Damien stood before the apostle’s door, shirtless, his pale skin drenched in the blood and guts of those he had just slaughtered. The gentle smile on his dark lips only magnified his overall creepiness. Benjamin, not trusting him one bit, backed into a corner away from Damien’s clutches.
Damien frowned at the sight. “What’s the meaning of this? Are you scared of me?” He looked around, “And where the hell is the cell key?”
Benjamin stared at him with stern eyes. “As I said, why should I trust a guy who just murdered his own comrades?”
Damien let out a sigh. “Never mind, I’ll just do it the old-fashioned way.”
He suddenly grabbed the cell door with one arm. The muscles in Damien’s arm swelled and morphed into a massive, muscular forearm. He pulled on the door, causing the hinges to creak and the lock to bend. With a loud groan, the door came free, removed by sheer strength alone. He tossed the gate aside, and his arm returned to its normal shape.
Damien entered the cell, extending his hand towards Ben. In an instant, Ben swung his arm, armed with a fork, at Damien. Quick as lightning, Damien grabbed Ben’s hand and pulled him closer, examining his body closely. Ben struggled but couldn’t break free from Damien’s grip.
Damien inspected Ben’s body, which was halfway transformed into wood. His expression tightened after the examination.
“Young lad, your condition is quite serious. The process of transforming into a wooden sapling is already halfway complete,” Damien said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Based on my calculations, at this rate, the transformation should be complete soon, unless you've been using your healing abilities more frequently than advised.”
“Are you after the wood sapling too? Is that why you’re here?” Ben asked, still trying to pull his arm away. “And let go of me!”
Damien released his grip on Ben’s arm. “Alright, young lad. As I mentioned before, I’m here as your savior. We’ve come to rescue you and break this curse. Surely the big guy must have briefed you on the details.”
Ben looked puzzled. “Big guy? Who are you talking about?”
Rolling his eyes, Damien replied, “Oh, come on! You know who I mean. The one who bestowed this power upon you in the first place.”
Ben looked even more confused. “Who? What power? You’re not making any sense.”
Damien appeared shocked. “You must be joking. You haven’t spoken with the big floating eyeball that appears in your dreams?”
“Floating eyeball? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Damien scrutinized Ben closely. “That can’t be… Wait a minute.” He reached for the pendant hanging around Ben’s neck.
“This pendant you wear! Where did you get it?” Damien asked, fixating on the pendant.
Ben looked surprised. “It was given to me by my dad. Why do you ask?”
“The feather inside this pendant. It’s giving away a divine aura, do you know anything about this?” asked Damien.
“According to my dad, it’s said to be a feather of the ancient Sunfire bird,”
“That should explain. How did you get your hands on something like this?” Damien inquired, his gaze intent on the pendant.
“It’s a family heirloom! Why do you care?” Ben replied defensively.
Suddenly, Damien snatched the pendant from Ben, breaking the chain. “So this is why our master couldn’t reach you, why he couldn’t make contact.”
“Hey! Give that back!” Ben protested, attempting to grab the pendant from Damien. But with Damien’s tall stature and agile movements, Ben found it hard to reach, feeling like a child against him despite being almost fifteen years old.
After a few more struggles, Damien returned the pendant to Ben.
"I'll give it back to you under one condition," Damien said sternly. "Keep this pendant in your pocket from now on. Its divine aura might be why our master couldn't contact you."
"So, your master is actually a floating eyeball?" Ben asked incredulously.
"Well, he's your master too, considering he bestowed his power upon you. Though, he's the one responsible for cursing you in the first place," Damien explained.
"What! So this curse is all because of your master!" Ben exclaimed suddenly, pointing towards something. "Is that the guy you were talking about?"
Damien followed Ben's gaze and was surprised to see an eyeball on the wall, blinking and glancing in their direction.
"No, that’s not the master. That’s the warden’s power," Damien clarified.
In an instant, Damien's demeanor shifted. His arm morphed and stretched, crushing the wall effortlessly. Just as quickly, his arm returned to normal.
"We don’t have time. The warden has already been alerted that we’re here. His ability to monitor us is annoying," Damien instructed.
Ben looked shocked. "But you just destroyed his eyeball, right?"
