Despite myself, his words caught me off guard. “You spent centuries in the Nothingness? But you were dead for only moments.”
Dralos simply raised his shoulders in acknowledgment of his lack of knowledge. “That is beyond my understanding.”
Many questions fought for priority at that moment. How did he retain his sanity after hundreds of years of isolation? Was it isolation? Was his experience in the Nothingness the same as mine?
But I was running out of time. I needed to move fast if my plan was to work. If anyone raised any alarms or notified anyone higher up the food chain than Chella or Darmond escape would become orders of magnitude more complicated. So I picked the two most relevant questions.
“Who is in charge of this slave arena?”
“His name is Radford Coldrun, my queen.”
“Does he have any position within the Cael Kingdom nobility?”
Dralos shook his head. “I apologize, my queen. I do not recall that answer.”
I clicked my tongue and frowned. “How much of your memory is gone?” He started to answer but I waved him down. “Never mind, we don’t have time. Lead me to Darmond like you were going to do. Act exactly like the Dralos you were while you were alive. I need Darmond to think he has me so he’ll provide the information I need now that I can’t raise him since he’ll just lose his memories,” I grumbled, signaling Dralos to take the lead.
Silent as the dead, Dralos stepped in front of me and began heading down the long corridor of slimes.
“You do remember the way, correct?” I asked, suddenly worried he was leading us in the wrong direction.
“I remember,” was all Dralos said and gave no explanation. That was certainly a conversation we would need to have. The memories he retained after the Nothingness were much too relevant for our current situation to be coincidental.
“Alright, then lead on, Draconian.” I wasn’t sure how exactly a Draconian differed from the Dragonborn; another conversation we would need to have later.
It wasn’t long before I started to hear the screaming of a man and a woman reverberating along the ooze-filled corridor. When we rounded the corner into the open doorway of Darmond’s laboratory room, I saw the reason for all the screams. A man and a woman fought under Orpheus’ gaze, ripping into each other with nails and teeth like wild animals.
“That is utterly fascinating!” came Darmond’s usual wheezy, irritating voice. “Human nature and its weaknesses never cease to amaze me!”
The instant we’d entered the room, the entire aura around Dralos shifted to match his old persona and his eyes had returned to normal. In fact, he looked and acted as if the prior moments had been all in my imagination. “What are you doing, Doc?” He glanced at the wild fighters with an arrogant smirk. “And why are the mutts fighting outside the arena?”
“I’ll let them answer you,” the doctor said gleefully. He turned to Orpheus. “Make the girl answer.”
Orpheus shot Darmond an annoyed look, but a moment later the girl looked up above the guy she was fighting, a blue glint flashing in her eyes, indicating she’d received a notification from the Orpheus System. Then I saw the same glint in the man, who stopped fighting immediately. The girl turned to look at Dralos, her expression filled with fear and resolve.
“It is a quest. Fight or lose the system and die.” She shivered. “I-I can’t lose the system.” Her entire body trembled as she spoke, but I could tell it was only partially due to fear. I recognized that look in her eyes and the shaking from a time my people had been infiltrated by a drug cartel. “If I lose the system’s power, I’m just normal. I’ll be weak again. I can’t, I can’t be weak again! I’ve worked so hard for this strength. It’s mine and no one will steal it from me!”
“Holy Ashwash, is she addicted to the system?” I whispered, keeping my words low enough to reach only Dralos and covering my mouth by standing behind him.
Dralos chuckled, not showing any visible sign he heard me. “Dumb dogs are crazy for your system, aye Darmond?”
The crazy scientist laughed with the Draconian. “An unexpected boon, I must admit. We’d known the Blood of Orpheus could control the Infected with things called quests and missions, but I had no idea the blood itself was so addictive!” Darmond swept a pipe from his table and showed Dralos a dark purple substance. “You probably don’t know, but this is Aexon, an incredibly potent hallucinogen that’s been banned in most Kingdoms of the western continent. The Sire’s blood,” he gestured to Orpheus, his smile large and eyes saucers as he bragged openly, “is three times as physically addictive and ten times as mentally addictive if used for long periods of time.” He moved to pet the head of the girl who stood as if frozen in time, her gaze unseeing. “These were some of our first trials.” Darmond grabbed her hair and shook, all without bothering to look at her. “Unfortunately, its addictive nature is only of such power among some species, like humans. The closer to the ancient generation they are, the less potent it becomes. You would likely be barely affected, Dralos. We can try it out if you’d like!”
