Chapter 44: The Monster And The Flame Blood

--- Eric Campbell ---

Continuing through the maze of flesh and darkness, he left a thin trail of blood everywhere he went, a golden thread to find his way out of the abyss. (Just got to find the minotaur first.)

A task made harder by how the maze seemed to be far larger than what the outside of the building had presented. (Fucking Madness messing with my perception…)

Out of all the magics in the world, that one was his least favorite if only due to what kind of monstrosities reveled in that particularly eldritch might. Something only reinforced by all of the dismembered corpses he found, and the faint laughter he could hear echoing from everywhere with sadistic glee. (A laughter that’s only growing louder…)

Entering another room filled with a sickening squelching, the flame in his hand revealed something that while looking human, had every instinct in his body screaming that it wasn’t. A state that not even the strongest of the mutts had ever stirred in him. (Even the Pale Wolf at least felt natural.)

The thing in front of him did not.

With its arms elbow deep inside of a corpse stood what appeared to be a pale man with shaggy black hair wearing a black and silver uniform of some kind. An appearance that was stretched thin as the shadows cast by Eric’s flame seemed to wreathe around the monster, as if the darkness disliked the very idea of giving up the creature to the light.

Instinctively he knew that (whatever the fuck) this thing was he needed to kill it (and preferably with fire) he began to boil his blood to build up the power necessary to cast something far outside the norm of his skirmishes with mutts.

Unfortunately, before he could do anything the monster’s eyes snapped to him as its grin grew just a little too wide for a human face. “Why hello there~ I didn’t know there were any people left in here. If I did I would’ve given you a proper welcome~”

Not liking the sound of that, but knowing that he needed to stall for more time to boil his blood, he asked the creature, “Are you the one responsible for all of this?”

“Well, that depends.” The monster pretending to be a man answered before gesturing towards the walls. “If you mean this, then no. I am not. Don’t get me wrong, the aesthetic is pleasing, but the actual construction is… a little too clean for my tastes. But if you meant this…” The monster gestured to the room around them, and the shadows seemed to withdraw, letting the light of his flame reach corners of the room it hadn’t moments prior to reveal a number of dismembered corpses littering the floor as they had much of the warehouse. “Well that is all me~”

He swallowed, really wishing he’d gone back for Catherine or maybe even Alex right about now. (Come on, you’ve helped Cat out with her hunts before… whatever this thing is you can kill it… you just need… a hell of a lot of fire.)

The monster gave him an amused grin, as if it could sense his fear and his attempts to resist it.

“If you aren’t responsible for all of this do you know what is?” He frowned, not entirely sure if he could trust the creature’s word but also hoping to learn something of value.

“Nope~” The creature smiled. “Don’t care either, I mean I’m enjoying the fact that these meat puppets feel pain but… the lack of screams is so… boring.” The monster looked at him. “Though that shouldn’t be a problem for much longer~”

The flame in his hand sputtered for a moment, the room falling into darkness for but a second before light returned revealing the monster to have disappeared.

Responding on instinct he dove forward as panic began to consume his heart, but despite his best efforts he still felt claws scratching along his back just before he hit the floor.

“Oh, what a shame I was going to snap your spine so you couldn’t run.” The monster casually confessed as Eric turned to face it, flame in hand.

Burning some of the power he’d build up he threw out a wave of flames to force the creature back only for it to simply step through the flames, uncaring of the cinders beginning to cling to its bloodstained clothing.

The monster’s eyes flashed with amusement as its grin stretched wide. “Then again it’s more fun when they run~ So how about I give you a headstart?” It bent over to his eye level. “Let’s say the count of ten? One~”

Refusing to run he threw both of his hands forward, unleashing a stream of fire at the monster hoping to incinerate it before it could realize its overconfidence.

“Two~” The monster’s voice chimed over the roar of the flames. “Three~”

He killed the flame, feeling it begin to drain on his reserves in spite of its apparent ineffectiveness.

“Four~” The monster continued as the flames faded to reveal the monster unharmed beyond a few holes in its clothes.

