A creature born from hunger cannot help but crave for it.
To eat, consume, devour – is all it ever needs.
But there are so many forms of hunger, such as yearnings and desires.
Mayhaps the food is not a thing it craves the most, indeed…
…
Darkness, but more precisely the Darkness, knew only one emotion – endless hunger. But all of that had changed. Of course, it still had some cravings. But it was wiser now, it knew that no matter how much it consumed or how much it grew, that emptiness inside would never be satiated. However, ever since its form was reduced to a mere slime, ever since it was bound to the Master, for the first time ever it felt fuller than ever before.
It still consumed ample amounts of mana which the Master’s body provided so generously, but it wasn’t the thing that gave the feeling of satiation, of content, of fulfilment. The source of fullness lay somewhere else. But where?
There in the darkest corner of the ceiling Darkness was observing its Master sleeping. Next to him was his dear wife, but Darkness didn’t care about that creature. No, all senses of the Darkness were locked on the masculine shape. It heard his quiet and rhythmic breathing, It saw his chest going up and down. Even from a distance, it felt the warmth of his body, the smell of his breath and the humidity of the moisture which left his skin. It even felt the massive pool of mana swirling deep inside him, albeit it was too chaotic to perceive properly. But even then, when it could feel and sense all that… it was not enough.
Darkness was hungry for more. Such was its nature.
‘It’s not like he would notice.’, ‘It wouldn’t even harm him.’, ’I’ll borrow just a little.’, ‘After all, there is no harm.’, It reasoned to itself with half-broken and stuttered thoughts.
The blob of darkness plopped down from the ceiling, it dropped and jiggled but there was no sound. Soundlessly it flowed towards the Master’s sleeping form, on a bed, past the sheets and towards his head.
Darkness jiggled at a peculiar emotion filling its mind. It was new. It was excitement. No, it had felt excitement before, it was more nuanced this time.
‘I’m doing something I’m not supposed to do.’ It jiggled again. What was the word? ‘Thrill.’ Or at least a form of it.
There were so many reasons not to do it. The Darkness glanced at the other creature. She was close and her tail was wrapped around the Master. That one tended to be rather perceptive. That one could catch Darkness in the act. But even then, despite those things, or maybe because of them, it just made it even more exciting.
And even if there were a hundred reasons why not to do it, the Darkness could come up with just as many why it should do what it was about to do. Okay, enough of cryptic language. A tentacle sprouted from the Darkness and moved towards the head. It moved slowly and carefully as if it was just very shy. It stopped an inch from his forehead, and the Darkness hesitated.
‘Huh, why am I afraid?’ It struggled to find the root of that emotion.
‘I came so far already’, ‘This is my chance.’, ‘Let's do this.’, ‘It’s just a tip.’, with such thoughts the shy tentacle made the connection.
Darkness quivered in delight, its slime-like body had almost turned to mush. Why? – because a new world had opened to it, a world of dreams. And it was unlike the millennium-old slumber the Darkness knew too well, no, it was different. It was full of colours, movement, and emotion. It was very lively in there, but also chaotic.
Darkness couldn't understand what it was seeing or even feeling. A lot of the objects in the dream didn’t make sense. However, it understood that Master was having a good dream. It basked in those new experiences for a few seconds more, memorizing as much as it could.
‘It’s enough.’, ‘It’s Enough.’, ‘Enough!’, no it wasn’t urging itself to stop. The Darkness was cheering. It was filled with joy. It never thought the day would come, but it felt satiated. It wasn’t hungry anymore. Well, that’s not entirely true, the endless void was still endless, somehow, something else had opened and that thing felt full.
“One is bottomless. The other is full.” All in all not too bad. If only it could grow the latter one, maybe the two would cancel and set the Darkness free?
‘Enough…’ The Darkness pulled the tentacle away and flowed back to its corner.
