Ernest Hemingway: "Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."
Somewhere deep within everyone lies a darkness and an emptiness. In that darkness is where the soul resides. Like a prisoner, the body keeps the soul captive. So when the body dies, the soul can become free.
When Alex died, his entire world became one of darkness. It was the same darkness he experienced right before he found himself in the obsidian maw. Like that darkness, this one didn’t last forever.
A small light appeared in that darkness. The light was coming from an egg. The egg was white, and inside it, something looked like a baby curled up in a uterus.
Within the white egg, a baby appeared. The baby looked exactly like Alex. He had red hair and red freckles on his face. These were features that were not obvious in the world of the living because of the black spot all over his body and the general low-light conditions of the mine tunnels.
The baby floated within the egg, connected at the navel by a multicolored umbilical cord. The umbilical cord had six vessels, and they were Red, Green, Yellow, White, Blue, and Black.
The six vessels supplied the baby with nutrients, helping it grow. Right now, they supplied exactly 0.03 units of resources per day.
What was particularly weird about this baby in the egg was that it possessed three golden hearts. Two of the hearts were complete and functional. The third was incomplete and still developing. 0.12 units of resources went into the baby every day, helping it develop the third heart.
In general, the baby was transparent. His flesh seemed to be made of glass, revealing its internal organs. But there was nothing much to see within the baby because its body was mostly empty.
So the only things within the baby were the three hearts. However, a golden tattoo also marked the baby’s transparent skin.
The tattoo was a complex hexagonal rune. At the center of the rune was the image of a sun looking down at a baby.
Aside from these things, there was nothing else to see. The egg was serene, and nothing was moving. Unfortunately, this all changed when Alex died.
When Alex’s body died, the six vessels stopped producing resources for this development. This put the baby in a distressed state, and it began moving.
Just then, the baby’s eyelids opened, revealing bright red eyes. In the baby’s vision, lines of text appeared.
-Life Force Has Been Severed.
-Initiating Recovery.
-Recovery Initiated.
One of the two complete hearts shattered at this moment. The golden heart shattered into golden dust that dissolved into the baby’s transparent body.
-Life Anchor Expended.
-Life Force Being Restored.
Some of the golden dust went into the six vessels and was transported into Alex’s body. But some of the golden dust went into his skin.
The golden dust reached the surface of his skin and began to outline a structure. It was a rune similar in appearance to the first one.
As the new tattoo formed, a new message appeared in Alex’s vision.
-Life Immunity Being Created.
The new tattoo was golden like the previous one. It was also a hexagon and sat close to the first tattoo, their sides touching. But at its center, there was the image of a snake swallowing a sphere.
When the new tattoo was finished, another message appeared before him.
-Life Immunity Created.
-Life Amplification Has Fallen to +100%.
When he saw these notifications, he sighed in relief and said, "So it wasn’t a one-time fluke. That’s a relief."
Then he seemed to shiver when he remembered how he had died. He shook his head, trying to forget the experience.
Unfortunately, all of the pain and suffering remained stuck in his mind. Even closing his eyes didn’t help to remove its impact on his mind.
It took a while, but he eventually recovered enough to say, "When will I get used to death?"
"This is the second time, but it was as bad as the first one. No, this one is even worse than the first one."
"At least the first one ended quickly. This one went on and on before I was finally put out of misery."
He exhaled to relieve the tension in his heart, but there were no lungs or air here to do that. Still, the failure to exhale distracted him enough to ease the tension.
"That first death wasn’t my fault. Everyone on Earth had died. There was nothing I could have done to stop it."
"But this second one was completely my fault. I could have avoided it by rejecting the offer. So I have no one to blame but myself."
"At the end of the day, I wasn’t strong enough to withstand the gluttony worm. But I don’t regret it," he said, shaking his head.
"It is a shame, though. I can only be twice as strong now," he said with a smile. "But it seems that this death will be worth it."
He had lost one of his hearts and had become weaker, but he was happy. After all, his future held hope now, and he had something grand to look forward to.
-Life Force Restored.
-Rebooting Life Force With New Immunity.
