-Squirmy Alpha 1-

“No! Please!” Cried the dwarven man, who was desperately trying to crawl away from me. His clothes were dirty and torn. His face was in terrible shape and by that I meant his left eye had been cut out. His nose broken and his mouth bleeding with several of his teeth missing.

This man’s name was once Danny. It was Thimble now. I ran my blade through his back. He screamed and continued to call for help, as I wiggled my obsidian sword in the tight wound, causing his blood to gush and pool on the floor.

Despite his level being over 90, this guy was weak. It was ridiculous how useless humans became when you wear the face of their loved ones.

From what I could see in his soul, he sacrificed his lover to one of the stronger minions, all so he could get away. What a scumbag. If he was a little braver, he could have easily handled that mob.

If even half the players in this city decided to attack us. They would win with very few casualties, but the cowards decided to run and hide. It’s not like they were soldiers. These were people that sat in front of a screen for hours on end.

Untrained and usually afraid to even step outside. In most case’s some were just scared children. Those were the best. They broke so easily.

Just turn into their dad or mom and make them feel safe, only to tell them how much I hate them and wish they were never born. A few horrible truths later-combined with some torture-and their souls are ripe for harvest.

The only bad thing about them is since they were so young their souls often ended up being a bit bland. Like little seeds that haven’t figured out what they’re going to grow into.

My current form was that of this guy’s girlfriend. Not the wife IRL, but a college girl half his mental age. She was a scared girl and clung to this man for not only his protection, but his money.

She even went as far to call him “Daddy” in an attempt to sucker him into caring about her. The deception was so hilariously bad, yet he still fell for it almost immediately. That’s what you get when you live in a delusion I guess. Too bad it backfired on the girl.

She was a freckled red head with blue eyes and this guy. This asshole decided to leave her behind. All because he didn’t want to die. Fake heroes are the worst. “You left me to die you coward! You promised you’d protect me!” I kicked him in the ribs.

He let out a grunt, “Argh! I’m sorry Sam!” he cried trying to crawl away from me. Seeing him in such a pathetic state made me laugh.

He was so afraid he couldn’t even get to his feet and run. I always thought Horror movies were full of shit when the victims fall for no reason and instead of standing back up and continuing to run. They try to crawl and not even in a fast way.

Now I knew that those scenes weren’t all that exaggerated. Instead of being a way to build suspense, it was actually just that the protagonists were cowering in fear and because of that fear. They stayed stuck to the ground-like a child hiding under a blanket.

The man kept ugly crying. Crying men were pretty disgusting. There was nothing flattering about it. Sometimes women could ugly cry like that too.

He stuttered throwing out stupid excuses. “I tried Sam! I tried to save you!”

“Tried… tried!?” I broke character at the sheer audacity. “Okay dude. I was just gonna torture you for a bit, but you are such a fucking piece of shit. No wonder Sam cheated on you. I know you know. Sammy slept with the bartender at that inn you two were staying at.”

I felt the sudden urge to hurt this man. I was never good at controlling my impulses. My face changed, splitting open and turning into a black hole of swirling metal teeth. This was one of my favorite forms. Well, it was favored by all Squirmy’s. The guys eyes went wide with fear.

“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!” he screamed as his right leg disappeared into the swirling blender that was my mouth. I kept the blades dull and swirled his leg around for a good minute. When I was done it came out looking like bloody red ribbons.

Human flesh didn’t really taste that good, but I didn’t mind eating them from time to time. They might taste better cooked, but I didn’t have the skill for that. Regardless of flavor, It was always fun to chew the bones. They were satisfyingly crunchy-like potato chips but much more firm.

The guy went mad after that. Nothing more than a whaling blabbering mess. He was pretty close to dying. I’ll just keep his soul conscious for the time being. His body might die, but he’ll experience everything until his soul gets ripped from that body.

While his soul was crying, his body was limp. I could hear him whimpering and mumbling nonsense, as if he could still control his dead body. Humans were so disgusting. They all lied not just to their loved one, but to themselves.