The act lasted less than a minute but the Darkness had enough to go for weeks. While it was guarding the sleeping Master it went through the images it saw in his dreams. It was curious of their meaning. There were grey rectangular towers reaching the clouds, there were dragons made of metal flying in the sky, there were colourful boxes littering the sides of paths, and most of all there were so many people. But those people had no faces, they felt empty like puppets.
‘Is it something the Master wants to make? Or is he just remembering?’
The concept of imagination and the concept of nonsensical dreams were alien to the Darkness. It wasted its time trying to figure out the meaning of the images it had copied. But at least it had something to do in that corner.
…
The Spider King was sitting in his study. He was thinking about a very weird dream he had in the morning.
“Hmm…” He shook away his idle thoughts. “I promised to give Johny a call.” And it's not like he was busy. “Better now than later.” He swallowed a drop of Slug Jelly.
[Temporary buff Eldrich Telepathy obtained]
“Hello!” A super cheerful voice rang inside his head and his mind was filled with excitement.
‘Urgh. It hurts.’ He grabbed for his temples.
Johny always did that to him, she always opened the link a tad bit too hard.
“Is That Better?”
‘Yes, thank you.’
“*Ehem,” she cleared her throat, “it’s A Bit Messy But Please Come In.”
No, she wasn’t inviting him into her room, this was way more personal.
‘No, I think I’m fine.’ The reality was that he struggled to deal with all the sensory stimuli which came with the unique anatomy of the slug body. ‘It’s just too stimulating.’
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“Hmm, Maybe Next time Then. You Know What?”
This was time for Johny to say her catchphrase: ‘I’m Bursting!’.
‘What?’ He asked to play along.
“I’ve Spied On Some Very Jiggly News. Directly From Aurelian Kingdom.”
‘Oh?’ He was surprised. He didn’t expect her ability to yield results so soon.
“It Seems There Is War Incoming.”
“Not again!” he reacted out loud forgetting to use his inner voice. ‘Is it bad?’
“Aurelius Is Confident He Can Win.”
‘Then, maybe it's not that bad.’ And anyway, the spider report should follow soon with more details.
“You Know What Else?” She didn’t wait for his verbal reply. “The Jelly Had Reached Some Mighty And Interesting People Of The Holy Empire.”
‘The Emperor?’
“No, Not That Mighty. The Holy Inquisition. Have You Heard Of Them? Ah, I Can Sense Your Confusion. Let Me Explain…” Johny started to recall what she gathered from unsuspecting users of the Slug Jelly.
The use of the precious slug extract wasn’t that widespread in the Holy Empire, not yet, but it had reached some high places. Johny had information coming from clerks, tacticians, wealthy merchants, some nobles and similar people of high status. Of course, not all of it was of use, but apparently, Johny had access to two people who were responsible for planning and leading the Inquisition against Aurelius the Great. One was a right-hand to the Chief Inquisitor, and the other one was the tactician to the general.
The Tactician had access to all the important information, like the number of warriors or the planned dates for an attack. A lot of which he had to plan himself. The Tactician was a hard-working person, so he used the jelly to energise himself during the all-nighters.
The other one, a right hand to the Chief Inquisitor, was a woman of high potential. She had a moniker the Radiant Sword, or just Radiant to her friends. She was very young and climbed the ranks with unprecedented speed. She had some unique talents, and her Light affinity was high making her an unmatched Paladin. As a right hand, Radiant was entrusted with leading the Inquisition against the Aurelian Kingdom.
“I Wouldn’t Worry Too Much About The Tactician Or The General. The Army Is Sizeable But The Men Are Only Levied Peasants. It Is The Inquisition Which Will Be The Hardest To Deal With. I’M Currently Gathering Information On Their Inner Workings”
‘I see. Let's write everything down and pass that information to Aurelius.’
He went back and forth with Johny asking some questions and clarifying the details. Of course, the information wasn’t perfect, because Johny could only glean a little from their minds. But it was enough to know where and then they would be attacking.
“You Know That Woman, The Radiant. She’s Strange.”
‘Strange?’
“It’s Hard To Explain. Let Me Show You.”
His mind was presented with a vision, it was rather vivid as if he was there.
