Something out of the horrors, the old tales that had aged over the eras to leave roots of superstition in the minds of men. When their race was young and the world was full of inhuman monsters and great evils. Nearly extinguishing the light of sentient life from in an era of constant bloodshed, it didn't seem so unrealistic anymore. Willis was groaning and twitching uncontrollably. Tual did his best to cast as many healing smells on the man as possible, but all it did was make the change faster. Mundane light cantrips, meta spells, blessing and sanctification, none of it was working.
“Willis! Hang on, man!” Lina cried out, shaking him by the gorget and trying to pull free the expanding mass of fibrous white fur sprouting all over him. She couldn't lose him, near the point of madness in her desperation. Everything they tried, the thing engulfing him was implacable, that thing that spoke from his lips and was near to taking her adoptive father from her. But he was gone, she knew it, they all knew it. When his right eye stopped moving and settled, whatever amounted to the soul had left his body, and in turn left them shaking in wordless terror. “...Willis.” She repeated, unable to make peace with what she was seeing.
She had told them, hadn't she? To leave. If he'd listened... That stubborn old bastard. Lina was no stranger to loss, but Willis had seen scores of battles and always came back unscathed. Why the gods had sought to take him from this world in such a foul manner was beyond her. Had his faith not been strong enough? Why hadn't the goddess helped one of her chosen ones?
“Fuck! Is that going to happen to us...? Oi....” Tual cried out, frantically rubbing his face and working his hands all over as if searching himself for invisible spiders. Except for the sharp intake of breaths, Willis' ever quieting groans, or the tiny tinkering of the creatures below, the place was silent. The black tree above lording over them like some demonic tyrant, uncaring of their insignificant lives, so out of concern with the expansion it yearned for. “Shit. I don't want to die, not like that. Fuck. What the fuck is this!? Goddess, merciful Nyx, spare a shred of mercy for your sons and daugh--”
“You?” Willis turned, his skin beginning to visibly gray until his bones were spat free from the confines of his armor through flesh turned liquid. A startlingly sudden process of blight and decay that ended with his face. Forming into ropy gray worms that folded and writhed, taking the shape of a slender humanoid that wriggled itself free of the breastplate, leaving a pile of perfectly intact armor behind. “Not you. Only He, We, You, I, Us. And... She.” What had been Willis pointed to the half-dwarf in the party, the only other non-human member that had answered the call. She too was patterned with the white tufts of downy fiber, taking on a similar appearance, sinking into the roots that pattered every surface of the chamber.
“Filth!” Lina howled, in equal parts rage and grief, drawing her hands close into a steeple of fingers, rapidly casting a level two fire spell. These things were clearly focused on maintaining the moisture that sustained them, removing all sources of light besides Tual's flare spell. “Fireb--” The fire didn't manage to leave her fingertips, snuffed out by a root that unlatched itself from the ground and began to wind around her wrist and body like a snake. Others joined it, slithering through the gaps in their armor and hanging them aloft below the great tree.
“Fire is for father. None other. Fires for your home, We do not care. Fires here? Heresy. But We are forgiving. We know your people are children of the father, as We are. Above us, so we forgive. But no more, understand?” The thing tutted in more voices than one abruptly cutting itself off before the sound of it warped and twisted, changing into a cloud of formless dust before reappearing as a face within the trunk of the black tree. It moaned and gasped in a thousand-voiced ecstasy, staring at them with eyeless sockets, orbs of dull blue mana that must have served as its ocular receptors. It looked like one of the faceless war masks more common in the far south, gnarled like the bark of a tree, made up of hundreds of independent fibers all knotted together into one vague and ever-writhing shape. “Understand?”
“Return to the hells that spawned you, creature!” Lina shook violently against the roots, but no matter how many she tore free, they would reform themselves and take a tighter hold. Three attempts and she was constricted so firmly that she could barely breathe, let alone howl threats of doom from her goddess. A goddess who didn't come.
“We are there. We are here. We will be everywhere. Father knows of your hypocrisy but forgives you for it. Us is his speaker, and you shall be the first to listen. The one who will see Our first coming, one of many, for the father.”
“Are you the leader... Of these... What are you?” Tual recovered his wits to the best of his ability, shuddering under the unnatural aura exuded by the creature, but it didn't feel like they were under any threat. He couldn't care less about the dwarves, as sad as it was to lose Willis, he wanted to live. If they were just a bunch of racist root people, that was no concern of his...
