Chapter 3: Waking up

"Where am I?" A boy said, breathing heavily as he slammed into a tree, his heart racing as sweat fell off his body.

"Who am I?" He asked, stumbling and falling to the ground as the sound of skittering filled his ears. It was deafening. "What... Am I?"

His distress came to a halt as he opened his eyes, looking up at the bright blue sky, a calm breeze washing over him.

The air was fresh, much fresher than any he'd ever had the privilege of breathing in.

He remembered the entity in the dark space, though only vaguely, He had wanted him to... takeover?

Hado breathed in, the memories of his conversation with the entity flooding in as he sat up. "I see... So this is that world then?" He said to himself, looking around at the clearing he was sitting in.

"A world where I'm not under any laws... The only condition to get anything I want is to take over this place?" He said to himself, chuckling slightly, "Easy."

He looked down at himself, noticing his clothing... Well, his lack of clothing.

"Yeah... why the hell am I naked?!" He exclaimed as he stood up, running his hand through his hair. "That's strange."

He stepped away from the tree he had crashed into, looking around, trying to find anything that wasn't just forest.

He found nothing, not until he started walking. "Well here goes... Let's see what this world has for me-" Hado dropped as a pain erupted throughout his entire body.

"W-What!" He yelled out as he dropped and grabbed his chest where his heart was, looking down to see wriggling under his skin.

"Oh fuck!" He cursed, trying to brush off his arms as he saw the wriggling under his skin.

"Stop!" He yelled in desperation, smacking at his arms. Instantly the wriggling stopped, as if it had never even happened.

"What... Wait..." That's when he remembered his last few moments with The Adviser, the pouring of the bugs that burrowed themselves into his skin.

He raised his hand in front of him, looking at it intently. "Uhh... Reveal? Huh, maybe... Come out," He commanded.

Instantly dozens upon dozens of insects ripped through his skin, it hurt but not enough for him to audibly yell.

"Woah..." Hado muttered as he looked at the insects, but he could also see himself...

"No way," He said, seeing many different angles of himself, but he could also see tons of different angles of himself.

Hado's mind raced, recalling the dumping of dozens of maggots on him just before he had been transported here. 'It couldn't be right?' He thought, but he couldn't come up with any other explanation.

Dozens of different insects poked out their tiny bodies from his skin, looking at him, as if connected to his mind.

"No no no! I don't have time for this!" Hado said aloud, his voice echoing all around him, causing the bugs to crawl back under his skin, making his skin look like normal.

Hado cursed the advisor. "I should have known this would be bullshit..." He said aloud, standing up as a sound made him forget all about the bugs living inside of him.

*Crack*

Hado turned to see a huge monster, bigger than any animal he's ever seen, walking toward him. It looked like a cross between a bear and an alligator, looking at Hado with predatorial eyes.

Seeing that it had noticed, the best rushed Hado, its jaws agape as the boy held his hands in defense, knowing this was the unfortunate early end to the little job he'd been given.

'Take over the world? What world even is this!'

Hado closed his eyes, accepting his death... Yet it never came.

He opened his eyes, seeing the razor-sharp teeth mere centimeters from his body. "What the hell?" He said.

The beast stepped back rigidly, as if it was a malfunctioning animatronic. A second later it bowed its head in the dirt at Hado's feet.

That's when he noticed the wriggling next to its ear, the same wriggling that had been in his body.

'Could it be?' He thought, his heart skipping a beat in excitement as the possibility reached his mind.

"Come out," He commanded, projecting his voice toward the beast. Sure enough, a dozen tiny fly-like insects wriggled out of the body.

That's when he realized the beast was dead, killed by the hijacking of its brain by the colorful insects that now looked at Hado.

Unlike the ones before, he couldn't see through their eyes, but he could tell their pride in having killed the beast.

"Jewel wasp..." He muttered, the name coming to him as the wasps jumped and landed on him. He instinctively went to swat them away, but instead of acting on that impulse, he waited.

Their tiny legs crawled around his body, making goosebumps erupt on his flesh before they gathered in one spot at the base of his wrist.

*Scrt*

All of the Jeweled wasps stabbed into his skin, quickly burrowing under. He'd quickly realized he could now feel a connection with them, he could feel them crawling under his skin, looking for the best place to live as the maggots inside of him made room for the new arrivals.

"I think I understand now... This isn't a curse is it..." Hado said, a smile coming to his face as he looked up at the sky. "It's a gift."

...

Several hours passed as Hado just tested what he could do with the insects. The maggots were a bit disgusting, but he found they had chewing capabilities.

He had went to the corpse of the beast that his new Jeweled wasps had killed, and let the maggots all crawl into the corpse, ordering them to show him their use.

The 3 dozen maggots then chewed into the body, devouring bits and pieces of the dead flesh.

Hado had watched them for a few minutes, seeing how they used their mouths to pull the flesh apart, then moving onto the cartilage and finally the innards.

They seemed to be able to consume almost anything in the beast, besides the bones of course.

Ultimately, it was an exciting discovery.

As for the jeweled wasps, he wasn't sure exactly what they did. There were 12 of them, 4 males and 8 females. The females all had stingers and were much larger than the males, who seemed to not have any stinger.

He knew they had killed the beast quickly, he just couldn't tell how... That was until he ordered them to show him.

All the females attacked the males, stabbing them with their stingers in precise locations.

To his surprise the males didn't die, rather, they seemed to move sluggishly after the stinger stabbed into them.

"I think I understand... Yea, that makes sense with that beast thing huh, you guys are able to control your victims?"

He wasn't really expecting a response, but he could feel they were somewhat agreeing, but it looked more complicated than control.

He just shrugged and sent them back inside of him, still getting used to the creepy crawly feeling that went on inside him. He'd need to experiment more.

"Well... Shall we find out what sort of world I have entered?" He asked, talking mostly to himself, but he felt his bugs wriggle in agreement. "Then let's go..."