“God, please help me. I beg you! I’ve never asked for anything in my whole life!” his soul cried.

“Oh, God? Really!?” I laughed “You’re a fucking atheist! Do you really think God will save you!” I laughed so hard that my skin shifted and convulsed.

We were both simultaneously in the material world and in a recreation of it inside his soul. My doing of course. I was pretty good at soul crafting. I was thinking of making five minute craft videos and posting them somewhere.

“Shut up you monster! God forgives!” he cried.

“That’s just what assholes tell themselves to clear their minds of guilt. If you want to go to heaven all you have to do is stop being a pussy. Own your shitty behavior and you’ll be fine.” That was what that goddess bitch said when she chatted Centa’s ear off. Okay, maybe not in those exact words.

The point was, as long as you didn’t feel guilt, purgatory would become a heaven. At the end of the day everyone is responsible for their own torture. Karma isn’t real. Shitty people, like murderers and rapists don’t get punished if they own their shit.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

However if you feel bad about what you did. Then purgatory will tie you too a chair cut out your eyelids and make you watch nickelodeon’s ‘Fred the movie’ on repeat. Even I wasn’t cruel enough to make my victims watch that.

If I was that cruel my purgatory would be a nightmare. No I wanted to go to heaven after all. I gave the man another kick to the ribs solidifying my peaceful afterlife With his pained cries.

“Arrrrgh! You don’t know anything about God! You’re a fucking demon! God forgives!” He denied.

“What’s that thing you atheists like to pray to. Oh Right! *I cleared my throat* Oh, Great and mighty spaghetti monster, if thy truly exist then strike me down now where I stand! Save thy ‘totally loyal’ follower!” I gave it a moment before an inhuman smile made it onto my lips. Then broke into laughter. This was so much fun.

“Shut up demon! The Lord will save me! Please, I promise to never drink again!” he begged.

“Don’t be an idiot, Dokeshi doesn’t give a shit about you. You’re like that guy at the beginning of every episode on a crime show. You know, the guy that gets killed within the first 2 minutes. You're just here to give people an understanding of how I torture souls.”

I sighed “You don’t even have a last name Danny. He literally named you after a guy he hates from work.” I kicked him again, the pain happening simultaneously in both worlds. What a disgusting filthy bastard.

“I don’t deserve this! I’m a good person! I recycle!” he cried.

“A good person! Ha! Yeah right! You’re the guy that stole his female workers used gum from under her chair and chewed it! I’ll tell you right now. It wasn’t her gum. It belonged to your other co worker Josh. He secretly traded chairs with her because her chair was more comfortable.” I insisted.

“No that’s not true! I didn't do that! You're lying! I would never!” yelled the dwarf.

“Oh, but it’s true. Say remember when you were a teen and you used to steal your cousins panties. That was so gross dude! You even wore them for days and never washed them once! Disgusting!”

“You don’t know anything! Shut up! That never happened!” he cried as snot began to leak alongside the tears. I backed off and thought about this guys life a bit more.

Another angle then. “Your current wife doesn’t love you. She can’t stand you. She has a side peace. She's only stuck around because you were paying all her bills.”

“I know!” he yelled. “Shut up! Just kill me already! Dooo it!”

I smiled and chuckled in his face. Snapping my fingers the walls collapsed revealing a white board under our feet with a grid pattern. “Oh, honey. You’re already dead. This is your hell. You’ve been dead for a few minutes now.” he screamed while thrashing on the ground murmuring about how he was going to kill me.

Humans are disgustingly evil for the fact that they lie about their sins to make themselves feel better. Its so crazy, because these people believe their own lies. At the very least my motives have always been clear. I might be considered evil, but at least I own it.

Since he’s evil, should I have let him live? Would killing him be something a good person would do, or did that align more with evil? That was when I realized something. Was I actually evil for simply wanting to eat souls? I’m only acting within my nature after all.

He had a soul full of juicy quintessence. I wanted it. Was that so bad? Good, evil, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was more power for Legion.

