“Move yourself away from their attack,” Victor shouted as he blasted more of the Basics ahead. Jared was busy wiping the mud from his shoulders and arms.

Amadeus was right beside him, calcifying the rest of the Metamorphs while Lillie provided cover.

Victor dropped from the little balcony onto the floor beside the teenager.

“You ready again?”

“Y-yeah,” Jared said shakily.

“Wait a bit if you’re not,” Victor advised him.

The Metamorphs were no issue for them. though one of the monsters did hold another Hemostone in its grasp. It was running behind the enemy lines, towards another pedestal.

“Am, aim for that one. He’ll bring in more reinforcements if you don’t!” Victor ordered him. Amadeus jumped atop their light shield and held out a hand with careful aim. Lightning blasted from his fingers in an arc, small sparks harmlessly brushing the enemies as it passed. Then it impacted the escaping Metamorph,

But the blast was much too powerful. It not only killed the Metamorph but cracked the Hemostone into tiny little pieces.

“Am!”

“Sorry! I didn’t think it’d break so easy!” Amadeus shouted.

Victor wanted to say more, but the Metamorphs climbed over the barrier. He popped blade from his forearms. One by one, he cut the monsters into chunks. Slice one horizontally, kick it back into the next one. Slash down at the legs then jump to the next. Explode blades out of hands and catch the next two together.

Another snuck up behind Victor but he plunged his fist inside it. He used his Shrink and the monster grew smaller. Then he just ripped it apart with his arms.

Way behind him, Jared was struggling to even fend off a single Metamorph. His gauntlet was covered in clay and his sword was being pulled from him. Victor looked to Lillie for confirmation and she nodded at him.

He jumped over and behind her, slashing down with another popped blade. It cleaved through the Metamorph’s arms as Jared stumbled backwards. Victor grabbed him by his shirt and grounded him.

He put an arm over the kid’s shoulder and pointed at the Metamorph.

“Feet straight, look ahead. It’s dumb so it’s going to just rush at you,” Victor said. On cue the monster lunged for Jared.

“Slash!”

Jared swung his conjured blade that got stuck in the monster. Victor shot twice into its shoulders, freezing it from the arms down.

“Pull out your sword and try again. This time, put your whole body into it, not just your arms,” he guided as Jared stumbled through the steps.

The Metamorph was barely moving at this point but Jared got out his sword and slashed down. This time the blade went clean through, leaving a gap in the middle of the Metamorph’s body. It broke down to the ground and tried reassembling, but Victor stomped it out.

“Now keep doing that for the rest of them. If they’re in small enough pieces you won’t have to worry about them getting back up,” was the last piece of advice he gave to the kid before returning to the front lines himself.

Amadeus and Lillie were holding on well enough. The horde was thinning and Victor could see the last of the line of Metamorphs. Victor cleared them out with nothing but his blades and his hands. he was left with shallow breaths by the end but at least they’d been culled.

He spared a single glance for Jared in all of this. He was holding his arm like it was sore, rubbing the shoulder up and down. His gauntlet had receded but the boy looked down at his hand inquisitively. He called the armour again and Victor smiled a little. There was a new pauldron visible on the boy’s shoulders.

“Congratulations. That’s the first hint of progress you’ve gotten. Feel any different?” Victor asked.

“No….?”

But when the boy moved his arm, it struck out ever so slightly quicker. He dismissed it soon after and yawned into his hands.

“Need some time to rest?” Amadeus asked. Jared shook his head.

“No. We need to get the others. Then… then I’ll sleep,” he replied.

Victor hoped the boy could keep the journey. He’d brought him here partly as an asset, not as someone to protect.

“Lil, is the Hemostone functional?” Victor asked. She looked at it with piercing eyes, concentrating so much she failed to even respond.

Then her squint softened and she rubbed her eyes.

“Doesn’t look like it. We’ll have to find another way around.”

“Perhaps I could be of some assistance,” A voice came from all around them, putting the group on edge.