"He can grow hundreds more to monitor our moves. Don’t worry, I have a plan," Damien said, taking his hand and plunging it into his own abdomen.
"What the... Why did you do that?" Ben shouted.
"Just give me a second, now where did I put that?" Damien muttered, rummaging through his own abdomen.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
At this point, even Ben started questioning Damien’s sanity.
After a few moments, Damien exclaimed, "There it is!" and pulled something from his wounded abdomen — a pair of goggles soaked in blood.
"What the hell was that doing there?" Ben exclaimed.
The wound on the abdomen quickly started regenerating and fixing it by itself.
"Now wear this, young lad," Damien said, handing him the bloody goggles.
"No way! I’m not putting that disgusting thing on my face," Ben complained.
"Suit yourself. Don’t come crying to me when your eyes start burning," Damien replied as he left the prison cell.
"What are you going to do now?" Ben asked him.
Damien rummaged through the corpse of the dead elite mage from the Viper Fang clan. In the next moment, he retrieved several black spheres, about a dozen of them.
"Fifteen of these should do the trick," Damien said with a sly smile.
"What are you planning—" Ben began, but Damien quickly channeled his mana into the black spheres and scattered them around the corridors.
As soon as the spheres touched the ground, they erupted into thick clouds of smoke. One by one, the smoke screens obscured the view of the prison, effectively blocking the wardens' sight.
"That should keep the warden blind for a few minutes at least," Damien said, smiling.
The next instant, the entire prison erupted in coughing sounds. The heavy black smoke affected everyone, including the noble prisoners in the cell. Thankfully Ben wore the bloody goggles after thoroughly washing them.
"What the cough—are you trying to suffocate us? cough" yelled one of the prisoners.
"You bastard! cough Get this smoke out of here! Cough"
"I will kill you! cough cough"
Many more complaints echoed from the other prisoners.
Damien smiled amidst the chaos.
“Oh, I almost forgot about the fine specimens gathered down here. How blind of me!”
Ben, using a cloth to cover his nose, urged Damien, “Mr. Damien! Now would be a good time to escape.”
Damien shook his head decisively.
“That would be foolish. The outer door must be guarded by hundreds of mages. Even as an elite mage, I’d have a hard time fighting them while protecting you.”
Ben sighed in frustration. “So what now?”
“Well, time to recruit some prisoners to our party,” Damien replied.
“Recruit prisoners? These guys down here are just nobles willingly living in this place. There’s no way they’ll join our cause,” Ben argued.
“In that case, we’ll have to do something about their ‘will,’ won’t we?” Damien said with a hint of mischief.
“What? Do you think you can sweet-talk them into joining us? I doubt that’ll work, and I’m not counting on their fighting abilities either,” Ben countered.
“Well, that’s one consideration. But don’t worry, I have a brilliant idea. Just stay close, I don’t want you to be targeted by the larvae,” Damien muttered smilingly.
Ben felt a sense of foreboding, but for now, he chose to trust Damien and stayed close to him.
In the next instant, Damien stretched out his right hand's index and middle finger and stabbed them into the palm of his left hand. Blood spurted from the wound as Damien dug his fingers into the flesh, careful not to cut through the back of his hand. He drove the wound downward toward his wrist. Blood oozed from the incision, dripping onto the floor.
"Well, now wake up, little Dread Larvae! Time to feast and earn your keep," Damien shouted.
In the next instant, a flood of white larvae spilled from the wound, spraying everywhere like a shower of white rain. The larvae spread throughout the cell block, quickly crawling to the nearest prisoners.
"What is this thing!"
"Ew! Something crawled on my body."
"A worm! Gross!"
Complaints and shrieks echoed from the prisoners.
One noble saw a larva wriggling toward him. "First this smoke, now this!" He raised his hand and squashed the larva. But as soon as he lifted his hand, he noticed a small puncture, and the larva had burrowed into his skin. He could feel it moving deeper into his body.
"What is this—it's inside me! Get it out of me!"
A blood-curdling scream echoed from one of the cells. The prisoner lay on the floor, spasming violently. His eyelids rolled back, and it seemed like he was in a trance. One by one, more screams followed, dying out as quickly as they began.
"What is going on?" Ben demanded.
