Ira Invidia (VIII): A Threat, A Mystery, And The Conflict They Bring

--- Booker H. Freeman ---

“This… is not one of the better neighborhoods around here…” Lydia warned him as they continued to follow the spellwork that did not sound like it belonged to the rest of the Wall’s magic.

“Really? I legitimately couldn’t tell.” He confessed, their half destroyed surroundings barely looking different from the rest of the city they’d been walking through for the last hour. “If anything it seems like there’s less fire than everywhere else.”

“Yeah that’s kind of my point…” Lydia grimaced as she cautiously watched their surroundings. “Everywhere else I’ve been has either been freshly repaired or in the middle of being torn down. This place though…”

(Sloth: These are slums… The kind gutter rats should be swarming but…)

(Pride: The cars on the street and the televisions on display are all long since broken…)

(Greed: Abandoned when a neighborhood like this should’ve stripped them for parts.)

(Gluttony: The scent of rot is in every breath…)

(Envy: And the shadows grow darker with every step we take…)

(Lust: There aren’t any friends to be made here…)

(Wrath: Anyone here is long since dead.)

“I… see what you mean.” He admitted, taking in everything the voices told him as he took in the disrepair, and more importantly how old all of it was. “This district has been outright abandoned compared to the rest.”

“Yeah…” Lydia nodded. “And given how we’re all crammed in here… That’s not normal.”

“Which makes me wonder about the state of whatever we’ll find at the end of this spell song.” He smiled almost maniacally as he thought about how interesting all of this was, before pausing as he found something that was… “Well, that’s mildly concerning.”

“What is?” Lydia hideously frowned as she followed his gaze only to freeze at the sight before them. “What the fuck!?”

“Language my dear.” He chided as he stepped up to the corpse in front of them. “Hmm, I’m guessing based on your reaction this isn’t a common sight around these parts?”

“No, I… Dead bodies are everywh-Why hasn’t he regenerated?!” The young woman panicked.

“Hmm…” He considered that for a moment as he gave the body a proper once over.

(Pride: The body in front of us is male going off of the shape of the shoulders and hips. Cause of death is, quite obviously, whatever is latched onto the face. And from what I can tell the body is… Odd.)

(Going by Lydia’s reactions I devised as much.) He thought as he gave into the voice’s prodding and lifted one of the body’s limbs before letting it fall.

(Pride: Quite, but I’m talking about the fact that the body is suffering advanced decomposition in some places and yet rigor mortis hasn’t even set in on the rest… Which isn’t how the process works…)

(Gluttony: Meat is spoiled and fresh? Will make you sick if you eat it.)

(Well, that goes without saying.) He huffed with a touch of amusement.

(Envy: There’s magic here. There has to be if the rot is fighting whatever is healing people but… I can’t tell what it’s actually doing… It’s at least partially connected to the magic coming from the circle in the sky but… I don’t know.)

(Wrath: The nail…)

(The nail?) His brow furrowed, as he moved his curiosities onto the black metal device that was latched onto the body’s face.

At first glance the object looked to be a black metal plate large enough to obscure the man’s face, but when he examined the side of the plate he found that much like he’d assumed the other side of the object was impaled through the man’s face.

What was more interesting however was the fact that (he’s smiling.)

(Lust: Ah, he died with a smile on his face! Heh-heh, what a way to go!)

(Sloth: Probably best not to point that out to the girl.)

He ran a thumb over the edge of his own smile and couldn’t help but agree.

“Did you find something?” Lydia asked him, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“Possibly…” He admitted, before moving to grip the nail and- “Grah!” -promptly pulling his hand away as it was struck by violently violet light.

“Booker!” Lydia cried.

“I’m fine!” He growled, shaking his hand out as he hid it from her.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

(Pride: Hmm, phalanges are visible.)

(Gluttony: The flesh is burned but mending.)

(Greed: But fixing things like this is starting to cost us. So don’t waste what we’ve got.)

(Pride: Oh, and our bones are sharper than a human’s.)

He forced himself to take a calming breath as he felt a sliver of his power drain just before watching his flesh begin to creep up the bone.

“How… how bad is it?” Lydia frowned with a disgusting amount of concern.

“Nothing worth frowning over.” He assured her with a smile as he showed off his freshly healed hand before cautiously glancing back at the corpse. “That said, I wouldn’t touch that metal if I were you.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” The poor girl grimaced, before gesturing towards the body. “Do you… do you at least know what caused… this? This guy’s been dead for… a lot longer than people here stay dead for…”

“Magic. I’m not sure what type of magic per say, but I can tell that the nail is the anchor for this effect whatever it may be.” He answered, before straightening himself out and once more listening for a particular spell song. “Though unfortunately, while I would love to indulge my curiosity on this matter further, we were already on the hunt for a separate bit of spellwork. One a little more pressing to our personal goals.”

