Stop sulking, see if we have a new poison.
I made small cuts on the living dead bodies and sprayed poison while focusing on that specific effect. The cuts quickly sealed but the bodies also steadily shrank and sagged. I continued spraying more and as more of it was consumed by their bodies the rates of both healing and shrinking increased. Eventually they just collapsed into piles of sunken dead skin and brittle bones that shattered into pieces upon touching the ground. If the description about it given to me was scientifically accurate then it should also be able to increase the speed of blood flow and exponentially exacerbate the effects of other poisons.
I forgot that you were intelligent as well.
You weren’t the only one. Fuck this is interesting. This new life is way too fun.
“Ignore them, everyone here is in a better place now.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Their bodies are soulless, they are merely husks now. I’ll create new bodies for them soon enough. Let’s go.”
I turned around to grab the kid only to find him kicking and stomping on the remains of who I remembered to be the main man of the party. The story was already pretty clear to me, no explanations needed.
“So, you’ve gotten what you wanted. What now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Me neither. Wanna die? There’s not much you can really do.”
“No!”
“That’s reasonable. I think it would be fun to have a little sidekick, you’re my sidekick now.”
I grabbed the kid and my partner then took off towards the giant palace. How should I go about this? I had to make a good impression on the king obviously. Hey dude can you take over? Between me and you, you look way better… In terms of being a trustworthy and good person.
Did you forget that I can’t gain control of the body anymore?
I don’t think that’s true. Let’s see... I reentered the soul realm which had now built up quite a large amount of the golden light.
“I believe that stuff enhances us in our own ways respectively. You can probably get enhanced enough to be able to take control of the body. Go touch it.”
He replicated my process and touched the golden light. When it was finally over he had sprouted another two pairs of arms. If I was the average female lead of a novel he would definitely be the guy who always protects me but I never fall in love with because I fell in love with me, the me who isn’t the female lead but myself. Honestly, kinda sad. Why do people have the strange obsession of choosing to go for the one that doesn’t love them instead of just choosing the one that does love them? It reminded me of this one blonde haired kid who always put his life on the line to save this pink haired girl only for her to always reject him for the emo black haired kid, who literally couldn’t give any less of a shit about her.
An argument could be made that saving someone didn’t mean you were entitled to their affection and appreciation. Which really is just an alternative way of saying they are ungrateful and should have been left to die. Even a dog knows how to show appreciation to their savior, then again comparing that pink haired brat to a dog was a pretty big insult to the entire canine genus. What was I doing again? Oh, right. I should go collect my share of the harvest as well. At this point black smoke was leaking from the tower and into the surroundings. When I touched it this time it rushed inside my body much quicker and created another pair of arms. I was basically that one angry guy with the six arms now! He had always been one of my idols and the basis of my idea of the perfect body. On that note, I had always wanted unlimited tentacle arms that could transform into anything. When would I be getting those?
I need to head over to the aquatic region and see if they have any octopus shifters. According to what happened to the boys, every arm would split into four but I already had six arms, so what would happen? Twenty-four whole arms… and longer tentacle arms too… dear lord, the power… it was insane. Shouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch though.
“Alright. Let’s see if you can take control now.”
“Check your back.”
Oooh! What new thing do I have now…? A tattoo? Hmm, a black semi completed ring of circles with curvy thorn-like protrusions was now in between my shoulders. Had to be something good.
“What’s on your back?”
He turned around and showed me a golden semi completed ring of circles.
“So is the theme like, you have the good version of all my powers or something?”
“More likely to be an alternative version, me and you are not that different.”
“I think we are very different. Anyways try taking over this body. I’ll just stay in the one with our beloved captor.”
…
Connection to my other body was cut off and I could now only control the body in captivity.
“Are we there yet?”
“We will arrive shortly.”
“Oh, very good. It’s on the move. I would guess that it’s planning to launch an attack on something based on its behavior.”
Moments later I could see what seemed to be a barrier of light far off in the distance, similar to something like the northern lights except in all ranges of color. This… was kind of a big fuck up. If I went in there and couldn’t get my hands on anything that could give me powers I would not only have no new powers but also the distrust of my overpowered captor. Speaking of which, I need to get her under control somehow. She was still useful for training so I didn’t need to escape but having mobility with both bodies would be very useful.
“You know, I’m not as bad a person as you might believe. I am perfectly capable of reason and kindness, I just choose not to use it.”
“...”
