Season 3: Chapter 83: Goodbye to Friends.
[WARNING/ First half is a bit dark]
In the deepest recess of Hiro's empire, Slimey smiled through the eyes of a duplicate, the slime eyeing her prisoners suspended in her body.
The Dryad.
The human Danse.
And a few dozen goblins that had dared to stray from the glory of Hiro's light.
Here, her prisoners were kept alive by forcefully depositing nutrients into their stomachs via her tendrils with their excrements taken away to be used as fertilizer.
“Hellllo my pets,” Slimey cooed, entering the cage, her body oozing through the dungeon door bars to stand before paladin Danse. “How are you today?”
Of course the man couldn't respond, his mind was a mess, scrambled according to the Lord after being exposed to his entire being.
Now a husk, Slimey fed off the man, his body charged with divine energy that was delectable to her senses. Still, as she fed him monster meat, she noticed a surprising change.
The human was undergoing a metamorphosis.
It was slight, but his divinity was waning, his body warping, withering, scales appearing where only pink skin should be.
Slimey reached out, parting the man's hair as she prepared to feed him.
“Thank the Lord for he is plentiful and benevolent. He gives, and ask only for your trust in return.” Slimey whispered, her tendrils reaching up, parting the lips of his mouth and inserting herself into him.
Danse involuntarily spasmed, his body rejecting the touch, yet Slimey didn't care, she forced her way in, smile on her face as the prison guards looked on in horror.
As part of the training for all goblin conscripts, they were made to do prison duty, to witness first hand the folly of resistance against The Yellow One.
After feeding Danse, she turned to the dryad, the once mighty and verdant skin monster now a broken and withered being, her once lithe body shrunken as black petals fell from it.
“Hello dear.” Slimey said, touching the dryad's face, the eyes staring back at her devoid of life. At one point, Slimey had feared the dryad, but now… now it was just her pet. A useless braindead creature that had no purpose other than to be living plant for Hiro's army to harvest.
Unlike Danse and the goblins that ate from their mouths, dryads fed from their body, performing what Hiro had taught her was photosynthesis.
At her behest, a goblin lit a torch, illuminating the dungeon fully as Slimey's form began to shimmer.
Moving forward, Slimey turned into a puddle to begin the process.
Starting from the dryad's feet, Slimey wrapped around and engulfed the dryad ankles, her porous form creeping up the body of the dryad with every inch of the monster being consumed.
Body in body, Slimey shivered, her skin changing colors to reflect the torchlight, shifting the light just enough that it acted on a different wavelength.
Then, Slimey could feel it, the dryad feeding, its body responding to the light and the liquid upon its skin.
Slimey made sure to leave the dryad's head exposed, to allow it to breathe as Slimey covered every other inch of its body.
“Eat up my pet, the Lord demands more of your petals for our soaps.” Slimey cooed, stroking the dryad's head.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
*****
Elsewhere, simultaneously.
In my underground empire, rows upon rows of my immaculate goblin army kneeled on smooth shiny floors.
Within Slimey's hands, we moved down the steps of my throne, hundreds of my subjects seeing me off for the journey ahead.
When at last, we stood at the base of my throne, I activated my minion synchronization and took control of one of Slimey's bodies.
Standing now, in my old form, I cast my eyes over the crowd of my loyal retainers.
“My friends… I would like to take this moment to address a rumor that has been floating around my domain claiming that I hate the world… That I wish to reign nothing but destruction upon its lands,” I said, addressing the crowd, my voice both projecting audibly and mentally to all my subjects. “This… is false.”
At my words, a few of the lesser indoctrinated goblins eyed one another.
“I do not hate this world… in fact…”
I closed my eyes, taking a moment to shift my face into a pained expression for dramatic pose.
“I love this world!” I yelled, turning to face the crowd with a fervor in my eyes. “And it is with this love, that I shall clean it! That WE shall clean it! That the filth that stains it shall be wiped away until nothing but sheer perfection remains!”