Realizing that he was going to need to be smarter about this he climbed back to his feet as the monster counted to, “Five~”

Pulling on his blood he reached out for the connection all of his bloodline held to the rest, because even if he was too far for it to reach Alex, Cat, or anyone else who could help him, he was however in a room full of the dead of his bloodline. (And I doubt they’ll mind helping me kill this fucker.)

“Siiix~” Said fucker slowly drawled out as if it had all the time in the world to kill him.

Using the lessons Alex had spent years teaching him, he spread out threads of his blood spread out to the bodies of his Bloodline, wielding the connection that made them all family and in some cases closer than to gain ever more power.

“Seven~” The monster sadistically sung out.

Unfortunately, whether because he lacked his mentor’s mastery of the blood or because he lacked the man’s unshakable faith in the connection their blood provided, he found something refusing to relinquish their blood. In fact, he could’ve sworn something was actually trying to pull the blood from him.

An elated, “Eight~” had him deciding that he had more immediate problems as he pulled on what power his dead brethren were willing to offer him.

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Between his hands a sphere of Blood and Flame began to build before he pushed it all towards the monster, who didn’t even bother to move out of the way as the sphere impacted it point blank in the chest.

The explosion was significantly larger than anything he could manage on his own, the force of it enough to launch him off of his feet and onto his back as he was blasted away, the flames of his spell devouring half of the room.

“Fu-uck…” He coughed, beginning to boil the blood in his chest to clear his lungs while trying very hard not to think about the gory mess he was picking himself out of.

(Well, at least that monster is-) “Nine~”

He froze before slowly turning back towards the flames now engulfing everything in front of him, including the now shirtless monster that stood uncaring of the flames eating away at its flesh, a smile on its face as it watched the terror grow on his own.

“Ten!” The monster called as it crouched into a leaping stance.

More on terrified instinct than any actual thought he turned around and took off running, even as mad laughter followed at his heels.

--- Mathias Grimm ---

Murdering the meat puppets had been fun for the first dozen or so, and while their pain had been more than enough reason for him to keep at it, the longer he did so the more he realized how lacking they were towards his usual prey.

No screams, no begging, no fighting, and most importantly no growing looks of horror as they realized death was imminent. (It was all just so… mechanical.)

Which is why it was such a relief when the little hunter stumbled upon his last massacre of the constructs controlled by the creature in charge of this little festival of flesh and blood.

The hunter had of course tried to kill him like so many foolish idiots before him, but just like everyone else that tried to burn him at the stake the man quickly realized he would not die so long as there were people to kill. A task that always made him itch the longer he went without working towards it. (Makes me wonder how Nicholas can get by with just his ‘naughtiness quota’... Then again Nicholas is special for a reason.)

Regardless, once he’d finished the countdown the man had begun running through the halls just as he’d been hoping for. A game that would guarantee the man’s meat was filled with that savory sweetness that could only come from a steadily growing sense of terror.

Terror that told him exactly what halls to take through this maze of flesh as he pursued his prey at a steady peaceful walk, knowing that the Madness in the air would twist in his favor, bring him closer to his prey even as it made things ever worse for the panicking meatbag he was about to feast upon.

Honestly, the only way to make all of this better would be if he could gut one of those bitches holding his brother back. (Who knows, I might get lucky. Subject J has always been so high-strung, maybe the loss of control will give her a heart attack.)

--- Jessica ---

“What has he done now?!” She couldn’t help but hiss as the whole warehouse shook from an explosion that she knew was outside of Mathias’s normal parameters.

“I knew I shouldn’t have left him alone…” She groaned, watching as the flesh walls began to move clearly agitated by whatever Mathias had done.

At first she’d been content to simply follow orders and monitor him, but as his horrible attitude and sadistic delight began to wear at her she decided to take Vanessa’s advice for once and stretch her orders, following just the spirit rather than both the spirit and the wording as she preferred. Which is why she’d let Mathias get out of her immediate line of sight, while keeping him close enough that she could hear him before he could cause too much trouble.