Victor pulled out his dual pistols and pointed them away from himself. Was it a Daughter of Mara? Or some kind of illusionist?

“Who are you! Show yourself!” Victor shouted around him. the others were just as startled. Lillie had placed a giant dome of light around them to defend against any attacks that came.

“I’m the owner of this fine castle, and your host for the night, though I wasn’t expecting any guests. You may call me Count Hemotep, if you please,” the voice replied. It was posh in an infuriating way.

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“Why are you talking t-”

“Where are the kids!” Amadeus interrupted Victor. He looked madder than Victor had seen him before. His hands and voice were shaky while he darted his eyes around the entire room.

“In my main chambers. But we’ll get to that. You are Amadeus, are you not? Along with Victor, Lillie and sweet little Jared. I would be mad at your escape, Jared, but I don’t think I’m in the position to argue much,” the voice mocked them.

“Hand over the other kids!” Amadeus shouted at the voice.

“Of course. But it won’t be cheap for you. I’ll require your cooperation,” Hemotep replied through the invisible speakers around the room.

“What do you want from us?” Victor asked.

“You’re carving your way through my castle and my brethren. Stop that, for one. Secondly, I want reimbursement, and since you so happened to cull my troops, I will be taking that from you,” Count Hemotep continued.

Victor gestured to the others, writing a note onto his phone while the lord of the castle kept prattling on about his rules.

Keep him talking. I’ll move up to the balcony and find a way forward.

Lillie dispersed the dome and Victor got back on the balcony he’d fired his shots from.

“Metamorphs are treated as nothing more than work horses by most others. I am to change this status quo, for the good of our kind. I-”

Victor searched through the drawers in the room and found nothing major of note. There were books in the libraries, but they were mostly tomes from his own world. Even cleaning out the whole room had no effect.

In frustration, Victor took a swipe at the painting hanging on the far wall of a clayman in regal court robes. Slashing it apart, he found something embedded into the wall. In a small crevice was another Hemostone, seemingly hidden by the painting.

He’s a cliché through and through. Monologue, lair, style and all.

Victor plucked the Hemostone out of the far wall and jumped down from the balcony.

He nudged his head towards the pedestal before placing the Hemostone inside of it.

“We can make quite a nice bargain, I think, that will benefit us bo-”

The walls of the castle started to shift and grind against each other.

“What have you- Where did you find that Hemostone!” the Count asked, enraged.

“Hidden away in the most obvious spot. Try a better hiding space next time, M’lord,” Victor mocked.

“You realize whose lives I hold in my hand? I’ll kill them one by one, slowly enough that you’ll hear their screams rocking through this entire castle.”

Amadeus clamped up, grabbing at Victor’s shoulders. He looked bewildered and scared, but Victor raised a hand in defence. He peeled away from Amadeus’ grasp before addressing the Count once more.

“You said you want to better the place of Metamorphs in this world? I promise if you go through with what you said, I’ll return your punishment on your subjects a thousand times over. You swipe at my kind and I’ll swipe at yours!” Victor shouted back.

The Count fell silent afterwards. A second later the walls of the castle cracked open once more, revealing the path forwards for the group. Two Metamorph Brutes and a Thinker stood on the other end, flanked by a number of Basic Metamorphs.

Victor raised his guns again. It was time to give the Count a display of what they could do.

****

No more boosts came to Victor as he stood over the body of the Thinker. He was spitting mud and clay out of his mouth in disgust.

“Egh, why’d that one explode?” Victor asked.

“New trick I learnt,” Am replied as he crouched down to search the bodies of the Metamorphs. Jared was behind them, panting and leaning against his blade. Amadeus’ search proved to be a useless endeavour, as the walls of the castle started shifting around them once more. Bricks split apart to reveal pathways hidden, and behind those were a mob of angry monsters waiting to burst through.