His soul was pretty much broken already, but he still needed a little more. Just a push. I could see the madness growing on the edges of his soul—like red mold. All he needed was one more traumatic experience.

As alpha, my job was to ensure that the centipedes have a clear path forward. That meant killing off any powered individuals, but even though these were the orders I got from the Boss. I still made sure to chase down the stragglers.

Specifically the ones that might put up a fight. After all, the Betas would probably have trouble taking this guy out. Not much trouble, but it was possible this guy could gain the upper hand in a one on one fight.

The Betas had the smallest souls after all. Mine was around the 4th rank and was close to the next threshold. A little more quintessence and I’ll be closer to becoming something more.

The dwarf on the ground withdrew a potion from what he thought was his hot bar. In truth, he conjured it through memory and passive control of his quintessence.

It didn’t matter if he drank it, because this was only in the soul space I created. It might fix the wounds done to his spirit body, but that was it. This was a good opportunity for more torture.

He tried to drink it, spilling drops of quintessence on the floor. That stuff would just mix with the soul itself, so it wasn’t a waste. The man before me was only the ego of the soul. Not the whole thing.

With a slash I managed to cut off his hand, causing the potion to fall and roll under a table. The blade I held was made of antessence. It didn’t have the same attributes as the sword I held in the material world. It was simply good at cutting.

“Give it back! *sob* Give me back my life. I need it.” He cried.

I shook my head then grabbed him by his last leg. Not only did I hold it in the soul space. I also held it in the material world. The dwarf thrashed in the soul space, as I dragged him. It was pointless.

The soul space reverted back to that empty home. I mirrored everything once more making sure he would feel and see everything that would happen. I even used some antessence to bind his ego with invisible chains that would make him just as immobile as his dead body.

What a pathetic person. I hope the Boss just eats him. I’d hate to see what kind of Squirmys are born from his soul fragments. I doubt he qualified for an override. His weakness would make a horrible base.

He began offering me things. I had no need for money or items. While greed was well aligned with me. It was quintessence and power that I wanted, not material possessions. Even Immortality was only a milestone.

With absolute power, I could have anything and everything I wanted. The world already belonged to me, he just didn’t know it yet. His soul belonged to Legion. To the Boss.

What I truly desired was the multiverse in the palm of my hand. Did that make me a Buddhist? Can a demon even be a Buddhist? It sounded counter productive.

I shrugged my shoulders before pulling the guy’s mutilated body outside. I threw him into the middle of the road and whistled a high pitched sound, “Come on! It’s chow time, ya bunch of ungrateful bastards!”

“No! NOOOOO!” the guy cried in the soul space, before a bunch of minions pounced on his body tearing his flesh apart. Some of them dropped down from the roof tops, others crawled out from the alleyways and it was all projected into the soul space.

It was like watching a pack of wolves tear a baby deer apart. Shifting my skin I went ahead and adopted my Aku Black form. It was my preferred shape after all.

Some of the blood splattered on my dress, but that was okay since it was black anyway. The minions only worked to sever the soul from the body by devouring the strings connecting it to the flesh, bone and goddess. They even got to eat the protective shell around the soul.

Interestingly enough. His soul looked like a 20 sided dice. It was probably from playing DnD for most of his life. It was pretty neat looking.

The Quintessence was quickly converted into antessence, as it entered the minions cores. Most of that power raced back to their primes. Once the primes ascend into the evil spirit rank, the boss can override their souls and turn them into copies of himself.

The actual core left behind went to the Betas. They were basically in charge of looting the bodies. I thought about taking the soul for myself, but was still in the middle of processing a soul or two. I wasn’t expecting that mage to put up so much of a fight, but she’ll break soon.

I withdrew a pack of cigarettes from my inventory, then used a bit of jade fire to light it. It always tasted better with this type of flame. To bad I couldn’t use it when I was home.

I felt a sudden pulse in my chest. I was being paged. “Fucking great, and here I was about to take a smoke break!” tossing my cigarette on the ground, I marched my way back into the residence. Closing the door, I began searching for a nice and comfortable place to lay down.