“I know we are trying to save this world and all but is this world even worth saving? I mean, is life really worth living? Everyone says that the point of life is to live and find meaning but what if you don’t have meaning? I’m really just trying to have fun now, even if I become the strongest being to exist I’ll do nothing but try to have fun for the rest of eternity. But, I guess, I can play games and watch videos on repeat all day long every day so perhaps that’s all there is to life. Just doing what you enjoy. What do you enjoy?”
“...”
“The silent type huh? You know, all silent types have many things they wish to express. It’s simply their mental conditioning that prevents them from doing so. It’s all about purpose, the mission, completing the task, meeting standards, blah blah blah. You ever seen those silent killers in movies? Some might say they are cool but I feel bad for them. They were raised and trained to be that way, just like a sword is forged simply to cut and stab. Their purpose was already chosen for them the moment their existence formed in someone's head. Kinda sad when you really think about it. But maybe they enjoy it, because it’s all they know and all they will ever know.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I mean, I once tricked a child into believing the sky is the earth and the earth is the sky. That was in a matter of minutes- just imagine what you could condition a child to believe over years and years of training. I’d bet you could even teach them that the purpose of their life is to simply do everything necessary to preserve the world, no questions asked about whether or not the world is even worth saving. I’d bet that the child in their now adult body still has wishes and desires tightly bound away and suppressed.”
“Cease your noisemaking.”
“You know, you lost your image when I found you hugging me? I know that was really your dad you were hugging. I wanted to let him stay, you know? His strength was fading though. I don’t very much like those short brief moments of meeting that only happen once in a lifetime, it feels so depressing. I’d much rather never meet my father than meet him briefly only one time for the rest of my life. Because it gives you that hope, just for a brief moment, that you can finally be with your family and enjoy the things you never got to do together. Then it’s snatched away and you are left there, knowing that you will never be able to see them again. You will only ever be able to enjoy that short moment where you-”
“Silence!”
Ah, my mouth has been sealed.
***
It was unnerving. Terrifyingly so. Almost like he could see every thought in her head. Not only that, but also that he could predict the next thoughts in her head as well. She had met people who could read minds but they didn’t throw her off nearly as much as he did. He was slowly peeling away layers of her defense and she hadn’t even noticed. She had even faltered for a moment and begun fantasizing. None of her defenses seemed to be working against him, everything was telling her to trust him but her mind was warning her to do the opposite. His existence itself was beginning to start making less and less sense. She would have to be careful searching for the savior with him.
***
How boring, cutting the prophets tongue wouldn’t stop the truth from existing. People weren’t as complex as made out to be, they were simply a result of certain reactions to certain types of stimulus. Similar to a chemical reaction, you just had to figure out what caused what. It was scarier once you really got into the details of it, the fact that everyone was really just the outcome of a series of factors. Oh well, less thinking, more gaining. We were almost at the barrier of light now. With my mouth privileges removed I gestured with hand signs to tell her to land us on the ground. I had to make my tracking look somewhat realistic.
After a sharp descent we landed at the barrier and walked inside. Huh, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It was just like a normal valley with plants if you ignored the part where all the plants give off excessive amounts of light radiation. I picked up one of the plants and gestured for her to let me open my mouth. She gracefully gave back my speaking privileges.
“Me and the beast share a special connection, by consuming things with its aura left on it I can further increase my perception of it.”
I shoved the leaf in my mouth and suppressed the expected light that would begin glowing from me and then pointed in a random direction.
“Before we go, could you give me an estimate of how large this domain is? It will assist greatly in the speed at which we find the beast.”
“It is roughly the size of one of the continents from earth.”
What in the fuck?
“Can you summon your bird thing again? Tracking on foot will take ages.”
“Entering the airspace will cause us to be detected by the natives here. We must avoid that at all costs.”
“So we’ll go on foot?”
Instead of answering she simply summoned a large panther? Tiger? I wasn’t sure what exactly it was but it was feline for sure.
“Ok, makes sense.”
We mounted it and took off, well, when I said we, I meant she mounted it and I was slung over its back like a bundle of trash. No rubbing up against a pretty woman for me. All I had to do now was wait for an encounter with wildlife or one of the shifters here.
…
I reconnected to the other body and saw that we were just outside of the royal palace. I was just in time for the interesting stuff!
How’s it going?
I’m getting accustomed to this body.
Very good. What’s your plan?
