Chapter 8: Self Destruction (1).
1.
I am going to become a major distraction, setting fire to myself and then to the wooden buildings outside, this will let people know something bad is going on here due to the smoke rising.
The reason I set myself on fire is because the worm-like creatures can't survive heat, so my body will become its natural enemy if it tries to take me over.
And since my body constantly heals itself, the fire won't run out of fuel.
Diana runs over to a couple cabinets and finds me some alcohol and matches.
Her hair is white now, it pisses me off knowing she is excited about me setting myself on fire.
Outside a ton of creatures have convened, waiting for the potential hosts to come outside. I can see animals, adults, children, all waiting like zombies, they aren't making any noise, just waiting. There must be hundreds out there.
Maybe that's how they got this far without being noticed, they just waited instead of causing destruction.
I’m sure they all took over slowly and carefully, I'm pretty sure the hosts could act like normal people if they wanted to.
The alcohol smelt bad as I poured it all over me, soaking my clothes.
"Okay I need to leave this place through the window, then I'll light this match"
I don't know why I was explaining the exact moves I was going to make, especially since they can't help.
I guess I was hoping one of them would object to my plan and find a better one. That didn't happen of course.
"You don’t need to-… good luck," Emily gives up trying to stop me.
"Teach!! This is awesome!! You really are cool you know that? So badass!"
Diana's hair is glowing white, I guess my little act of stupid bravery rubbed off on her.
I go to the second floor and climb up to the roof through a window, if I jump from here I can easily make a run to the middle of the town.
I didn't want to set myself on fire just yet because I didn't want to set this house on fire with Diana and Emily in it.
And also, I didn't know if I was even going to be able to move while in that sort of pain.
I wasn't sure if my muscles would heal faster than the fire would burn them, a gruesome thought.
Burning is one of the worst ways to die I'm pretty sure.
The creatures were now all around the house, just waiting, they haven't noticed I'm on top of the building yet.
I need to lead them away.
Alright, here goes nothing.
I jump off the building, rolling onto the soft grass.
Shit that hurt a lot more than I thought.
I get up and sprint as fast as I can, but my small body can only run so fast.
Instantly the creatures begin to run after me, shooting the worms out towards me.
I dodge and weave through the various animals and humans trying to hold me down and knock me over.
Okay, Okay! Urgh couple worms got me, it's fine. It's fine, I should be fine for a minute or two.
Its fine its fine, it's only a couple worms.
It hurts. It hurts.
I could feel them burying into my body as I ran as fast as I could towards the center of the town. Where the most buildings were, the most fuel.
Why am I doing this? Why do I put so much effort in? What’s the alternative to this?
The perfect spot was about 30 seconds away.
It felt like hours with my adrenaline pumping through me.
I think I lost the ability to control my arm, the worms really work fast huh.
My arm was flailing in the air as if I was having a seizure, making it hard for me to keep balance while running.
I trip and fall, guess I lost the ability to use my legs too,
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Well here goes nothing.
I struggle against myself to grab the match, my other hand trying to stop me, I light the match on the box I placed on the ground and put it near my body.
I erupt into flames.
2.
Diana is sitting on the dusty rocking chair, rocking back and forth, she is fidgeting with her clothes, clearly scared by the situation they are in.
Emily just waits by the window, she was watching Z run through the field, it looked like he was struggling.
Now he is too far away to observe.
"Teach sure is cool huh! It's so awesome what he is doing."
Emily's face twists in anger.
She softly spoke while looking out the window.
"Why couldn't you help him?"
"Huh? Speak up Emily.”
Emily spoke up, spitting out the same question.
"WHY couldn't you help him?"
Diana jumps at the question, she is confused.
“I said why. I'm too weak to help him, besides he is practically immortal so-"
"No. You can clearly help him, Diana. You are just too scared."
Emily turns to face Diana, her eyes piercing her like daggers.
"Don't call me Diana, call me Miss Able or something of higher status, like Master."
Diana's hair goes a little bit red.
Emily looks down at Diana.
"You could solve this whole situation yourself if you actually tried for once, you could've gotten us out of here,
but no, you're too scared, scared of getting hurt, so you gave up.
That's why you stick around people far weaker than you and play with them like toys."
Diana's hair grows redder, it's shaking a bit.
All Diana does is smirk, hiding her insecurities.
"Hmph! I guess trusted teach had a better plan, and besides! I'm not ready to fight yet, you've seen me do sword practice with holly! I'm useless at fighting."
She had no qualms about being called weak to get out of situations that could harm her.
Emily's voice gets louder.
"Z's plan was to set himself on fire and become a living smoke signal, you didn't even try to stop him when you could clearly get us all out of here safely, you don't even try at all, you've never tried at anything Diana."
"I don't appreciate your tone Emily, stop now."
Diana stands up, she is slightly shorter than Emily, so she raises her head high.
Emily doesn't move when Diana steps into her personal space.
"Or what? You're going to kill me? Kill me like you killed my mom?"
Emily's voice is stern now, her usual calm tone is replaced by anger.
Clearly the situation has gotten to her as well.
Diana looks shocked by her words.
"Hey, I never meant to do that."
That seemed to anger Emily even more.
"YOU DID! And now, look at you, all that strength and you decide to hide away like a scared little dog. Making Z go through unimaginable pain just so you don't have to try.
No wonder everyone sees you as a disappointment."
Dianas hair bursts glowing bright red. Strands are reaching out like static lightning, waiting to pierce the person in front of her.
