Roting heart

The next day, I went back to Siel'Kel and prepared to leave. On my way, I talked to Aktor who said something I didn't expect.

- Let's split up. You will go meet Verm and I will go meet Saat. This way we will save time. I trust you can figure something out.

- I will try my best. But I wonder how I should approach her?

- Just try telling her about what Lex told you yesterday. Tell her that the fragment was gift to the demon prince of pride and see how it goes. Just remember one rule of thumb, never piss off a demon prince or be prepared to face their wrath.

- No kidding. Like I would go there just to piss them off.

- Just... be carefull how you approach them.

- Got it.

We then walked towards Siel'Kel and Lex and explained our agreement. Lex then said.

- I hope you're both ready for this. Once you enter these two's realms, there is a chance you might get killed.

- The risk of being killed was always on the job posting, so don't worry about it. I'm not so stupid as to provoke a demon prince.

- Good, then guardian.

Siel'Kel looks turns its head towards us.

- Yes?

- Sent these two as close to the demon princes as possible.

- Understood.

Then, in a flash of light, I was sent to realm of rot, Sharaf. It smelled like rotting corpses as soon as I came here. The view was of swamps and stone roads. But upon closer inspection, beneath the stones was solid meat. The smell of rotting meat and corpses was so strong that I almost puked.

Before entering this place, Siel'Kel told me that I must follow the road as much as possible. Once the road ends, I'm need to go forwards until I see a cave entrance.

So I spend couple of hours walking, as I didn't want to summon my Bell here. During which I saw beings that live here. A giant fly things as well as normal flies in the dosen, had to use fire spells to get past them. A giant mosquitoe things. Lot if insects both big and small. Plants so big that once you fall in them, you never get back out. Then I saw in a distance a moving vines and a plant moving by itself. There were also lot of undead on the way, both humanoid and animals alike.

I finally reached the end of the road, so now I need to walk some ways on the swamp. I must be carefull. I had to fight many inhabitants of this place, since they tried to kill me. They were bit tough while walking on the swamp where each step could be your last.

Then I saw an entrance to a cave. There were two undeads with weapons guarding it but they didn't seem hostile so I walked past them. Inside the cave I walked past buch of other undead who didn't seem to be bothered by my presence.

Then I was on a big chanber with a giant egg hanging on the ceiling. I walked closer towards the middle until it bursted open with insect like tube hanging on the ceiling and coming towards the ground. before it hit the ground, it started to bend towards me and suddenly there was a person coming out of it. The person was still attached to the tube by its waist. The person looked like a dead naked woman who's head was twisted backwards. Pieces of her body were missing, like they have rotted away in time.

Then she looks down with her face upside down. She opens her eyes and her other left eye was an insect's eye. She started to speak with a hissing sound.

- Why have you come here, mortal? Don't you know that this is no place for a living like you?

- I have came here to get something.

- And what is that which you seek?

- I'm looking for fragments of destruction that you may have.

- Oh, those things. Yes I have them, but why should I give it to you?

- We seek to lessen their impact on the world. You see, there have been cases where the will of destruction has returned briefly to our world and caused havoc. We think, by destroying them in a sertain way, we can lessen the likelyhood of the shades of destruction from appearing.

- I see. Well I can give one to you, if you do me one favor.

- What is it then?

- There is a person, a beast folk with white wings, living in peace in a small village called Tif in Aresia. She has a holy blessing of life cast upon her by Vita, the god of life. I need you to cast a spell on this scroll upon her to make her body and heart rot away.

She extends her hand with the scroll on it.

- Do this, and the fragment will be yours.

- And if I don't?

She retracts her hand.

- You will not be welcome here any more than you are now and you would not get the fragment.

- I heard that they were gift from your father. But didn't he give them to your former self?

- He did, yes. But what does that have to do with you. Be carefull of what you choose.

- Since you want to erase your past self from existence, why not get rid of them?