“R-right…” Lydia nodded, moving to follow as he left this particular mystery for another day. “But let’s be quick, I’d rather not spend more time around… this than I have to.”

(Envy: That’s going to be a bit of a problem…)

“Oh, my…” He couldn’t help but utter as he found himself stunned by the street in front of him, where dozens if not hundreds more corpses waited nailed to the walls around them.

“What the fuck…” His companion gasped as she took in the horrific scene before them.

He didn’t bother chastising her language this time, for he felt regardless of crassness it did at least mildly fit the moment.

(Gluttony: The source of the rot…)

“I-I think I’m going to be sick…” Lydia groaned.

He also wasn’t going to judge her for that, as it was an equally fitting response for someone unused to corpses. (Which leaves me wondering why I’m not-)

(Gluttony: Do you really need to ask that?)

(Point.) He conceded to himself as Lydia emptied her stomach nearby.

(Sloth: This many corpses left on display like this? Someone is leaving a message.)

(Pride: The question is what is the message?)

(Sloth: Stay away.)

(Lust: It’s not the nicest message…)

(Envy: No it’s not… We sure we want to keep going this way?)

He considered that question for a moment.

(Sloth: Yeah, no. I’m not walking all the way back to the wall if I don’t have to.)

(Greed: We’ve already come this far, and if someone is going to these lengths to keep something hidden then it must be quite the treasure.)

(Pride: Or at the very least quite the secret.)

(Wrath: We can’t ignore a threat like this.)

(Gluttony: People run from us, not the other way around.)

(Envy: Right… Of course no one objects to this… Fine, let’s go. What do I care…)

(Lust: Uh, before that we should probably check on Lydia?)

He paused, before glancing towards the girl in question as she stood hands on her knees gasping to the side. “Are you alright to continue, child?”

“Continue?” Lydia coughed, turning to him with wide eyes. “You want to continue through… this shit?!”

His smile softened. “I’ll admit, it’s probably not the wisest idea but…”

(Envy: The source of the spell is in that building at the end of the street.)

He blinked, before pointing at said building with a wide grin. “Our goal is right there.”

“In the… In the building with bodies… mounted all around it?” Lydia checked with no small amount of reluctance.

He took another look at the building. “Ah, yes. It would appear so…” (There is a notably greater number of bodies in that direction…)

(Envy: Meaning the bodies and the building are probably linked…)

(Pride: A probable correlation.)

(Envy: I’m going to check something…)

(Sloth: Careful. The girl is looking ready to bolt.)

(Lust: She’s scared… We should comfort her!)

“Don’t worry my dear. Remember there’s nothing for you to be afraid of while I’m near.” He assured his young companion.

Lydia gave him a look before shaking her head. “Look, I don’t care how strong you are, you can not tell me going into the middle of this shit is a good idea!”

“Well, I did concede that it isn’t.” He reminded her, before tilting his head. “Would you prefer to wait here while I go and inspect that building by myself?”

Lydia looked at him as if he were crazy (which, fair.) “You want me to stay here? By myself?”

“No. I was asking if that was what you would prefer, my dear.” He was sure to clarify. “Given how deserted this district is I have no doubt you can handle yourself for however long it takes me to find what we’re looking for. I have no intention of forcing you to do something you do not wish to here.”

“And what if I, what if I wanted to go do… anything other than dealing with this creepy Vlad the Impaler shit?!” Lydia asked him.

“Then I would-” (Envy: Wait.)

He paused what he was saying a symphony of music washed over him, though unlike the chaotic cacophony of before virtually every song he could hear was in some way playing off of every other song he could hear.

(Envy: I just checked the spell work on these nails again. I still can’t make heads or tails of them, but all of them are leading to the same anchor point as the spell from the wall.)

(Pride: So the two are connected.)

(Envy: Yeah, and it’s making all of this spell work look really familiar… A little more and I might be able to tell you what it all means.)

(Pride: Ah, answers are at hand!)

(Lust: But wait, wouldn’t that mean leaving Lydia behind?)

(Ah, I doubt she would appreciate that.)

(Pride: An unfortunate price, yes… but a necessary one if we are to unravel this mystery!)

(Greed: It also means we won’t have to split any profits with her.)

(Sloth: Or it means we’ll have to remind her that we’re not her minion, she’s ours.)

(Lust: That sounds mean…)

(Envy: In case you’ve forgotten we’re not a good person…)

(Wrath:…)

(Lust: Just because we’re not a good person doesn’t mean we have to be mean…)

“Well?! Then you would what?!” Lydia practically growled, dragging him from his thoughts as she pressed him for an answer.