“I think the Count’s onto our tricks now,” Lillie said as she raised a pane of light between the expanding seams. “Hurry up the search, Am!”

Clay exploded onto the planes of light and cracked them further. Victor ran up to them and enlarged them with his powers to buy them some more time.

“Found it!” Amadeus shouted at them.

“I-I found one too!” Jared added in quickly afterwards.

“What?” Amadeus looked confused. “Which one do we use?” he shouted as a sweat broke out over Lillie’s face.

“Vic?” Amadeus reiterated.

“I don’t know!” he was slowly backing away from the makeshift barrier. Mud and clay were oozing out of the side of the light, forming back into little Metamorphs slowly. Lillie glanced back from the barrier and shouted over Victor and Amadeus’ bickering.

“The one Jared’s holding. And quickly!” she said.

Victor plucked the Hemostone out of the boy’s hands and struck it down onto the pedestal. The walls rearranged once again just as Lillie’s barrier broke. Behind the newly appearing passage was a set of metallic double doors taller than them five times over.

She ran for the new opening forming in the walls, urging the others forward ahead of her. When they were done, she picked the Hemostone out of the pedestal and jumped through the rapidly closing passage.

Her legs reached just in time. the walls closed just as the first Metamorph splattered himself against the wall. Lillie breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the Hemostone beside her. As soon as the walls had rejoined, music began to fill the room. It sounded like funeral rites, a thousand different instruments joined together to produce a single piece. A piece that signalled the end of innocent lives.

“This looks like the right path,” Victor said.

The new hallway they were in was different from the others. This one had windows that more clearly looked outside. Through it, they could see just how far up they were, and how far the reaches of Castle Hemotep actually extended.

“We’re still in the plains. But I’ve never even heard of a place like this,” Victor muttered.

“Is he on the other side?” Amadeus asked, “doing all of this?” he gestured around at the noise.

Lillie just nodded; her eyes still closed. Amadeus started walking quickly but Victor stopped him.

“Give her a second. We’ll be better off dealing with him if we’re at our best,” Victor told him.

Amadeus’ eyes darted between his friend and the doors behind him.

“W-what if he’s doing it right now, Vic. What if we’re too late?” Amadeus asked.

“I’ll go through it all again, then, I promise,” Victor told him. Amadeus knew a bit, but Victor hoped he understood the weight of his words.

Lillie got up quicker than Victor had expected. Her Recovery must have been higher than he gave her credit for. The only one of them still wrung out by it all was Jared, who held his sword in a shaky grip.

“You sure you’re up for this, kid?” Victor asked.

“Y-yeah,” Jared replied while adjusting his glasses.

The four of them walked towards the doors as the night cast a purple light over them. there were pieces of twisted artistry all across the halls, the wall and ceiling. It looked like an eccentric’s mansion, but replicated in this twisted world.

Victor placed his hands on the double doors at the end and pushed with all his might. The doors creaked open slowly, to reveal a large circular room with sacrifices hung about.

Sleeping children of all ages were hanging from chains all around the perimeter of the room. There was a depression in the middle where dried lines of blood ran. The back of the room was fixed with a pipe organ whose entrails extended from the ceiling over the sacrifices.

A single man sat there playing the pipes with a number of hands that extended from his chest. As soon as the four of them had stepped through, the man rested his fingers and stopped the symphony.

He turned back and Victor got a good look at his awful face. Red eyes like no Metamorph he’d ever seen have while his hair was faked by clay. A vested suit with golden bands on the upper arms. A cloak of some kind of animal fur was draped over that. A kilt tied around his waist, under which was a set of dress pants that wouldn’t be amiss at a ball. It was like he’d run to an audition for a Pharaoh right after a business meeting. All he was missing was the nemes.

The monster looked pleased with himself, sitting casually before them all. Victor put his hand on his gun but stopped when the wannabe Pharaoh put his finger over a single key on the pipe organ.

“If you try to take a shot at me, everyone here dies,” he said matter-of-factly.