When he saw the notification, he closed his eyes and let his consciousness return to his body.
In the mental space of his mind, the worm had devoured his mind. It had become stronger and smarter because of this. But the greatest benefit was that it now controlled Alex’s body.
The gluttony worm had become the overlord of the castle that used to be Alex’s body. Just as it was about to utilize its privilege as overlord to eat more people, a new mind appeared and pushed it aside.
The gluttony worm immediately shrieked in anger and defiance, "Shrieeeeee."
It was a shrill scream, like a high-pitched whistle. It caused Alex’s mind to tremble with pain and his newly awakened consciousness to flicker.
As bad as the scream was, the gluttony worm wasn’t content with it. It immediately opened its ringed mouth and latched onto Alex’s mind. Then it initiated a vacuum cleaning.
While it was sucking, the gluttony worm was saying, "Mine! Mine! Mine! All mine!"
It was still connected to Alex’s mind, so it was stronger than usual. Unfortunately, it couldn’t fracture Alex’s mind as it did before.
No matter how much force it used, Alex’s mind refused to budge. This drove it mad with anger.
"Why? Why? Why?" it asked again and again with white-hot anger.
"It seems you can talk now, but it is impossible. Give up," Alex said with utmost confidence.
"Never!" came the quick reply.
"Let’s work together. I’ll give you food, and you can give me power," Alex said, trying to be diplomatic.
"Never!" the worm said again.
It insisted, saying, "Mine! Mine! All Mine!"
In the main tunnel of the mine, Alex’s body stood up from where it lay prone. His posture was unnatural: bent backward and slanted sideways instead of standing straight. His two pairs of eyes were also feral, and he was looking at everyone around him hungrily.
The red three-headed worm had extended itself out of his mouth like a very long tongue. This long tongue was extending towards the nearest person while he moved his body jerkily to reach them.
The two broken arms were now healed. He even waved them toward the person, trying to grab them.
When Tessa saw this, she said, her voice full of disappointment, "He was useless after all."
"I shouldn’t be surprised. His will was weak, and his wavering personality was not suited for this."
Then she told the squire, as Alex approached, "Kill him."
The squire nodded. "Yes, boss."
Then the squire unsheathed their sword in one smooth motion. They gripped the sword with both arms and swung it at Alex’s neck.
In response, Alex jumped back to avoid the sword. Even so, the sword had grazed his neck, cutting it open.
He grabbed his bleeding neck and said, "What the hell?"
Even as he was speaking, the bleeding in his neck stopped. The wound was also closing slowly.
When he saw this, he said, "Wow."
By now, the three-headed worm had returned to his throat. His body was also straightened, and his movements were no longer jerky.
Someone snorted beside him and said, "Look who made it at the last moment. It looks like I underestimated you."
He looked to the source of the sound and saw Tessa. She was examining him with unconcealed curiosity.
"For a while there, I was sure that you were gone. Someone can rarely make it back from losing control. How did you do it?"
But Alex didn’t reply. He was only glaring at her.
She burst out laughing when she saw his glare. "Ahahaha. What a sight."
"So that’s how you did it. Your hatred for me saved your life."
Then she asked with a teasing smile, "Do you want to hit me? Do you want to beat me up?"
When he didn’t answer, she beckoned to him with her head and said, "Come on. Come at me."
But Alex didn’t take the bait. He kept glaring without moving an inch. Only the two normal ones were glaring at her, though. The two new ones were looking hungrily at everyone around him while his tongue was salivating.
"How boring," she said with a fake yawn. "I was looking forward to that beat down."
"I would have used you to teach the newbs a lesson. It would have been fun too. What a loss."
When he still didn’t get riled up, she ignored him and said to another squire, "Take him away and show him his quarters. Keep him under watch for 24 hours. You know the drill."
Then she stared into Alex’s four eyes as she said, "If he loses control, tie him down and keep him for me. I want to beat him to a bloody pulp myself. Hopefully, he will be capable of putting up a fight when he is mad."
"Yes, Boss," the squire saluted stiffly.
Then the squire gestured towards the door. Alex glanced at him for a while. But his gaze quickly returned to Tessa again.