Dralos snorted and reached behind him to grab me, shoving me forward. “Stay in your lane, Darmond,” he snarled.
The scientist held up his hands in mock surrender, dropping the girl. “Of course, of course. No offense, oh great descendant of the Dragonborn.” He turned to Orpheus. “Resume their quest.” A blue flash could be seen in both their gazes and the two addicted slaves began tearing into each other without hesitation or remorse.
I wondered if they knew they were addicted or truly believed they were fighting with a resolve to keep the strength they’d earned.
Darmond strode over to me and checked me up and down, a frown forming as he grabbed me and yanked me toward the chair where he’d injected the Blood of Orpheus into me. “You should be showing symptoms of addiction by now. Why aren’t I seeing any blue lines? Hmmm.” His eyes wandered down the length of me and for once I was thankful the rags I continued to wear had long sleeves, covering the burnt skin where the slave mark had previously been. He pulled out a new syringe, again filled with Orpheus’ blood but in a larger quantity. “Perhaps the nobility of your blood is stronger against the effects.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Why are you doing this?” I cried out, struggling. I forced tears into the corners of my eyes, my nose becoming wet with the effect. “What did we ever do to deserve this? I don’t want more of that blood!”
“Don’t you like the system?” Darmond asked with an unfriendly smile that showed his dark yellow and brown teeth. “Hasn’t it made you stronger than you ever imagined?”
I gulped, sniffling as tears trickled down my cheeks and off my chin. I glanced at the two slaves still fighting, pieces of flesh and gore falling off them and littering the floor. “I don’t want to be like that,” I whispered, adding a tone of fear to my words.
“Oh, don’t worry, deary. I have other plans for you and your section. Although I’m not seeing signs of addiction, you have certainly become less feisty. That’s good! A good sign indeed.”
“Why is he making them fight each other?” Even as Darmond put the restraints around my wrists, binding me to the chair, I was able to wiggle a finger in Orpheus’ direction.
“Hmm? Oh,” Darmond laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about that. Unless we tell him to hurt you, he’s harmless.”
“He listens to you?” I asked as innocently as I could, looking at Darmond with the widest eyes I could muster.
The scientist, apparently, couldn’t pass up an opportunity to brag. “Of course, he does, like an obedient child.”
“Why?” I pressed, hoping the crazed man’s ego would push forward. “He’s so strong and scary-looking.”
Darmond didn’t disappoint. “His restraints bind him to administrators.”
“What are administrators?” I asked, probing for answers with more haste than I should have. Too many core questions too fast.
The scientist stopped laughing, and I instantly knew he’d realized I was perhaps not as innocent as I would have him believe. His face scrunched in thought, pig-like nose twitching under his beady eyes. “You’re asking very particular questions, girlie.”
I tried to distract him with more tears, but the look on his face said he wasn’t buying it.
I tried a final time to pass as a curious little girl, afraid of death and buying time. “Please, I won’t ask any more questions, I promise! Just please, don’t put that in me. Stop, no!”
Darmond was no longer smiling, but I saw the corner of his lips twitch at my plea. He lifted the sleeve of my left arm that had no burn and brought the syringe down toward the forearm.
I sighed and created a layer of lunar aura around the limb, causing the syringe of blue liquid to bounce harmlessly off me. “Kill the wild animals, Dralos.”
The Draconian was a blur of movement, somehow leagues above what he’d been during his death, as he dispatched the fighters without hesitation. Until I figured out the limits of the system, I couldn’t risk letting them live. Not after I’d seen the extent they would go to for the System. Even before they’d been dead, I could hardly recognize them as humans.
Darmond lowered the syringe for a moment, spinning around to watch the Draconian behead both his fighting slaves.
I pulled against the restraints but was surprised to find them holding tight, small gold runes inscribed on the leather bindings sprung to light with a blinding light as I tried to break them with energy. Interesting. I could wield energy while bound, but only if it wasn’t used to break them.
“Free me. Then collect these bindings. They may come in handy.”
