Soon we reached the largest building in the entire city. More precisely, we reached a high fence, inside which we were carried through a gate. From the outside, this 'architectural ensemble' looked like a palace, but inside it became clear that the local population does not have the materials that can form a ceiling or roof with such a size of spans. So inside this 'Palace' looked more like a pigsty yard.
The fattest Toad-faced humanoid I'd ever seen came out to meet us. He was dressed in a ragged, filthy robe that had once belonged to someone quite tall and thin, so that the ragged edges of this 'robe' dragged in the mud, and the robe did not come together on his stomach, exposing the swollen belly of this 'priest'. However, judging by his behavior, this was indeed a priest of the Swamp God.
The leader of the detachment dropped to his knees in front of him and began to praise the loot he had captured on the border of the swamp. The priest listened to the praises and nodded favorably.
"Swamp God will be glad to receive this sacrifice.” - He said cheerfully, carefully examining me. The surrounding Toad-faces responded with cheers.
"Hey, you toad.” - I addressed to him. - "If you don't let me out now, I will destroy your entire miserable city and I will sacrifice you to your god."
At this speech of mine, the priest only laughed, wrapping his hands around his enormous belly to prevent it from bursting. When he had finished laughing and wiped away his tears, he waved to the porters and walked away, paying no more attention to me.
We were taken directly in cages in some shed with a rotten roof, and then put on the ground. The porters came out, and only one of the guards was left next to us.
"You probably thought you were the smartest." - He turned to me mockingly. - "Only we're smarter than you. This cage is indestructible because it is fueled by the magic of our Swamp God. Your sacrifice will take place at sunset today. You, along with the cage will be thrown into the bottomless swamp, and you will forever rot in it, feeding our God with your torments. I advise you to breathe for the remaining hours, because then you will not have such an opportunity. Ha-ha.”
With these words the guard left the barn, leaving us alone.
"What should we do?" – Keldrun worried, trying unsuccessfully to break the cage. Unfortunately, his knife couldn't even scratch it. - "We are doomed!"
"I warned you." - I grinned at him. - "Now, instead of hanging in the forest, you'll rot in the swamp. Okay, don't make any noise. I need to focus.”
I had several ways to free myself from captivity. The fact that they left me alone, and even without supervision, was their biggest mistake. The most radical way, perhaps, would be to open another breakout of Chaos. However, this method did not suit me very well, because it jeopardized the very possibility for me to continue the journey. But there were other options.
Now I was going to use the first of them. Despite its near certainty, this world was still a dream world, and therefore had the same limitations. If the images of this world began to contradict themselves, they simply collapsed and deformed. My first, not even an attempt, but just a test, was to turn into a fog and seep between the bars of the cage. Unfortunately, it didn't work. As I had already seen, it was impossible even to put one's hand between the bars. It was as if an invisible force field was holding me back.
So, the next step I started to influence the world around me, changing its geometry. Space was distorted, twisted, and passed through itself, and the cage was distorted with it. I was in the form of a fog at that moment, so I didn't feel any discomfort. I didn't even have to do the trick of turning the cage inside out. As soon as one wall tried to pass through the other, they immediately came into conflict with each other, which caused the entire cell to literally fall apart.
I flew aside and gathered myself back into my anthropomorphic form. As I expected, no one even noticed my release. The Toad-faces naively relied on the invulnerability of the cage, even without leaving a guard. Or rather, the guards decided not to waste their time on us and went to rest. From the outside, the cage was not as invulnerable as it was from the inside, so within seconds, Keldrun was free.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Well, now it's time to arrange a demonstrative destruction of this city.” - I told him my plans.
"Can't we just sneak out?" - He suggested cravenly.
“Where are you going to run?” - I asked. - "There are swamps and bottomless bogs for hundreds of kilometers around. We are in the very center of the Swamp God's domain; with his power it will not be difficult for him to find us.”
"Then why did we come here?" - The hunter panicked.
"I don't know why you're here, but I have a plan. And now I will act according to it.”