He saw that Tessa had already moved on and was now busy watching the 9 people twitching and flailing all over the floor. Since there was nothing he could do now, and looking at her wasn’t going to solve anything, he looked away and moved toward the mine door.
Just as he took a step forward, he wobbled a bit. His feet landed unsteadily on the ground, causing him to stumble.
Fortunately, he caught himself in time. Then he resumed his journey out of the mine.
As he was leaving, he looked at his hands in wonder and said, "It is like my body, yet it isn’t my body. How weird."
For one, his body felt strange. He was still in control, but it felt different. It felt as if he could control more of his body now than he could before, while simultaneously being unaccustomed to his body.
The second oddity was the tongue in his mouth, moving on its own. He could control the tongue just fine, but when he wasn’t actively controlling it, it was doing its own thing.
The strangest part of his new body was the voice in his head that was constantly whispering and telling him to eat people. It was a constant, irritating drone.
As for his second pair of eyes, he didn’t feel its impact. He couldn’t see through it at all, so it might as well not be there.
While he was examining his body, he unknowingly found himself outside. It was somewhat hard to tell he was outside the mine because the world outside was as dark as the mines.
In fact, the outside world didn’t have a sky. It had a rock ceiling about 6 meters high, so it looked like he was in a bigger tunnel.
He really was in a bigger underground tunnel, though. But it was no longer a mine. This was how it was everywhere in the obsidian maw.
Based on his experience, the whole world of the obsidian was a series of underground caverns connected by tunnels. As for whether there was a surface with a sky, sun, moon, and stars somewhere, he wasn’t sure.
If there was a sky somewhere, no one he knew had seen it or heard about it. All everyone knew in this part of the world was darkness and rocks.
Unusually, there were a lot of people in front of the mine. They wore armor or carried at least one weapon, looking like combatants and not the usual Drones he dealt with daily. They were also busy cleaning the area.
There was no source of light like the sun, so the obsidian maw was in perpetual darkness, but there were glass lamps and torches everywhere, producing light enough to make it possible to see in the darkness.
Thanks to the lamps, he could see blood everywhere. He also caught glimpses of scattered body parts here and there.
What drew most of his attention was the mountain of flesh in the corner. The corpse looked like a sumo wrestler, but bigger. It lay on the ground like a small mountain, imposing in death.
Apart from its size, another notable feature was a large claymore embedded in the flesh. The claymore was as big as he was tall, and it had nearly split the mountain of flesh from shoulder to hip.
The claymore had passed through where the heart should be, crushing it and everything along the way. From the gaping injury, he could see flesh that was as black as coal.
’So that’s Kent. What a way to die,’ he thought in awe.
When he saw the black flesh, he chuckled and said, "He did like to snack on coal. I guess we’re what we eat now."
He didn’t notice, but he had stopped to admire the corpse of the most powerful person he knew just a few minutes ago. He also didn’t notice that he had stopped for more than five seconds.
The squire behind him had noticed and didn’t like the delay. He nudged Alex from behind and said, "Keep moving."
"Alright, alright," Alex said in response.
Prompted, he resumed the journey. He walked past the people cleaning the area and went along the tunnel into town.
There was only one tunnel anyway, so he didn’t have much of a choice about what direction to take. He didn’t have options until the tunnel opened up into a large cavern.
The cavern ceiling was at least 20 meters tall. He wasn’t sure because he had never measured it. And unlike the dim, recently dug tunnel that led to the mine, the walls of this cavern were lined with bioluminescent moss.
The light from the moss was not enough to see in the darkness, though. It was only enough to see the walls of the cavern and see how large the cavern was. Thanks to the moss light, he could also see the other tunnels that led to this cavern.
There was a town in the cavern. The light from lamps everywhere showed people coming and going along the streets.
Instinctively, he began walking towards his house, which was nearby at the edge of the town. But the squire came up beside him to block his path.
"What are you doing?" the squire asked with a frown and their hand on their sword. "Are you running away?"