"Oh, it's just my pet Dread Larvae recruiting some foot soldiers for our aid. The screams are standard procedure as they munch through their brains. But don't worry, they'll stop screaming in a few minutes," Damien explained with a smile.
"Brain-eating larvae? Can you not do that when I'm here? I think I feel something crawling in my body too," Ben complained, searching himself frantically.
"Oh, I can sense them. You're safe. You're just panicking."
"I already have enough trouble with this curse. I don't need my brain turning into larva’s lunch."
"I said you're going to be okay. Anyway, I was going to kill all the nobles, so it's better to recruit them into my Dread Zombie army," Damien declared casually.
"Now what army?"
"You'll see soon enough."
"I can't see anything in this black smoke of yours! My eyes are starting to burn as well."
Damien chuckled, "Just bear with it for a little longer. Soon, we'll have enough power to make a breakthrough."
Outside the cellar doors, stairs led upwards where a squad of mages stood armed and ready. They prepared their spells for imminent combat, led by none other than the vice warden.
"Alright mages, someone has dared to intrude in our citadel, that as well right under our noses. But sadly for them, there's only one way out. Kill anyone who walks out from that door. Ensure not a single one of them leaves alive," the vice warden declared, sweat dripping down his face.
‘If those bastards reveal that I was the one who let them in, demotion will be the least of my worries,’ he thought to himself.
"But sir, what if the nobles get hurt? The warden told us to be cautious," a mage soldier murmured nervously.
"It's because of his incompetence that I have to step up and clean up his mess. Now just do as you're told," the vice warden snapped back.
His sole objective was clear: eliminate all witnesses.
It wasn’t long before the doors started shaking violently. The wooden planks holding the lock creaked under the pressure.
Thud.
The door groaned as it was rammed forcefully from the inside.
The mages readied their projectile spells: classic fireballs, frozen arrows, floating rocks, acidic vials, and more. Regular guards armed with swords and bows stood ready, while reinforcements were on their way.
The door finally slammed open, almost breaking off its hinges. Dark smoke erupted, climbing the stairs.
“Hold your attack!” ordered the vice warden, raising his arm.
No one had yet emerged from the cellar.
Suddenly, two figures moved swiftly through the smoke, making a beeline toward the mages.
“Fire!” shouted the vice warden.
A flurry of spells bombarded the figures, but to everyone’s surprise, they tanked the hits as if it were nothing. Chunks of their limbs fell to the ground, and the smell of charred flesh filled the room, but still, the two figures marched forward and crashed into the mages.
The mages' formation quickly fell apart as they finally got a clear view of the intruders: morbid, grotesque creatures resembling bloated humanoid trolls. Despite their grievous injuries, the trolls charged at the mages, swatting them away like flies and biting those nearby.
The soldiers and mages quickly turned their attention to the monsters and launched another round of spells. This time, they had a clear shot and swiftly eliminated the trolls by striking them in their heads, killing them.
“Where did these trolls come from?” said the baffled vice warden.
The mages were horrified, having already lost two of their own and five soldiers in an instant.
A nearby mage inspected the trolls' bodies and noticed a bracelet on one of the severed arms. "These aren’t trolls. This is—"
He saw the heirloom of the Rhedia family. "This man is Sir Teter, the prince of the Baxion region. Somehow, he was turned into a troll."
“What! That can’t be! This troll must have eaten him,” the vice warden argued.
Suddenly, the two dead bodies started convulsing violently.
"Get down, everyone!" a mage shouted.
The bodies exploded, sending people flying and breaking the formation completely. The vice warden was thrown back as well.
The ground rumbled as a horde of trolls swiftly emerged from the door, charging toward the mages. These trolls were Dread Zombies created by Damien. The larvae not only controlled their brains but also transformed their bodies, enlarging their limbs and heads. Their eyes were white, and they had only one thing on their mind: to kill.
As the troll army of converted prisoners charged at the mages and soldiers, the trolls that were defeated exploded, taking out nearby enemies.
Damien walked out with Benjamin, observing the chaos from a distance.
"These noblemen are weak as mages. They depended on pills and potions to accelerate their mana core growth. But thanks to that, I can create powerful self-destructive zombies who would go out with a boom once defeated," explained Damien excitedly.
Benjamin looked at the scene with wide eyes, "So this is the power of an elite mage,"