"I've been nice to you Emily, I even saw you as a friend, don't continue to talk down to me."
Emily's eyes don't falter.
"Or what Diana? You're going to rip me apart just because you weren't good enough at piano? Or kill me because I messed up your meal? Or push me off a building because 'I was boring?'
Fucking do it then Diana, I hate you, I hate you so much. Kill me and show me how strong you are."
"You… you can't say these things to me Emily. You're fired. I fire you, how about that? A bit of mercy, I'll make sure you can never get a job again, you'll live with these rats in the outer circle."
Emily slaps Diana.
Diana just stares into the eyes of Emily.
Diana was about to have an outburst, you could tell by how her mouth was trembling in anger, the twitch in her eyes.
She then turns away, looking to be holding back tears.
"Meanie."
That was all she could mutter out.
She walks away, back onto the rocking chair.
Emily is confused, she would usually kill anyone who did even a quarter of what she did today.
3.
Keep moving forward.
It's all I'm good for.
I set myself alight about 120 steps away from my destination, which was this town's bar.
God damn it, not even adrenaline can stop this pain that surrounds my body. It’s getting harder to move.
I saw the bar when we were walking through this place.
I was planning to cause a huge explosion.
But each step I took was extremely difficult, my body was falling apart then healing again and again. The fire was all over my body.
The hosts were just surrounding me, keeping a distance. Too scared to attack me.
Just a little further.
I fell over, urgh I can just crawl.
My body scrapes against the stone ground as I crawl through the street.
Why am I doing this? Why am I putting so much effort into saving everyone?
Is this what I get for being a decent person?
I reach the bar and push the door open, it's empty of people. Good.
The hosts just wait outside, they were obviously confused on how to turn the burning man into a host.
There were various heavy liquors on the shelves, as I crawl in, I set the building alight with my body.
I should just give up, can I die now? I've done my job. This place will explode soon, no doubt this explosion will kill the 200 hosts that followed me, meaning there will be still 1000+ left alive.
I barely dented the total number. That's a shitty thought.
Surely the explosion will kill me. Surely.
Urgh I might as well go out with a bang.
I collect all the liquor and put it in one place, basically making a huge Molotov.
When this building collapses from the heat, these glasses will break and explode everywhere.
This pain sucks. Everything sucks.
Creaking, I can see the wood warping, can't this be any quicker?
It's getting hard to breathe.
Fine, I'll just open the bottle myself.
Twist, a popping sound, almost immediately flames reach the bottle.
And.
3.
The crystals in the sky were a nice bright shade of white, signaling it was the middle of the day.
Immy was walking through the markets in the outer circle, something she liked to do in her time off.
Now that her daughter had a new tutor, she could finally indulge in things such as these.
She was wearing the robe she always wore.
Immy was with holly, Diana's sword trainer.
Holly is by Immy's side as a bodyguard.
"So, when is Sophie getting here?"
Immy looks down at holly, holly was the below average height for a girl but Immy was tall for a girl and always wore high heels, making her seem huge in comparison.
Holly was wearing light leather armor, it did not go well with her incredibly pale skin.
"She is probably running late, we are supposed to meet at the adventurer hall." Immy holds a finger to her mouth, pondering.
"But we are not at the adventurer hall?"
"You are right! Let's go then!"
Immy was a strange person.
The adventurer hall was a place where you could exchange outside goods for cash, such as modern material and equipment like walkie talkies, batteries or scrap metal.
They arrive at the adventurer hall swiftly, Sophie had invited Amelia to come along on this fun market shopping day.
She did not look excited. Ever since seeing her brother again she has been in a downward spiral, Sophie has been worried about her so she brung Amelia everywhere she went.
Sophie was wearing a blue dress that went well with her blue tinted hair, while Amelia was just wearing basic rags, something a poor person in the outer circle would wear.
Holly jumped at the sight of Sophie.
"SIS!!!!" She ran over and hugged Sophie, squeezing her tight.
They were twins.
Sophie smiles "glad you're doing well holly, how's Diana doing?"
"She is still crap at swordplay, but I'm trying my best"
Holly gives Sophie a teethly grin then turns her head towards Amelia.
"Hey Amelia! Haven't seen you in ages how have you been?"
Amelia doesn't reply.
"Amy has been in a bit of rut recently, she probably doesn't want to talk about it"
Holly doesn't understand but agrees not to dig too deep.
Immy is just standing a bit away, enjoyingly watching the conversation.
Sophie speaks up "so Immy, what's the special occasion? you rarely invite us out to places."
Immy adjusts the robe she is wearing.
"Oh, you know, just had some free time off, wanted to see you and also ask you something."
"Oh? What is it?"
"I can't ask you while Amelia is here."
That gave away pretty quickly what Immy was going to ask, it had something to do with the monster that looked like Amelia's brother.
"Gotcha, we will talk about it later."
Sophie pats Amelia on the back.
Just then the faint sound of an explosion in the distance echoes through the cave.
Holly jumps "woahhhhh that was cool!!"
Immy takes a few steps back, trying to find out where the explosion came from.
After 30 seconds of thinking she began to shake.
Smoke was far east, in the corner of the city, it was barely visible due to how far away it was.
"Sophie, Holly, Amelia we need to go to Baker's estate"
Sophie looks confused.
"Like Miss Baker? That crazy woman? Why's that?"
Immy looks genuinely concerned, it's the most emotion she has shown to these girls.
"That's where my daughter is right now, and that's where the explosion was."
End of Chapter 8.