Before Alex could reply, his tongue rushed out of his mouth and snapped at the squire. The tongue would have bitten off his face too if the squire hadn’t dodged backward in a hurry.
As the squire dodged, they swung their sword at his face. The sword struck the three-headed worm and cut off its three heads in one strike.
The head of the worm fell to the ground while the tongue returned to Alex’s mouth. This allowed Alex to vocalize his pain.
"Ahhhh," he screamed.
He wanted to scream some more, but when he saw the squire preparing his sword for another swing, he quickly said, "Wait, stop."
"That wasn’t me. The worm did it. I am not trying to escape," he explained hurriedly.
The squire didn’t believe him. They continued to stare vigilantly at him, and they had both hands gripping their sword now for maximum swing force.
Meanwhile, the worm was screaming in his head, saying, "It hurts. It hurts."
"Eats him. Eats him. Food! Hungry! Give food!"
It clamored in his mind with a voice louder than usual. It also made him feel intensely hungry, ravenous, and desperate enough to do whatever was necessary to put food in his mouth. The feeling was so bad that he felt that he was going to die if he didn’t eat soon.
His stomach was cramping, and he could tell that there was a bottomless hole within him that needed filling. As the feeling of hunger surged within him, his vision began to flicker, and his head pounded in his skull.
"Eat! Eat! Flesh! Blood!" the worm said, urging him and trying to wrestle control of his body from him.
It was as if his entire existence had turned against him. Both his body and mind were urging him to satiate his hunger.
He had never felt something like this before and was about to succumb. But against all odds, he remained sane.
The sight of that sword leveled against him, and the thought of the consequences of losing control, had a lot to do with how he was able to focus. The impending danger was a more potent concern than hunger, so he was able to use it as an anchor for his mind.
"I haven’t lost control. I promise," he said again.
His voice was strained a bit as he said, "Besides, even if I’ve lost control, you can’t kill me. You have to tie me up, remember?"
Upon hearing the logical argument, the squire relaxed somewhat.
"It seems you haven’t lost control," they said as they stopped pointing the sword at him.
It seemed that the danger was over, but they didn’t sheathe the sword just yet. They kept it unsheathed and ready to be swung at a moment’s notice.
"Control your demon and keep it in check," they said in admonishment.
"My demon? Wasn’t it a worm?" he asked in confusion.
The squire didn’t reply. Instead, they gestured forward and said, "Keep going."
"Can I get my things from my house?" Alex asked.
But the squire didn’t reply. They kept staring at him, and a hint of vigilance appeared in their posture and eyes. It was as if they were preparing to fight.
"My place is very close, and I don’t have much. I promise that we will be done very soon," he said, trying to convince this young man who seemed ready to swing his sharp sword at any moment.
It seemed his plea finally got to the squire. They decided to speak and said, "I don’t care where your house is, and I don’t care how long it will take. I only care about my orders."
"My order was to take you to your quarters and arrange surveillance of your person for 24 hours. That’s what I intend to do. Nothing else."
"I am willing to fight you and maim you to execute my orders. I can cut off your limbs and drag you if I must. But I ask that you don’t make this difficult for both of us."
Alex nodded in understanding and began walking forward. As he walked, he said, "Where exactly are we going? I mean, what part of town is our destination?"
A sigh came from behind him before he heard the squire say, "I’ll tell you when you need to change directions."
Then he said sternly, "You ask too many questions. You should stop doing that as soon as possible. You’re no longer a Drone without an affiliation. You have to learn to accept orders and execute them without delay or questions."
Alex was about to say, "You look like a good fighter. Why didn’t they give you the gluttony worm?"
But since he had been warned to stop asking questions, he decided to keep the question to himself.
Since he was no longer talking and the squire had no interest in saying anything to him, the atmosphere between them became silent. The two of them walked into town like that.
Back in the mine. Tessa was still busy with the miners. Some of the miners were not as lucky as Robert and Alex. Most of them failed in the first step.
The miners’ bodies were generally weak from working every day and eating just enough to get by barely. Even though she picked the strongest ones, it was like picking the biggest egg from a basket.