Without a word, Dralos grabbed the back of Darmond’s white coat and launched him across the room into the remains of the dead, addicted slaves.
“What in the Gods’ names are you doing, you stupid lesser born?” Darmond howled at Dralos as he tried to scramble to his feet and slipped on the gore strewn about around him.
Still silent, Dralos undid my bindings and stepped to the side, waiting for further orders.
“Oh, don’t blame him, dear Dr. Darmond,” I said, using the scientist’s previously mocking tone. “Poor Dralos is only doing what he was told to do.”
“I don’t know what you did to the Draconian, child,” Darmond hissed, drawing out a short dagger with intricate runes written throughout the blade, a single, enormous ruby adorning the base of the hilt. “But you have no concept of what you’re doing, of what you’re obstructing!”
He stabbed the dagger into the flat front of his hand, skewering it through. Red and blue veins spread from his hand into the dagger’s blade and up into the ruby hilt. The gem shattered, revealing a living, beating organ that seemed morbidly similar to a heart.
Dagger still skewering his hand, Darmond pointed at me. “Kneel to an administrator, lesser being.”
Instantly, I felt a powerful force from within me surge to the forefront, struggling against my will to compel me into obeying the scientist. The effect was similar to what would have happened if I’d lost in the mindscape of the Mindscribe. Similar to the Mindscribe, however, Darmond would not find me such an easy foe to fold.
Still, the force from within was strong enough that I was paralyzed in movement, every ounce of my mind and body resisting with maximum effort. I could feel the Blood of Orpheus burning inside, raging against my resistance. There was a need, a desire building in my mind to obey the system’s administrators.
I rejected that building force with every ounce of my will.
[Quest creation: Obey the Administrators. Obey Administrator 005. This Quest cannot be refused]
[Quest objective: Stab yourself with a Syringe of Orpheus’ blood.]
[Reward: X2 absorption of heart energy!]
…
[Error…. Core System interfering with Administrator 005’s Quest.]
[Unknown error]
[Attempting to assign new quest]
As the blue screens flashed in front of me, I noticed Dralos looking at me almost imploringly. Was he still waiting for an order? My mind raced with possibilities and questions, mainly whether Dralos was still under my authority or whether the system had control as he was resurrected with powers granted to me by the system.
Or were the powers of a Soul Weaver granted to me by the system? Hadn’t it simply merged my own previous affinities? Could it claim authority over a power it did not grant when it only merged already established skillsets?
Only one way to find out. In long, drawn-out words, I said, “Dddddrrraaaaalloooos. Kiillll… himmm.”
With perhaps even more speed than when he’d dispatched the rabid fighters, Dralos closed the space separating him from Darmond. Large, scaled hands gripped the scientist’s neck and heaved him into the air.
[NEW EMERGENCY QUEST: KILL DRALOS THE DRACONIAN. THIS QUEST CANNOT BE REFUSED.]
[REWARD? X10 absorption of heart energy.]
[NEW EMERGENCY QUEST: SAVE THE ADMINISTRATOR! THIS QUEST CANNOT BE REFUSED.]
Dralos snapped Darmond’s neck with a sickening crunch accompanied only by the man’s last gurgling plea.
[ERROR. Quest terminated.]
The blue flashing screens vanished. The room was deathly silent compared to the screams of the system and man only seconds earlier. That silence was pierced only by the soft chuckling of Orpheus, still chained by his golden restrictions. With a subsequent pop, the surging tidal wave compelling me to act against my will vanished, and the paralyzing hold on my body was released.
That had been closer than expected. Whatever ability Darmond had used as an apparent administrator to paralyze me had been wholly unexpected. It was simply fortunate Dralos himself had not been affected. If he had been, I was honestly not sure how I’d have survived. I needed to remove the System and all Orpheus’ blood from my body as fast as I could.
Orpheus’ once gaunt, hopeless face was now a picture of satisfied rage. “The advent of the Soul Weaver cannot be denied,” he whispered. Turning his eyes to me, he relayed a request that turned my blood hot with anticipation and, in no small part, worry for what would happen next. I had a feeling I was about to begin a path never before even imagined to be possible. “Absorb my soul and core, Soul Weaver. And then devour my heart. The Soul Weaver must rise.”