We will meet with the king first and gain his approval.
Sounds boring, what if you get ambushed?
Combat is not our concern, impressions are. We can’t convince the people if they do not trust us.
Makes sense. Alright, I’m excited to see how this plays out. We landed just outside the main entrance of the palace and were confronted by the guards. Our special companion quickly unveiled his face and introduced us.
“We are from the Peacekeepers, here to have a meeting with his majesty.”
After saying so he kneeled on one knee and we followed suit. We weren’t about that unshakeable dignity bullshit, as long as we got what we wanted there was almost nothing we wouldn’t do, aside from anal of course. The guards escorted us inside and into the lavish as hell hall where the throne sat. Oh wow, pretty cool guy actually. His hair kind of reminded me of a lions’. Classic muscular ruler build and a very fashionable robe.
“We seek your permission to perform the duties discussed beforehand.”
“I grant you permission. Do so with your utmost haste.”
“Where can we find the target?”
“He has been summoned and will arrive shortly.”
After hearing that we drilled tiny wires through the floor and encompassed the entire room. Not even a minute later the famed Zoreal walked in accompanied by his soldiers from this morning. We immediately sent the wires through the soles of their feet and straight into their brains while unleashing the metal eating disease. All of the soldiers died instantly with the exception of Zoreal who we decided to leave alive. In his case we simply removed his limbs and bound him in wires. We needed him alive to complete our task properly.
“Call out your compatriots.”
“This kingdom is doomed to fall! Killing me will not change fate!”
“Do not make this harder on yourself than it has to be.”
“I will never betray my comrades! Only the king would do so!”
“You chose this.”
We sprayed knockout gas into his face until he passed out and then entered his mind.
“You will never die in here. If we have to, we will torture you for eternity. So for the sake of your wellbeing and our time just do as we ask. Tell all your followers to come forth.”
Before letting him speak we immediately flayed all his flesh before instantly healing it. We even returned his limbs to him as well.
“We have complete control of reality, do you understand? Your mind is nowhere near as strong as you believe it is. So before you lose your dignity, simply agree to our terms.”
He quickly caught on and his eyes gave us the answer before his mouth could.
“Good choice, you have made a wise decision.”
We brought him back to reality and he immediately screamed out with a voice loud enough to shake the very walls of the palace.
“Attack! Our reinforcements are here!”
After his intended purpose was completed we disposed of him and waited for the attack. Within moments people began to crawl out of the woodworks and crash through the walls, unfortunately, the ones crashing through the wall were sliced to pieces and the ones climbing in through openings had their skulls pierced. Courtesy of our wires of course. The onslaught continued for a few moments before everyone either figured out they were being slaughtered or were completely wiped out. We turned to the king and made our request.
“We have completed our task. We have only one request, a drop of blood from each of your citizens. Do not be alarmed, the blood will simply be used to mark them for identification among our forces. Doing so will allow us to more easily gather information about traitors. We beg that you allow us to do this, for the safety of this realm.”
Before speaking I had sent numerous wires to pierce through the foot of our kind companion and completely take control of his body. It was a shame to kill him like this but our goals were much more important than his life. The king pondered for a moment before speaking.
“I will assist you then. All of my citizens will be gathered in the morning.”
“Thank you. We will not forget this favor.”
“My guards will guide you to resting quarters.”
That worked surprisingly well.
A simple change in mannerism can get you much better results.
Can’t argue with that.
…
Wow, this thing was fast. Strong too. Any trees we couldn’t dodge were simply slammed down.
“It seems to be heading towards a very populated area. I can hear the buzz of large amounts of activity through my connection. Are there any villages or cities in this direction?”
“There are many villages and a few major cities.”
“Let’s head to one of the major cities then.”
“That will be difficult.”
“Why so?”
“Tensions will arise if otherworlders intrude into other realms.”
“It’s fine, we can just kill them all.”
“Even with my strength there are still a great number of beings that can overpower me here.”
“Stop panicking, I’m the next world destroyer in line. We’ll be fine.”
“You are still in your developing phase.”
“I’m immortal. Plus, my powers are a bit special.”
“You do not have enough knowledge of the powers that be.”
“You’re so stubborn. Do you want to save the world or not? Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“Just follow my lead then, we’ll be fine. Hold on- my body- fuck-”
Blood exploded from every orifice on my body and my body tore itself to shreds. The regeneration could barely keep up and my body was twisting and morphing into irregular shapes.