No matter the size, eggs were fragile and easy to break. At least compared to the bodies of squires who had trained physically for most of their lives and had robust muscles, the miners’ bodies were nothing noteworthy.
The first stage of forming a symbiotic relationship with the gluttony worm was transforming the body. The worm consumed the original body and used it as nutrients to create a better one. If there weren’t enough nutrients, this stage would fail.
Of the nine remaining miners, the bodies of five of them weren’t enough to fuel the transformation. The worms hollowed them out, but couldn’t rebuild their bodies. So they died with broken bodies.
Tessa was really sad to see these dead miners. Her large brows were furrowed as she thought, ’There go five worms. What a waste!"
She didn’t care at all about the dead miners. They were Drones, so their death would only incur a fine to Lord Byron.
Every Drone in this Domain belonged to Tyrant Lord Byron, so she would have to pay the price of their lives if she used them. Even those who survive the transformation and successfully become Apostles, like Alex, will require compensation to Lord Byron for the loss of manpower.
She thought that paying compensation, especially for the people that she killed earlier by mistake, was a nuisance. The cost of compensation was not enough to make her heart ache like the cost of the gluttony worms.
If the cost of gluttony worms were at all similar to the cost of the life of a Drone, every Drone would be able to become an Apostle. Clearly, every Drone wasn’t an Apostle, so the gluttony worms had to be cherished.
Unfortunately for her, one more loss was incoming. Of the four remaining miners, two of them failed the second stage.
Their minds were too weak, or the gluttony worms were especially strong, so the worms ate their minds and took control of their bodies. But this wasn’t a total failure.
The two of them successfully transformed into Apostles. But they were mindless, ravenous beasts that only knew to hunt, kill, and eat. As for whether this outcome was worse than failing at the first stage and dying, it depended on who you asked.
As far as the gluttony worm was concerned, the transformation was successful. After all, to the worm, the goal of the transformation was to develop from a larva into a juvenile.
By transforming the body and taking control, the worm accomplished its goal perfectly. Therefore, to the worms, the Apostles who remained sane after the transformation were the ones suffering from incomplete metamorphosis.
But to Tessa, the two mindless beasts were another failure. She was so angry that she roared, saying, "Damn it."
Her shout startled the two miners. They turned their heads to her and focused on her with their four eyes.
The two of them were crouched on the ground on all fours like beasts. Their three-headed tongues were dangling outside of their mouths, tasting the air for prey.
Because the two of them were close to each other, their tongues snapped at each other like rabid dogs. But when she shouted and drew their attention, they decided to snap at her.
The two of them lunged at her, running on all fours. Their tongues were pointed at her, primed to take a stab at her.
She didn’t even look at them. Her eyes stayed on the other two, still transforming, as she said, "Kill them."
Swords flashed, and two heads fell to the ground. The bodies of the two beasts fell to the ground, twitching and spasming, while their heads rolled across the ground, their tongues still trying to reach Tessa.
On the surface of the cut, the flesh bubbled, and the bubbles elongated into tentacles growing out of it. Because of this, the bleeding stopped. Then the tentacles went around searching for the other body part.
The tentacles growing from the body were looking for the neck, and the tentacles growing from the head were looking for the body. Clearly, the beasts were not dead yet.
To finish the job, a squire stepped forward, raised their leg, and stomped it on a head. A second squire smashed the other head with a club. The two heads were crushed, with blood splattering everywhere.
Even then, the beasts didn’t die immediately. Tentacles grew out from the cracks in the skull, attempting to pull the skull together and mend the injuries. The body was still twitching too.
Unfortunately, the damage was too severe, so the tentacles failed. After a few seconds of trying and failing, the tentacles went limp, signifying complete death.
The body was still twitching, though. The tentacles attached to the necks of the bodies were still searching for their missing heads. It took a long time before they gave up and accepted death.
By the time the two beasts were thoroughly dead, the two remaining miners were done transforming. They also retained their sanity.
One of the two was Barnabas. He had shrunken compared to before. But his body was now pure muscle and bone. He had no trace of fat, making him stronger than he was.
