest look on his face, one that shows he knows his plan came to fruition.
I guess this was his plan the entire time, he never planned on giving me control again, he never planned on letting me live my life, oh… I get it now, it is a monster, it always was and always will be. I just have to wonder, what will a monster with intelligence do to the world? Actually, more importantly, I do have to wonder how did a monster like that get that much intelligence, and that much power.