- They are great source of power and I don't wish to become any weaker. You better not mention my former name, or you will not walk out of here with your body intact.

- I just think that they will remain a reminder of that they weren't gifts for you, but that they were gifts for your former self.

- That... sounds like a valid point.

- So how is it?

- Fine, I was planing on giving you only one of them, but since you brought my disgusting past to my attention, I will give you both of them. But only after you are done with the task.

- I... see what I can do.

She hands me the scroll and I'm transported back to our world. Lex is still there with Siel'Kel. Siel'Kel starts by saying.

- I see that you don't have the fragment.

- There is an issue.

Lex interrupts.

- As to be expected. What do you need to do to gain her favor?

I explain the deal.

- I see. Let me look at the scroll for a moment.

I hand the scroll to Lex. He starts to mumble to himself.

- Hhm... I see... Well, I we do that then... Yes I think we can pass this.

- What do you mean?

- Go and cast this to the lady and return to Verm. Once she gives her fragments and you return, I will go back there and minimise the damage that the spell caused.

- Will it be alright? What if she finds out?

- You will do her bidding, as agreed, but you aren't responsible of what comes after.

- I see. I trust you then. Shall we go?

- Let's.

We are then teleported to the small village of Tif. We ask around for a winged beast folk, but it appears that there are multiple people like that. Then we ask around for anyone who might have a holy blessing and they just look at us like we were idiots. Then we went looking for those winged beast folk and asked around but we found that there were three candidates. Since asking around didn't work, Lex casted a spell that showed anyone who's gained the holy blessing and it showed us that is was the youngest one of the three. We then explained the situation.

- No I will not be one of your guinea pigs. Go find somewhere else.

We tried to convince her that the world was on the line.

- I don't believe whatever you are trying to pull but I won't do it.

Lex then told me that her opinion was not necessary and to just do it. Hesitantly, I casted the spell and then Lex teleported me back to Siel'Kel and it transported me back to realm of rot. I then called my Bell since there was no time to waste. According to Lex, the spell would become worse the more time passes, so we must be quick.

We ran trough the undead and incects. With rushing in we managed to be at the cave in about half an hour. Then I ran toward the chamber and I was greeted by Verm herself.

- You have done well, my child. Now then, your reward.

Two giants that looked like flesh golems come walking towards me.

- What is this?

- You have to pull the fragments out of my children. Though they may ot be as keen to givin their hearts.

So I have to fight. The first golem strikes its fist to the ground and I decapitate it right there when he is recovering. The second one charges at me and I dodge. It goes to the wall and is dazed for a moment so I strike to its neck. Both are now decapitated and on the ground. Then I hear movement from both directions. They aren't fully dead yet.

I keep dodgin and only strike when the moment allows it. Their attacks are slow enough for me to take easy but still be carefull enough so I don't get crushed.

We have fough for around 10 minutes and they still aren't down. It's not that they regenerate, but that they just keep moving. My first two strikes seem to have made them wary of me and they made their bones much more harder to cut. I have been trying to make their muscles disconect so that they can't move as freely.

Now that they are unable to move much, I'm going to dig the fragments out with my sword. It took a while, but I manage to get both of them out. Now is time to leave.

- So you prevailed. I thought you would strugle a bit more. You may keep those fragments for yourself. Now that you destroyed my beautiful children, they are of no use for me.

- Thanks, I guess. Bye.

I leave with the fragments and call Lex. Later I found out that she didn't take it well when we just did it. Had many words for Lex during the waiting period, which none of them curse words. Luckily the spell didn't seem to get the effect going far, so the damage was minimal. She apparently hoped our "experiment" was worth it in the end. When Lex told her that is was realy for the greater good, she apparently smiled and said "If so, then I'm glad".

Now we had two more fragments of destruction, which makes it four now. We haven't heard much from Aktor's end so we just kept waiting. Well, I waited, but Lex tried to figure out how to exactly destroy them safely.