“No kings. No gods. Only We and father. Mycelians, they call us. The touchers. The only other hands that will know life on this earth when His great vision comes to pass. We, the children.” It's voice was like a groan on the wind, the rasp of thousands of those tentacles rubbing against one another. Almost formless, heard through more than just the ears.
“Who is the father?” Tual asked. Clearly, this race... One he'd never heard of before – worshiped a god, some monotheistic faith devoid of a proper pantheon. If they could draw some comparison, perhaps they'd escape this, there were many gods beyond counting, and demi's shared the same as men more often than not. “Is he your god?”
“No gods!” The creature repeated angrily, the first sign of emotion lacing its voice. “Only father. Of the flame and the light and the growth. He who's radiance bathes all, makes pure, lord of all light and faith. Our great protector, your great protector. For You, and I, and We, and Us, but not Them.” The thing hissed in hatred at whatever target had earned its ire. “Never them. Foul things. Disgusting things. Things who want gone We and Us and You and the children. Thing who hate us and revile us, fear us, those who should not be. Unclean things... Understand?”
“...”
“Are you responsible for what happened here?” Lina asked calmly, feeling the roots relax to give her the opportunity to breathe and speak again. Whatever they were, they were horrific creatures, some terror spawned of the void, true monsters, and the tree weeping black liquid in an artificial rain was clearly their lifeline. If she could destroy it, she knew that they'd be gone from the city. But if left a great deal of how left to the imagination, it's mana was so thick now as to be near solid, but it wasn't one whole structure. Each root was an artery, like some... Impossibly populous hive of sorts, a very living circulatory system. Given time to see, she understood that it had even suffused the air in a mass of spores, twirling around and dancing along her skin but never entering her lungs as they had done to Willis.
“Yes. We are. Our great gift. To make all one before the father. Not you. You, of course, You celebrates the father most, except for We and I. But not you. Understand?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Lina had always had a sharp mind. She was an academic first and a warrior second, and now a paladin and servant of a water goddess, those who prized knowledge most of all the elemental houses, but all the serving she'd done on this path served her not at all. She couldn't understand. This things intelligence was too alien, a colony that existed only to propagate, assimilate, and drive forward in respect to the will of this 'father' of theirs.
“Why don't you kill us?” Lina asked, mourning in her deepest parts at the loss of Willis, but this went beyond her individual concerns. If this thing were loosed into the wider world... All of Varia could fall, it would take centuries to cleans this taint from the earth, she doubted even a primus could guarantee it. “Why only the dwarves?”
“Dwarf? We do not care for the race they are, only that which they are not. You are foolish, and He knows this. I know this. You do not see. They do not deserve to live, because they are weak and divergent creatures. Creatures who cannot see as we do. Only those of genetic purity will be allowed to remain once this world has been shaped to fathers divine plan. You are the kin of the father and so we will forgive. Only you lesser things and touchers are allowed life, friends of the father. This dwarf? No friend. We are friends. I, You, and Me, all friends here. Under root and tree below wet earth we come to cut away that which is impure. We serve. In time, you'll all serve, by fathers will. All will serve, with Us. Decay must take the land before new life is bred from the remains of a rotting body.”
“So...” Lina alighted on the floor of the throne room as the roots released from from their hold. Gently. Friends, indeed. “Let me get this straight, you want to exterminate all inhuman races?”
“This is not far from the truth.”
“You want to do this for... For this father of yours, because he told you so?”
“Because it is right.” The thing corrected. “Father gives life. Could command if he wants, but father is gone now. We can no longer feel him. He will be returning to reward us for our long toil, to lead us in the final battle against the Great Enemy. We have seen it in the roots and the rot, we are the blight that walks and the scourge that talks. We see, eyes open, yours remain closed.”
“Then why do you want to exterminate them at all? If he didn't tell you to... This father of yours, I presume he is human, right? What makes you so sure he wants this life for you? Guessing at the will of the divine is a tricky thing. I serve my own... Er... Mother?” The thing tensed until she elaborated. “She is like a mother to this father of yours. If he is a man, she is not his enemy.” It relaxed, bidding her to continue in a smooth mockery of human movement, or dwarven, she had no idea how to classify these things by anything other than monster.