Trouble that he’d clearly managed somehow.

(Oh, this is why we should always do what the company tells us to!) She thought with no small amount of panic as she began to move through the building, using her bone wings to pick up a pace she couldn’t manage on foot. Something that proved invaluable as she reached the area that was actively burning around her like her mission.

--- Eric Campbell ---

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He cursed, feeling his boiling blood begin to eat away at his actual reserves.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t something he could do much about while trapped in this meat maze, if only because he wasn’t willing to try his luck with whatever had been done to the bodies to merge them with the walls.

Of course that meant nothing helpful, given how the moment he couldn’t fuel his spells any further would also be the moment he couldn’t outrun that monster. Something he was only just doing if the echoing whistle meant anything.

(Damn it, what is with the psychos in this city and fucking whistling?!) At the very least it wasn’t as bad as the Pale Wolf’s static filled nightmare.

It was such a shame Cat failed to claw that monster’s eyes out.

(Not a mistake I’ll be making here.) Because while whatever the fuck that thing was, did terrify him, he’d long since learned to operate on terror. A side effect of the mutts having the other whistling monster in their midsts, even if it wasn’t as active as the others.

After realizing that he couldn’t take the monster on in a straight fight with the power he could call upon he set out in pursuit of every faint trace of his blood he could sense in the warehouse, doing his best to track them down in spite of the meat maze he was trapped in.

If he was lucky he could find enough of them that he could pull out something strong enough to salt and burn this entire hell house, (but that won’t amount to anything if I run out of my own blood first.)

“Ah-ah, is someone getting tired?~” A voice called out from the darkness.

(And it’ll matter even less if that thing catches me.) He couldn’t help but grimace as the blood in his veins boiled just a little hotter as he tried to etch out just a little more speed.

Passing by another vampire corpse he threw a small bullet of blood into it as he passed, not able to stop and slow for anything even resembling his makeshift funeral rites.

“Hmm, killing the puppets before they can extract themselves, prudent.” The monster complimented him.

Part of him was curious what it meant by ‘puppets’ but for his own sanity he was just going to mark it down as part of the monster’s madness.

“Unfortunately…” A hand grabbed him by the back of the neck before throwing him through a wall. “I hate kill stealing.”

Knowing that his life was on the line he quickly threw out a handful of fire bolts, knowing that they’d do nothing to actually hurt the monster in front of him but hoping that it would be enough to at least slow the thing down.

Of course the monster didn’t even flinch, instead waiting until he’d half picked himself off the ground before kicking him back across the floor.

“Now while I personally love kicking a man while he’s down I do sadly have things to do whether I like it or not.” The monster confessed as it brought a foot down on his leg, causing him to scream as the limb broke. “That said, while I can’t give you all the time you deserve, I can fit just enough time in for you to really scream for me.”

“W-wait…” He whimpered out, trying to keep some semblance of focus in spite of the pain erupting from his leg as the monster ground its foot down. “I-I’ve got something to say!”

“Oh, want to beg for your life?” The monster smiled, before crouching down. “Go on then. I’m willing to hear you out~”

He had no doubt that begging wouldn’t do him any good which is why he panted exaggeratedly hoping to buy himself just a few more seconds to make this work.

“I don’t hear any begging~” The monster told him, grabbing him by the throat. “If you really want we can get straight to skinning you alive~”

“N-no.” He whimpered, not entirely exaggerated as the pain in his leg grew worse with the monster’s shifting weight. “I-I’ll talk…”

With all of the willpower he could muster up he looked the monster that was going to kill him in the eye and raised his hand into the air. “Boom.”

The snap of his fingers echoed as he ignited the crimson threads that had connected him to every dead member of his Bloodline within the warehouse, the flames racing away from both man and monster far faster than either of them could react, as the fire moved to unleash the magic that had been building within the bodies of the dead since he’d first discovered them.

The monster had just enough time to give him a grin, “You motherfucker.” before the world erupted in the flames of the dead.