===
It was night and the tiny room was illuminated only by the dim candlelight. A feminine hand threw an expensive-looking glass bottle to the wall. It simply bounced off refusing to be smashed; surprisingly the wall suffered more damage than the bottle. A callused hand wiped a slightly sticky substance from the lips.
“Why… why can’t I stop? I’m such a sinner.” She opened one of the drawers of the cupboard and reached for a certain item.
It felt natural in her hands, almost as natural and comfortable as her longsword. She stood in front of the mirror. Her hair was long and blond, her eyes were blue, and her face had delicate features. There were no flaws or imperfections, that allowed her that look of a princess. However, the rest of her body was a different story. Yes, it was well-toned, even muscular, but it was ravaged by scars. A lot of those scars were from many battles or mistakes she made during practice in her younger years. But her back was the most scared. And there was a reason for it.
“Sinner! Sinner! Sinner!” She used the item she’d retrieved from the cupboard. She was merciless with it.
There was a jolt of pain but soon it was replaced with something else.
“Sinner! Sinner! Sinner!” Her breaths grew heavy and her body hot.
The scenery changed. Now this woman was in the courtyard. She was in the middle of a circle of people, both men and women who came to see her battle. There was that rush coursing through her body, something that only the jelly could provide.
“How dare you to challenge me. I’ll crush you!” She spat at her opponent.
“You are too young and too incompetent to be the Chief’s right hand.” A much older man said it with calm composure.
“Let me show you then! Ahh!” She started the battle with the first swing.
The time skipped forward, the man was lying on the ground unconscious and severely hurt. The crowd was cheering: “Radiant!”, “Radiant!”, “Radiant!”.
The woman in question didn’t stay to celebrate her victory, instead, she used her remaining stamina to sprint to the nearest lavatory.
*Bleh! – She expelled the contents of her stomach.
“Is it still there?” Her body was overtaken by sudden tremors. “[Status].”
Title: Radiant Sword
Monster: Lesser Angel
Magic Affinity: Light
📿🙏📿
HP:150/200
MP:50/250
STA:20/200
Active Perks
[Holy Retribution], [Last Stand], [Angelic Heal]
Passive Perks
[Radiant], [Deflect Magic], [Holy Presence]
Resistances
[Dark Weakness: Medium]
Status Effects
Error[System_Override]!
[Evolve?]
*Bleh! – She retched again but nothing came out.
Her hand reached into her chest pocket. She held a tiny glass bottle filled with a blue substance right above the dumping hole. Her fingers were trembling.
“God why did you betray me… Is this some cruel test!” She began to sob. “How can angels be monsters?!” She let go of the bottle.
[You are no longer Error[System_Override]!]
[You’ve lost access to the Monster System]
Just before the bottle could reach the dumping hole she swiped it back into her hand.
“Why… Why can’t I resist it? Why does it grant me such power?” She opened the bottle and sucked the contents with a single gulp.
[You have been afflicted Error[System_Override]!]
[You have gained access to the Monster System]
“God, why are you silent?! How do I ascend?”
===
Yeah, those weren’t just images, he could clearly feel emotions too. Disgust, arousal, frustration, the feeling of betrayal – all was there.
‘I see, she’s crazy.’ He came to his own conclusion. ‘I didn’t know Slug Jelly could mess someone's mind so much.’
“No, Her Mind Is Rather Clear. I Think She Is Just Lost, Misguided Maybe?”
Yes, and this woman will be leading her own group of inquisitors.
‘She’s clearly dangerous.’
“King, We Could Use Her Insecurities Against Her. Isn’t She Seeking For God?”
‘Explain.’
“Hmm… I Gave You Only A Few Snippets So You Don’t Know The Full Picture. She Wants To Be An Angel. And It Is A Fanatical Desire. And You Can Make Her Into One.”
“What? Really?”
“Of Course. You’re Our Monster King, Are You Not? I’m Sure You Could Make It Happen.”
Maybe Johny was onto something here…