With these words, I kicked the doors of the shed and got out. For the past three days, I have not only enjoyed the 'beautiful views' outside my compartment window, but I have also tried to master the control of another force. There was no magic in this world, and all power was based on the ability to clearly imagine the essence of the impact, its form and consequences. In the boiler room of Freddy Krueger burned 'eternal fire', and now I remember the feeling of this infernal flame, creating around myself fire ribbons, balls and blades.
As soon as they saw me, the Toad-faced guards rushed toward me, drawing their weapons on the move. Alas, my fire was faster. Ribbons of fire shot out in all directions, wrapping around the fat, disgusting toads, causing them to burn, smoke, scream, and roll on the ground, and forgetting about the attack. The most zealous were met with fire blades that cut off hands and feet. Just a minute later, the interior of the 'Palace' began to resemble an inferno's breakthrough.
The first time I had to stop myself in order to convince attackers that they are capable to defeat me, and only need to gather enough troops. But when I was sure that everyone who wanted to had already joined the battle, I started to fight in full power, burning down the whole vile settlement along with the inhabitants. The mud boiled around them, stinking smoke rose to the sky, and the screams of the Toad-faces burning to death echoed for miles around.
I assumed that I would have to look for a long-time priest to execute my threat, but he rushed at me, waving some type of rod. Following the movements of this 'magic artifact', streams of swamp water fell on me. But in addition to fire, I had telekinesis, so I was able to banal deflect these streams, boil them, and then bring them down on the Toad-faces themselves. Then I rushed to the priest, snatched the staff from his charred paws, and began to torture him, slowly roasting him on my fire.
As I expected, the priest could not stand this treatment and called upon his Swamp God. Unfortunately, God was in no hurry to come to help, so when the pain became unbearable, the priest sacrificed himself to his deity, tearing his soul from his body.
After that, the waters of the swamp near the city began to boil, and out came a disgruntled and angry Toad Boss. Judging by its size, it would require about twenty people in raid, but I was not afraid. Streams of fire rushed to the new enemy and began to fry it, completely ignoring attempts to protect themselves with water. After all, my fire was not an image of a chemical reaction of fuel oxidation in atmospheric oxygen. It was a fire whose power lay in the nuclear reaction of the decay of heavy elements. I was creating a radioactive gas that started to heat up when a certain concentration was reached. And as long as I controlled this gas with telekinesis, it could not go out, even if it was mixed with water or mud.
Swamp God tried to attack me, but I simply stayed at a safe distance, levitating a couple of dozen meters above the surface of the swamp. I led this stupid toad to a relatively dry spot, and then used fire and telekinesis to cut its belly and pull out a huge stone millstone. My compass highlighted this object as a destination.
Alas, even the autopsy did not reduce the friskiness of this toad. On the contrary, it began to jump twice as high, since it was no longer restrained by the weight of her belly. This confrontation threatened to drag on for a long time, because like me, the toad was a 'Thing by itself', and therefore could completely ignore all damage done to its body. So, I saw the moment, rushed to my opponent, coming from behind, and then plunged my most terrible weapon into it.
When I changed my appearance, I removed the glove with the blades from my right hand. But since this weapon itself had a connection to the circle of sacrifice, I did not destroy it, but placed the three blades inside my hand just as they were placed inside the Wolverine's hand in the X-Men. Now I pulled out these blades and stuck them right in the back of the local God's head. It only had time to howl plaintively, then the demons reached to its soul and yanked it out of his body, leaving only the image of the decomposing corpse of a giant frog in the dream world.
By this time, I had already destroyed most of the city's population. But after the death of the toad boss, all survivors met the same fate as their god. The Swamp God had power over the souls of those who served to it. So, in just a few seconds, it yanked them out of this world and into a world of Chaos. As a result, the remnants of the city's inhabitants died, and I had no one to fight with.
When I reached the stone millstone, I put it on its side and found that the surface of the stone was covered with various lines and writing, forming a clever magical structure. Keldrun came up to me and stared at the mysterious signs that glowed with a mysterious mystical light.
"Oh, so you survived?" - I asked, glancing at my companion.