Seeing this, she nodded in satisfaction and thought, ’Four out of eleven isn’t so bad. And I converted one Drone that was going to die into an Apostle, preventing him from going to waste. All in all, not bad for an evening’s work.’
Then she said to the squires, "Clean the place. Remove the corpses and take care of their compensation."
"As for the rest," she said, pointing to the miners standing far back in the tunnel. "Exchange their coal for money. Then let them go."
After giving more orders, she left the mine to check the situation outside. She spent some time walking around to make sure that everything was in order.
One of the things she did was post guards and sentries to watch the mine. This was important to prevent losing the mine they had just fought hard to acquire.
The last thing she did was to secure the transportation of the corpses. As valuable and useful materials, she couldn’t allow anything to go wrong.
Not even the corpses of the miners were allowed to go to waste. They were going to pay for them, so there was no way she was going to do something as foolish as letting the corpses rot away in the ground.
After finishing up at the mine, she went to report the outcome of her duties to her superior, Tyrant Bane. Tyrant Bane was in their headquarters in Coal Town, which was the town directly connected to the mine, so she didn’t have to go far to reach him.
The headquarters was a cube-shaped building with four floors. Since there was no such thing as rain in the obsidian maw, the top floor didn’t have a roof. The top floor could have been closed, but Tyrant Bane liked it this way.
The cube-shaped headquarters sat on a large, walled property. Other buildings on the property served as barracks, servant quarters, training grounds, weapon storage, etc.
A carriage brought Tessa from the mine to the compound. It entered through the gate and traveled along the dirt road up to the main building.
Tyrant Bane was living on the top floor of the main building, so that’s where Tessa went to meet him. She didn’t need them, but the steam-powered elevators were there, so she used them.
As the elevator opened onto the top floor, she took a deep breath. Then she stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the door, making sure to step as lightly as possible.
Above her was the open sky. It made the top floor appear bigger than it was. The absence of guards didn’t help her feel alone in the giant open space.
Slowly and surely, she made her way to the door. She didn’t knock when she reached it. She also didn’t speak. Instead, she bowed her head and waited.
She expected to wait in silence for a few seconds before leaving, so she was a little surprised when she heard a deep voice appear in her mind, saying, "Come in. Let me see you."
Even though she was surprised, it didn’t prevent her from doing what she was told. In fact, her body moved automatically before she thought about it.
She moved the massive black wooden doors aside, revealing a partly lit room. At the center of the room was a giant of a man sitting on a cushion.
Even while seated, the giant’s head reached up to her chest. This was extraordinary in itself, and it was a rare sight in the Obsidian Maw. What was truly special about this giant was the red flame burning atop his head.
The red flame didn’t illuminate its surroundings like a normal flame did. The light it produced was barely enough to outline its flickering shape.
But what was especially odd about it was that she couldn’t look at the red flame directly for long. Even a glance at the flame caused her eyes to twist with pain and migraine to pound her skull.
After a second of looking, the pain got too much to bear. So she kept her head bowed and her eyes low so as not to look at the red flame.
In her attempt to look at anything but the elephant in the room, she noticed that there was no torch or lamp in the room. Yet, half of the room in front of the giant was brightly lit.
Of course, she didn’t need to wonder where the light was coming from. She already knew what was producing the light in this otherwise lampless room.
While she was thinking about the special situation in the room, the giant turned his entire body to look at her. His face revealed four massive eyes that were glowing brightly.
The four eyes were producing a bright yellow light. They lit up the area in front of the giant as if the giant’s head was a lamp, with his eyes the only way for the light trapped in his skull to escape.
As the four eyes moved, examining her, the light followed, sweeping across her body. This time, she raised her head and looked up at the open sky so that she wouldn’t look at the red flame.
Three seconds later, the giant finished with his inspection and turned away. The light his sight brought with him left her now that he wasn’t looking at her anymore.
Just then, a voice boomed in her mind, saying, "It seems you were not injured in your errand. That’s good to see."
In response, she thought, "Apostle Kent was their strongest. He was no match for me."
The same deep voice rumbled in her mind, saying, "I knew that, which is why I sent you to kill him. If I thought he was too strong, I wouldn’t have sent you."