“Because it is right.” The monster ambulated its tendrils in a nonchalant sort of way. It undulated violently for a moment, staring up at the sky with the bright orbs that sat where eyes should be. “We shall cleanse this land. You would not understand the will that guides us, you who are huddled over candles while we embrace the sun.”
“Alright. We will serve this father of yours.” Lina said, and the thing showed some honest glee, bursting from the tree again and wiggling its limbs happily. It was almost... Childish, so young and sincere...
“This is good!” It rasped, vibrating along every fiber that composed its body. “Father is lonely, we cannot help him but you can. We knows he is in terrible pain, and yearns for something we cannot provide, to be loved and accepted. Go to the land of green mountains and meadows to the north and you will find him!”
Tual and Lina nodded at one another near imperceptibly, they knew enough. One was a healer well acquainted with virus' and parasites, and Lina was academic enough, she'd expected the dialogue to be... A bit different, if she was honest. She, as a proper paladin, was aware of all sorts of evils in the world. Mages, chimera, the undead and the mythical lich that sat at the peak of their particular race. Madmen and madder monsters, and more beyond that. In the stories, they always cackled and exalted evil, but this thing... It exalted evil, of course, believing it was right to cleanse the world of nonhumans. But it did so at the behest of something else, something that may not be man. Perhaps one of the 'dark gods' that existed only in the deepest legends of the Eight Pillars texts.
She'd almost feel bad for killing it, the thing wasn't evil, it was just alive. Revolting goals aside, it was friendly and there was a sincere promise in every word, sharing plans with them that no villain should see the need to, promising to let them live. When, clearly, it was motivated by hunger more than anything else. A yawning hunger and need to grow like nothing else, buzzing in the back of her mind she could feel the desire to assimilate her, to feed and propagate and spread. They stood beneath the weeping black tree, the oily liquid nourishing its roots in a profound cycle of decay and rebirth.
Lina had been caught off guard, but not now. Given time to prepare by these organisms, not reacting whatsoever to her gathering mana. It only stared at her, placid and faceless. She'd served with Tual for three years, longer for some of the more veteran members of their order. Acting as one in putting in end to this before it got out of control. Lina felt the string of fire run through her body, hot and ready to be released, and Tual did the same – casting as one with their arms extended.
“Firebolt!” She cried, punching her fist through the air and letting loose with a condensed bolt of blue streaked crimson. Her long legs spreading to open her root, prepared to continue raining punishment on the thing.
“Molten Veins!” Tual shouted, scorching the roots around him as his body became a living torch. It shrieked, both the tree itself and the mockery of the human form below it. Within seconds, the fire spread until the entire chamber was wreathed in billowing flame and black smoke. Everything was screaming now. The walls, the floors and ceilings, but most of all – the tree. It's branches and roots flailed about, catching the still burning Tual and smothering him like a wet blanket. Screeching from the mouths splitting its surface in an ear shattering din, shaking the whole keep in its exclamation of agony.
Tual sizzled, struggling against the grip on him, screaming with exertion until he lost control of the spell. The smoking roots around him twitched and convulsed as they slithered between the gaps in his breastplate. Worming their way into his armor and covering him with wet, black tendrils. “Help me!” His voice a desperate and horrified plea, feeling them open his plate like the shell of a crab and bury themselves in his skin. “C-Capt... Hel... AHHHH!!!” He shrieked in unbridled agony as the fibrous fingers began to extend throughout his body, carrying him skyward – arms held wide and legs limp as if to mimic the form of the black tree above it all. In crucifixion, hung there like a scarecrow.
Still burning, it had enough mind to defend itself. Lina and the others would have helped, if they'd not been caught in similar circumstances. Held aloft and rapidly drained of life, with only her left alive and suspended. Their shrieks of pain and horror drowned out by the roots forcing themselves through their eyes and open mouths, while she was forced to watch it all. Watch as they sank beneath the earth along with the black tree leaving nothing behind but her bleeding body, the dying flames, and the thing that had once been Willis.
“You are like the father, but not they, their trickery had blinded you to their deceit and impurity. Humans cannot be trusted, We thanks you for this information, child of the sun. Go to the land of green mountains and meadows, the father will show you the way. Our way.” It nodded curtly, speaking in a frigid tone, before worming its way into the split gaps in the floor to parts unknown. Empty and despondent, Lina collapsed on the cold, wet floor. Feeling as desolate as the room she'd entered with twenty four, limping away as one.