“Mmm…” I droned upon reaching the top of a small mound that overlooked a vast grassy plane at the centre of which sat a large city which was in the middle vast mountain range to the east and tall and steep plateau to the west.

The city’s walls ran from the plateau all the way to a forest at the foot of the mountain meaning there was no real way around.

Countless small settlements and houses could be seen dotted about and countless more humans could be seen swarming around the city’s outer perimeter.

I also spotted strange, large fires that burnt at various points, but they seemed controlled so I ignored them.

I looked at the mountain range and trembled at the thought of having to climb around all of it just to get to the other side of the city.

I then glanced at the plateau and saw that quite a large number of buildings were sitting on top of it.

Getting up there wouldn’t be too much of a problem with Ower’s help, but dealing with the people up there could be… troublesome.

I locked my gaze onto the city and watched as people moved in an out of it under the dim light of the setting sun.

I then frowned as a bright light rose from the city.

It increased in brightness by several folds and it seemed to be getting closer.

“What the-“ I exclaimed just as a gigantic, obese man, bathed in Golden light lashed out to cut off my head with a large meat cleaver.

I sunk into the dark world and watched as he crashed into the ground in an explosion that displaced tons of dirt.

The dust settled and I saw that not only was the man about three meters tall, his large, fatty bits disgustingly swayed from side to side as he moved, but that wasn’t what caught the most of my attention.

No, what perplexed me was the shirt… that was made out of people.

Hanging onto his body, were naked three people, two men and a woman, only they had been sown together in a manner that allowed them to hang from the fat man’s body. They let out low groans and moans as their flesh was held in place by long seems that went all around their bodies.

I looked up into the fat man’s golden eyes and saw that he was looking straight at me.

“What brings you here, dark one?” He asked but I had no plans of emerging.

Also, five silver knights, clad in armour, landed around him.

“Return, fiend, from the hole which you crawled out from, lest I-“

“Sir, there is a powerful space magician standing next to it. Should we kill him?” One of the silver knights asked but before the fatso could say anything I gathered a ton of darkness beneath all five silver knights and sent up countless spikes, but to my dismay, the silver knights all teleported up into the air.

“Oh? Quite the skilled magician, you are. But my time is short. Come out, so that you may face a quick death and I may return to work.” He said with narrowed eyes.

Dammit!

Ower as a Kommáti was only capable of facing a single silver knight. Five was just… to much.

Not only that, Ncil was unaugmented and wouldn’t last long.

I let out a groan before dashing towards the fat man.

“Hoh?” He sounded as I jumped towards his neck.

I then placed my claws in between his vertebrae but just as I thought about emerging from the dark world, I noticed that he had placed his Meat cleaver in between my chest.

I clicked my tongue before stepping away.

“Aren’t you the interesting one. Anyway, show yourself so that I may end you quickly.” The man said and it’s here that I noticed that the silver knights were gone.

My heart fell and so I instinctively emerged, revealing myself to what appeared to be a deformed golden knight.

We glared at each other while releasing large amounts of darkness and light.

He was emitting so much energy, that if it wasn’t for my plumes of black smoke, my skin would have been stripped bare.

I sent the golden sword into the dark realm before dashing towards him and my heart raced as he raised his cleaver, which was infused with so much large it warped the space around it.

He swung his weapon down just as I sunk into the dark realm and the impact tore open the land where I once stood but I used my momentum from before to jump towards his head with claws raised.

I then emerged from the dark realm and clawed off a significant chunk of his face but this wasn’t going to be enough to fell a golden knight and so I sunk into the dark realm again just as he swung his cleaver to cut me in two.

I then created a dark sword which I placed I his belly but before I could think of emerging, he placed his cleaver right on top of my head.

I dashed backwards quickly and gasped upon seeing that his face was healing.

I emerged at a safe distance and saw that his eyes were glowing in a mixture of both gold and green.

“You should be honoured, fiend, for you managed to cut my flesh.” He chuckled as his face slowly put itself together.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“My name is Merlä. Tell me yours so that I may remember this rather bizarre encounter.” He said as he waddled towards me all while emitting so much light, it lit up the surrounding land as though it were daytime.

I remained silent and tried to formulate a plan, but he wasn’t going to give me any breathing room and so, after charging his cleaver with light, he swung it towards me striking the ground in the process and although I had managed to sink into the dark realm, parts of his cleaver had broken and they shot towards belly at a sped that I couldn’t keep up with.

Fortunately, my armour absorbed most of the impact and the shards only grazed me.

I then created a gigantic dark sword above Merlä and I sent it down only for the fucker to smack it with the back of his hand, shattering it into countless pieces and at this point, his face was completely healed.

Dammit!

I also didn’t know how Ower was handling the situation in the subspace-

My eyes widened as an idea rushed into my mind.

I just needed to get Ncil to safety and then Ower and I could fight without worry.

I emerged just as Merlä raised his broken cleaver to strike me again, but just as he did, I sent up a spike that would have impaled him square in the head, but one of the silver knights emerged and destroyed the spike.

I didn’t care though, I dashed somewhere quite far from Merlä and took a deep breath.

“OWER!” I cried and the scarred Kommáti emerged with a petrified Ncil by his side.

I then dragged both of them into the dark realm where I quickly grabbed Ncil to check if she was alright, but to my surprise, she pushed my hands away and ran up to Ower and its here that I noticed that his entire left arm was missing.

“Come out, come out, fiend and friends!” Merlä said with his silver knights standing proudly behind him-

Mmm?

I noticed that one of them was missing.