"So it is no surprise that you defeated him. But he was still a veteran Apostle. The fact that you could dispatch him without any serious injuries indicates that you performed excellently. This level of performance deserves a reward."
"I don’t need a reward. I live and die by grace, Lord Bane," she said sincerely.
She was truly sincere about this. It wasn’t politeness or feigned sincerity.
In the presence of a Tyrant, there was no room for falsehood, and in her current situation, she couldn’t afford to lie to a Tyrant. So what she said was what she meant.
Lord Bane sensed her sincerity, which made him chuckle and say, "It is my grace that you be rewarded."
"Then I shall be rewarded," she said, accepting the decree.
"Now tell me about your mission," Lord Bane instructed nonchalantly.
She obliged immediately and began to recount everything that had happened from the moment she went to fight the Black Fist Order up to the moment when she returned to the headquarters a few minutes ago.
She didn’t say a single word throughout this report, though. All she did was think back to what had happened while her head was bowed.
As for Lord Bane, it didn’t look like he was paying attention to her. His eyes were focused on something in front of him, and his hands were busy sorting out certain objects.
When she was done with her report, Lord Bane spoke directly into her mind, saying, "So, a survival rate of 36%. That’s not bad for a group of impoverished souls. I’m sure that the squires will do better."
"In that case, start preparing the squires for their advancement. By the end of the month, I want every gluttony worm in the store used to create more Apostles."
"Yes, my lord," she thought in reply.
There was silence for a while. It seemed Lord Bane was busy with something at the moment. Since she hadn’t been excused, she stood there waiting for her next instructions.
As she was waiting, a piercing shriek sounded from the area in front of Lord Bane. The shriek cut through the room’s silence, louder than normal.
Based on what she could hear, she deduced that a living being had made that sound. Clearly, Lord Bane was doing something with a living creature.
But whatever it was that he was working on, she didn’t think about it. She kept her thoughts clear, and her curiosity reined in so as not to offend her superior.
After a series of more screams, Lord Byron’s voice appeared in her mind, saying, "As for your reward, go to the store and pick a snack of your choosing."
As soon as she heard this, what she would pick appeared in her mind. It was a bar of steel, and the thought of eating it made the worm in her mouth salivate uncontrollably.
Clearly, she was excited, and it showed in her mind as she said, "Thank you for your grace, my lord."
"Hmmm," Lord Byron said noncommittally. "You may go."
"Yes, lord Bane," she said as she stepped back.
She walked backward the way she came, keeping her head bowed. When she reached the door, she pulled it along with her until it closed, sealing off the room.
Then she turned around and, with silent steps, walked over to the elevator. A few seconds later, the elevator began sinking, leaving the top floor behind.
As soon as she cleared the top floor, she exhaled heavily. It was a deep exhale because she had been holding her breath all along.
As she exhaled, the tension she had been bearing seemed to leave her body, and her shoulders relaxed. Her posture also straightened to her full height. Even the voice of the gluttony worm that had been silent since the meeting began came back to pester her.
It was clamoring in her mind, saying, "Eat! Eat! Eat!"
As it pestered her for food, the three-headed tongue slithered out of her mouth like a rat coming for air.
"You and food," she said, chuckling with mirth.
Then she said, rubbing her stomach, "It will be good to have a snack."
"Yes! Yes!" the worm said in complete agreement.
A few minutes after Tessa left, another guest arrived at the top floor. This guest was a white pigeon. Because it could fly, it didn’t need to take the elevator to reach the top floor.
The pigeon perched on the wall in front of Lord Bane. Its two eyes were glowing like torches, casting light onto Lord Bane and the area in front of him.
In front of Lord Bane was a table. There were surgical tools scattered on the table, with most of them bloody with blood of various colors.
Jars of various sizes sat on the table. The jars mostly contained round balls of flesh of various colors. But some jars contained segmented worms.
Some of these worms were red, like the ones that the miners had used earlier. But there were also white, gray, green, and blue worms.
One of the red worms was directly in front of Lord Bane, being cut open. It was dead and unmoving, but that didn’t seem to hamper whatever Lord Bane was doing.