“”CLEAN!”” My army shouted, smacking their weapons upon the smooth spotless floor.
“And you! My Cleaners, my army of elite warriors! Shall be the soap that washes away the shit and piss that holds this world in the palms of its hands!”
“”CLEAN!””
“MY FRIENDS! I LOVE THIS WORLD! FOR WITHOUT IT YOU WOULD NOT EXIST! WITHOUT IT OUR FAMILY WOULD NOT EXIST!”
“”CLEAN!””
“So… it is with this love, that we must nurture and care for this world. To clean it. Protect it. For it is our duty, NAY! Our destiny to purify it!”
“CLEAN! CLEAN! CLEAN! CLEAN!”
I closed my eyes, listening to the chanting of my army, their feelings of devotion pouring into my rubber duck body. Ah… Yes. This feeling… It's… intoxicating. I had been weary before, unease at the thought of being worshiped. But now…
Opening my eyes, I walked in step with Slimey, the Overseer of my forces arm in arm with me through the precession of armored goblins that extended upward to a set of stairs I had built leading up to the main castle.
Slimey shifted to a pink color, the Slime Queen smiling with her head down as we walked, every goblin we passed snapping a salute.
Finally, at the end of the line, in the castle courtyard where the once destroyed bridge sat repaired with makeshift logs,I paused, eyeing my subjects and the castle I had been trapped in for so long. “Thank you. My friends.”
Standing at the gate of Barbaroll’s castle, a wave of nostalgia hit me. In the past, I had come here as its conqueror and failed, now, I would leave as its master, the protector of a tombstone where so many heroes had fallen.
Of course, while the site was sacred to me, it would have to be a stepping stone for a greater ascension as my forces prepared to move from here as part of Operation Hydra. Even now, my minions moved with careful purpose to utilize every facet of the castle including the mold that seeped out as a weapon against my enemies.
After a few moments, I turned away, fixing my gaze instead to the bridge of log and mortar that had been set up to replaced the old one once destroyed by time.
Awaiting me on the bridge was Lhikan and his group along with several carriages being loaded up with bundles that included soaps, dungeon cores, manacysts, and weapons. Oh, and Ayaka protesting as she was made to fit into a jar.
“But I DON’T WANT TO BE IN A JAR! I deserve to be up front! I wanna be up front!” Ayaka screamed, a duplicate of Slimey attempting to squish the spider queen in as her Armored knight sat nearby, the massive spider bouncing on its titanic legs anxiously.
“GET IN THE JAR! OR I’LL FORCE YOU IN AND FILL IT WITH LIQUID!” Slimey’s duplicate yelled, her form a bit different than Slimey’s usual human appearance. In fact, the duplicate was wearing clothes taken from a slain adventurer.
“Ayaka.” I said, the mere mention of her name from my false lips causing the spider to deflate.
“B-b-ut why do I have to be in a jar?!” Ayaka protested, her knight spinning in circles like a dog upset about it’s master leaving.
“Because if we’re inspected, we can argue to the guards that you’re a captured specimen,” Gizmo, the knife-eared said.
“B-but Gobledo and Slimey don't have to!” Ayaka yelled.
*That's because they can mask their presence with divinity, with you, you stand out,” I said, approaching Slimey's duplicate and Ayaka. “Now get in the jar.”
Ayaka looked up at me with all eight of her eyes, the tiny spider putting on a pathetic attempt at puppy eyes that did nothing against my iron-clad mind.
“Are you done?” I said, causing the drider to finally relent.
“Okaay….” Ayaka did as told with Slimey's clone proceeding to smile before shaking the jar viciously. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-”À
“Paladin Lhikan,” I said, addressing the kneeling man and his group of adventurers. “Take us away from this place.”
The paladin looked up, a small smile on the old man’s face. “Of course sir, but… before we do, I have prepared a gift.”
“A gift?” My brow raised, wondering what it was that the man could possibly present me with.