I turned to Ower and saw watched as his wounds slowly healed but nothing could be done about his arm.

“I understand your fear and caution. After all, there is only so much one can do when standing in the face of Primair excellence.” Merlä said with a smirk, but I scoffed before turning to Ncil, who poured tons of life energy into Ower.

I turned to fully face Merlä and with eyes that shook with rage, I spread my arms, creating countless small dark swords that filled the air.

I then slammed my palms into each other forcing blades from both left and right to come crashing into each other.

Merlä, along with three of his knights disappeared, but one of them wasn’t able to sunk fast enough and so the parts of his body that hadn’t disappeared were torn to shreds by the countless smaller swords.

“Sir, I suggest you perform that same move in the subspace.” Ower said but I looked him over and saw that his many smaller wounds had closed.

“Yeah… but you still only have one arm.” I said with a pained expression.

“That may be true, but I do not see any other options-“

“Ah-ha!” I sounded before facing Merlä and his three and a half knights who had re-emerged.

“I just remembered something. Alright, when we emerge, I’m going to need you to create a barrier around you and Ncil. Hopefully the rest works out.” I said and Ower nodded.

I turned to a shaking Ncil.

“Ready?” I asked and she nodded.

“Good.” I said before sending us back into the physical world and just as Merlä and his knights sent out their attacks, Ower created a barrier and I sunk back into the dark world where I raised my hands and summoned forth an endless sea of black smoke.

I then forced it into the noses and mouths of everyone who wasn’t protected and before they erected their barriers or sunk into the subspace, I spread my arms, crystalizing the darkness and creating beds of spikes within every one of them.

I raised my hands before pulling them back, forcing the spikes to tear through their victims and in a display of gory death, I watched as Merlä and his knights were torn from the inside out.

The beds of spikes grew longer and thornier, spilling out of their chests as they screamed out in pain but I knew this would not be enough to kill Merlä, who’s eyes glowed brightly as he tried piecing himself together. His mutilation made even gorier by the fact that the shirt of people he once wore was now charred and torn to shreds.

I dashed towards him and placed my claws in between his neck before promptly emerging.

“AAGRGLL!” Merlä gurgled as my claws tore into the fat folds of his neck all while he emitted the last of the light he could. Fortunately, I was clad in black smoke that dampened the worst of the burns.

I then used every ounce of strength I had to try and rip off his head, but the fucker was augmented, so it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

This didn’t mean I was out of ideas.

I opened my mouth and poured darkness into his mouth and I used it to create a bed of spikes which abruptly spread out, breaking his neck and allowing me to tear off his head.

I landed on the scorched ground as Merlä’s body fell.

Ower and Ncil ran to my side and it’s here that Ncil noticed that I had several shards of steel embedded in my armour, but before she could heal me, I raised my hand and pointed at the knights.

“Absorb their life energy.” I coughed as the air was filled with smoke.

Ncil nodded before getting to work.

I turned around to find that the once flat landscape was covered in craters.

I then let out a sigh before sitting down on the hot, burnt sand.

By dark form remained mostly hidden in the dark of night.

.

..

Ncil eventually finished her business and, after healing my wounds, we resumed our journey north with Ower and Ncil in the subspace.

The city to the north came into view once again and I wondered how I was going to get past it.

Powerful light magicians would be able to sense me whether I was in the dark realm or not.

Ower could get us through, but the same counts for him.

If a powerful space magician spotted us and if he was on the level of Merlä…

“Your cape, sir.” Ower said from within the subspace.

“Mmm?”

“We could adjust your cape so that it could cover your legs, head and armour.”

“What about my horns and eyes?” I asked making Ower tap his chin in thought.

I rolled my eyes before looking to my left where a small, abandoned house stood.

I say abandoned because all of its doors and windows hung open and it was in a terrible state.

I walked towards it only to be assaulted by a smell that threatened to make me vomit

It smelled like shit, piss, blood and rotten flesh all in one.

My curiosity led me to the front door where I gasped upon seeing countless sickly humans and a layer of what looked like animal bones laying within the building.

Most of humans were naked, but some of them wore flimsy dirty strings.

One of them, a woman who was sprawled on the floor near the door, reached out to me with a trembling hand and wheezed something but I simply stepped back before raising my hand, gathering a ton of darkness beneath the building.

“That would not be wise.” Ower said, but I really wanted all of these humans to die.

Also, wouldn’t I be technically ending their suffering?

There was no way I was letting Ncil use any of her magic on them and so I turned to leave-

“Mmm…” I droned.

I really didn’t know much about Lanceberg.

Sure, Katsíki had done his fair share of research, but on an internal level, I was still in the dark.

I also wanted to know if sneaking into the city was even possible.

“Grab the one by the door.” I instructed, prompting Ower and Ncil to materialize.

I then led them to a spot about fifty meters away from the filth house and it’s here that I erected a dark tent which we entered.

I created a chair and promptly sat down.

“Heal her.” I said while sitting in the dark.

I then watched as Ncil healed the sickly naked woman, who’s crotch was covered in blood, shit and dirt.

Just as the skinny woman’s body grew healthier, she shot up and looked me dead in the eyes.

“T-thank you!” She cried while reaching out to touch me but I kicked her in the face with my right hoof, sending her tumbling backwards.

Ncil healed her and I rested my tired head on my hand as she sat up. Her face covered in blood. Her brown eyes staring at me with an expression I didn’t quite recognize and her hair covered in filth.

“What is your name, human?” I asked while trying not to cringe in disgust.

“F-Flora. My name is Flora and I am beyond grateful.“