Without looking up, Lord Bane said, "What can I do for you, Inspector?"
The pigeon replied, saying, "I heard news that you brought in a batch of flesh titan larvae and used a group of miners to test them. I am here to determine if any crime had been committed."
Throughout this exchange, neither one made a sound. At least, the sound they were making wasn’t physical.
Upon hearing the purpose of the Inspector, Lord Bane said to the pigeon, "I have not committed any crime. None of the miners who took part in the experiment was forced."
"When you investigate, you will find that I explained the risk to every single one of them and asked for their permission. I have also paid the compensation for their lives."
"I am not worried about that," the pigeon said, cutting him off. "I doubt you would be so foolish as to cross Lord Byron."
"I am more worried about the consequences of your actions and whether I should cut you down now to save all of us some trouble. Do you not know that the Roland Principality nearby was destroyed by flesh titans that went out of control?"
"I know," Bane said in reply, still working on the worm in front of him.
To buttress his point, he said, "I know that if flesh titans lose control, they will eat every living thing around them. I know that this makes them more dangerous to civilization than other titans that eat rocks, metal, knowledge, and other food."
"I am not a fool, and I didn’t make my decision in ignorance. I knew the risk and danger before I purchased the larvae."
"If you did, then why did you take such a risk?" the pigeon asked with a hint of reproach.
"Because they were cheap and easy to raise in large quantities," Bane replied sharply.
"Nothing good is cheap. If it looks cheap, that’s because you don’t know about the hidden price. You of all people should know this," the pigeon said sternly, like an elder correcting a child.
There was no answer for a while. Bane was looking down at the table in silence, and his hands had stopped moving. He looked like he was hesitating about something.
When he finally replied, he said, "I know. I know that if you want something good, you must be willing to pay a high price for it."
Upon hearing the open admission, the mind inhabiting the pigeon’s body sighed mentally and said, "It seems you’re running out of time. If not, you wouldn’t be doing something so dangerous."
Lord Bane didn’t deny it. He remained silent as his hands resumed their work.
Seeing this, the pigeon said, "I have seen enough. You are not ignorant of the danger, so I will let it be for now."
"I hope you don’t go mad. If you go mad, I’ll have to put you down. That’s a lot of work that I don’t want to do."
"Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing," Bane said with confidence.
"I have taken proper precautions. I kill every failed product as soon as they appear. I also keep the successful product under watch for 24 hours, making sure to starve them to see if they will still lose control."
"Lastly, if I can’t hold on anymore, I will kill all of them. I won’t let my failure jeopardize the stability of this principality."
"I hope so," the pigeon said noncommittally. "Fortunately, the safety of this principality is not up to you."
"I will be watching you and your flesh spawns closely. If I sense a hint of trouble, I will eliminate it immediately."
"And you know that I’m very lazy. You can count on me to eliminate the trouble before it becomes something bigger. So don’t give me reason to take action."
"I won’t," Bane promised.
"We shall see," the pigeon said as it took off.
Even when the pigeon left, its mental transmission remained in Lord Bane’s voice, echoing, "We shall see! We shall see! We shall see!"
The warning rang in his mind several times to emphasize the situation’s magnitude. Lord Bane agreed that the Inspector had reasons to be worried, but that didn’t stop what he was doing. His hands continued to move, controlling the surgical blades to cut through the worm’s corpse.
He looked the same as he was before the pigeon arrived. But in the depths of his eyes, the light that was burning within his skull had dimmed slightly.
It was like a mortal slowly losing their sight. A mortal might not notice the slow progression of the loss of their vision, but he was not a mortal.
He was more than a mortal. He was a Tyrant, worth many men, and he noticed the light in his eyes dimming a little every day. So he knew without a doubt that he was running out of time.
But while his light dimmed, his determination burned even brighter. In his mind, he remembered the saying of a giant who said, "I may be small, but I will fall as a colossus."
So he made up his mind about his goal. Even if he would eventually fall, he was determined not to fall lightly.
A/N: Welcome To The Fire Of Divinity.