Lanek eyed the gaunt before him and wondered where to begin. He had so many questions, but one quickly made its way to the forefront as he watched the monster before him.
“Can you even die from blood loss?” Lanek asked, seeing that the gaunt’s injuries had stopped bleeding. He had been concerned that he would run out of time to ask questions before the creature succumbed to death or delirium from the loss of so much blood.
“No, not really. For me to die from losing blood I would need to lose so much of it before it clots that I would likely already be dead from the trauma. When can I ask my questions?” Despite its apparent willingness to cooperate, the question was asked with more than a bit of challenge in its voice, like it expected Lanek to refuse to answer.
“Ask whenever you want, there’s no need to be formal about this. You aren’t leaving until I’ve had all my questions answered anyway.”
The gaunt clearly didn’t like that response, but it finally spoke up. “Why are you interfering with my work? The things infesting this place killed everything they crossed paths with, your kind included.”
“I was sent to eliminate the threat. Kill the shifters and close the portal in exchange for payment. Why did you leave the leader alive?” The gaunt’s eyes narrowed as it listened to Lanek’s explanation.
“I was sent to make sure it suffered for offending my masters. What’s this about a portal?”
“The portal that was in the cellar next to the shifter. It was what allowed those monsters to enter this world and it remains open as long as its anchor, the final shifter in this case, is intact.”
“I saw no portal.”
“Then you are either blind or the portal was masked from you somehow. It was a large glowing rift that was damn near in the center of the room. Kind of hard to miss. So, how is it that you can talk? Can all gaunts speak?”
“No. The gaunts that you speak of are the warforms that our masters created. They are designed to wreak havoc and purge our enemies, so they don’t need to be able to speak.”
“So you aren’t the same species?”
“We are. However, we are modified at birth to suit different purposes. Those of us that are lucky are allowed to retain our minds and develop into more advanced beings. Those that are not chosen to be pure warforms are the ones that can speak. Are all of the people of this world so ignorant of us?”
“Couldn’t tell you, I’m not from around here. But, everyone I have spoken to has no idea where you come from or why you have driven this world to the brink. Even the System doesn’t really know anything about you. Why do you turn your own kind into those creatures? Seems a bit cruel and it’s not like creating them keeps you from the battlefield.”
“Do you think we would do this if we had a choice? The masters started this eons ago when they discovered my people.” The gaunt growled angrily.
“I’m guessing the rest of your people aren’t as upset about it as you seem to be.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m upset or not, things aren’t going to change. The masters have far more powerful servants than us, so we can either serve or die.”
“If they are so powerful, why do they need you?”
“The masters and their servants have invaded countless worlds and are waging war on a scale that you can’t fathom. Even they cannot be everywhere at once.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Well, explain that to me then. Why are they invading this world? Or any world for that matter?”
The gaunt laughed at him for several minutes before responding. “If you are waiting for a satisfying answer to that question before you let me leave, then you may as well kill me now. Did you not hear me speak of the position my people hold in their domain? The master does not explain their reasoning or inner thoughts to the slave.”
“Fair. Then let me ask this then, what are the masters? And how long have you been attacking this world?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think any of my kind currently living know what the masters are or even what they look like. However, we do know that they exist for it is said that they always appear when a world falls to their legions. As for how long we have been attacking this place, far longer than I’ve been alive. That’s all I can say.”
Lanek sighed, more than a little disturbed by the scale of the foe this world faced and how human the gaunt seemed to be. He wished he hadn’t discovered that they were victims of a greater foe. It wouldn’t stop him from killing them if he had to, but now he would likely feel a bit of guilt afterwards. Dammit.
“I’m surprised that you are being so forthcoming. Do you trust that I will let you go that much?” Lanek asked curiously.
“Not at all. Call it curiosity. That, and the fact that any information I give you won’t make a difference in the end. This world will die sooner or later. Either you will be ground down by the legions or one of the masters’ greater servants will be sent here to accelerate the process. Now, I believe it is my turn to ask some questions.” Lanek nodded and waved for him to continue.
“You said that you weren’t from around here. What did you mean?”
Lanek shrugged before he answered. “There’s no harm in sharing that information since you yourself are from another world and your people are invading other ones as well. I am not from this world. Although, I have no idea if I’m just from a different world or from a different reality, dimension, or plane of existence. I just kind of woke up here a few months ago and have been trying to survive ever since. By the way, your warforms haven’t exactly made that easy.”
“Interesting. I wonder if there are others like you in the masters’ domain. With so many worlds under their control, it might just be possible.” Now that was information that Lanek refused to share. He didn’t care about outing his own origins, but he was not about to tell the gaunt that other people had been summoned to this world.
Lanek spent the next half hour asking any question that he could think of in terms of the masters and their forces, plans, or powers. Unfortunately, the gaunt was not all that helpful or knowledgeable when it came to those matters. Then again, everything it said could be a lie as well. For its part, the gaunt quizzed him about his homeworld, Caelis, and his companions. It did a good job at making it seem like curiosity, but Lanek had his doubts.
Finally, Lanek eyed the gaunt before standing. “I think that’s all the questions I have, so I’ll just be on my way.”
“Wait, I’m not done with my questions! You agreed to answer me in exchange for my cooperation.” The gaunt said, almost desperately. That was all the information Lanek needed to justify thrusting his spear through the gaunt’s chest and into the wall behind it, causing the gaunt to choke in pain.
“You know, I really was going to let you go. Seriously. But you just had to fuck it all up with your scheming. Did you think I wouldn’t feel it? The connection between you and the ‘warforms’ was easy to detect, especially once you started giving orders. You know the orders I’m talking about. ‘Be silent and encircle this position. Do not let him leave. Take him alive if possible. Kill the animals.’ That shit. However, I do have to thank you for one thing, I have a better idea about how your kind operates and how you are organized. Even if everything else you told me was a lie, I can trust that revelation.”
The gaunt choked out a laugh. “You can trust one other thing I told you. No matter what you do, this world and everyone on it is doomed. Fight if you must, but you will all die.”
Lanek didn’t bother to answer, he simply pulled his spear from the gaunt’s chest and swung it horizontally, the blade easily separating the gaunt’s head from its body. He turned to his companions and waved them toward the surrounding forest.
“Let’s go, we have some hunting to do.”
As Lanek and his companions set off to wipe the gaunt’s reinforcements out, he resolved to return to the monastery and share what he had learned. He was still angry at Ograch and Liv, but he couldn’t let that anger drive him into isolation. They needed each other if they were to have any hope of surviving what was coming for them all.
Man, maybe I should have just stayed dead. At least it would have been more relaxing than suddenly being blessed with the knowledge that we are not facing a mindless horde of monsters, but the cannon fodder of an unknown and vast empire.
This sucks.