Chapter 20: Let me lick your hand

End of the World

Caila looked calmly at the man Lambert had brought her. He appeared rather rough, his nose slightly crooked, with a few missing teeth, and the remaining ones in his mouth seemed to be rotting. She could only see them because the man was clicking his teeth in fear. His brown hair was greasy, and he needed to fatten up a bit.

Caila wondered why someone who looked so miserable was trapped in Hell. She glanced at Lambert, who looked unfazed, and Monte, who was already fed, sat down on the stool Caila had brought him, looking at the ragged man with the same curiosity she felt.

She wanted to ask but suppressed the urge. Caila sighed inwardly and simply pushed it aside. All she had to do was remember the villagers who wanted to burn Zenobe alive. They were stupid and bloodthirsty creatures. The fact that he was in Hell just had to mean something. Unless Supernova had suddenly gone insane in her godhood, she didn't seem like someone who would torture people on a whim.

She leaned back comfortably and propped her head up with one hand.

"Take Monte somewhere else," she said to Lambert. Caila was going to burn the living being here, after all. The boy didn't need to witness that.

"Maybe give him a little tour of the End of the World." She waved her hand, and Lambert bowed.

"As you wish, Liege. Monte, let's go." He turned immediately to the boy, who looked slightly reluctant but jumped down from his stool and followed Lambert.

Caila waited for the two to disappear and not hear their footsteps, then looked again at the man who knelt before her and held up his hands pleadingly.

"Liege... Goddess... please spare me," he mumbled through his missing teeth, almost shedding tears.

It made Caila a little nauseous; she felt like a villain all of a sudden. She opened her mouth but then quickly closed it again. She wanted to ask again what he had done, but something inside told her she'd made a mistake. What if she started to feel sorry for him? Would she want to let him go? He could easily have been lying or twisting the truth or who knows what else. Caila forbade herself to think about it; she just had to think that the man was in Hell. Pitiful looking or not, he couldn't be innocent.

"Silence. Don't speak," Caila said, holding out her hand before her resolve wavered again.

The man crouched down and covered his head with his hands as if that would help him protect himself. Blue flames appeared on Caila's fingertips, but she didn't immediately send them at the man. She recalled the memory of Supernova burning her new parents; killing someone seemed easy. She hesitated again. Come on! Do it! You can't be weak!

"Aggr! Damn!" Caila growled, sending a stream of flames at the man. The flame struck the man's bowed head and quickly began to expand.

"Aaaaaah!" The man cried out tragically and began squirming in pain on the ground.

Caila got scared and almost put out the flames but pushed herself again. She had to learn! By just sitting here, she's getting too stagnant! She gritted her teeth and began to control the flame, quickly spreading it over the man's body until he looked like a flaming torch. The fire consumed him at great speed, and Caila focused on the sensation. She was a little surprised at how greedy the flame was. If she didn't control it, it would probably spread very quickly and try to consume everything.

Caila shivered a little and looked away, not only because of the uncomfortable feeling but also because she was thinking. A question came to her mind: where did the blue flame even come from? What exactly was it? Caila suspected, thanks to her second memory, that it had something to do with the destruction device they had implanted in Supernova's body and sent her into the wormhole. Radiant called it black technology... Caila honestly didn't know what that meant. Unauthorized technology? Alien technology? It looked like it. How powerful was it that it could destroy a giant wormhole? And why did it need a living sacrifice?

She flinched suddenly as she felt something through the fire. She looked down at her experiment and realized the man was no longer moving. Caila could feel a kind of power through the fire; could it be the Prana that Hellcage spoke of? She sensed that it might be beneficial for her, but that wasn't what she was trying to achieve now; she suspected that this whole thing would require further investigation. Now she had to try and reshape it; it was probably... oh!

Caila paused as the flame suddenly began to die down, having nothing to consume and the feeling she had vanished. Was she... too slow? Did it just disappear? Just like that?

"Oh... damn. Do we have any more prisoners?" Caila muttered, a little confused, as she let the flames die down and saw only the dirty spot left by the prisoner.

"But are there enough people awake?" Caila rubbed her chin as she thought and then looked back at the vase with a startled expression. She sighed.

Opera had her eyes closed and showed no signs of interest in the world. At least Caila didn't look like a complete klutz in front of her. Caila didn't want to damage her divine image.

***** 

Lambert led Monte down the street, gesturing with his hands to the right or left as he explained what was where. "The barracks. Naturally, we had our own armed forces... well, we used to. We'll have them again. These houses are for outside visitors, ambassadors, or others who are not one of us. Liege is quite hospitable, but it wants to keep foreigners under control." Lambert spoke calmly, as if he weren't being shown the empty houses and streets. Perhaps in his eyes and memories, everything looked as it once had.

"Grinol's tavern. Nothing for you, but he served great tea and homemade biscuits too. It has three floors. The ground floor is the pub, the second floor was for the quieter ones who want to drink in peace and play board games, the third floor is the rooms." Lambert looked at the three-story building and sighed a little sadly. It was hard to tell which floor he had. Both a glass of whiskey and an elegant cup of tea would have been appropriate for Lambert.

Lambert continued to tell Monte about almost every building they passed until Monte had the completely blank stare of someone whose brain was overheating.

Lambert's long orc ears twitched suddenly, and he stopped.

Clinkclinkclinkclink

Hearing the clink, Lambert screwed up his face and turned to Monte. "Go to Master Brasho. He'll show you the rest." He said, pulling something out of his pocket and then started to run. As he ran, his form blurred and eventually became completely transparent.

Moments later, a golden pig with a golden-haired woman sitting on top of it came bounding out of one of the alleyways. The pig swerved so violently that a cloud of dust rose and rushed towards Monte, who flapped his wings in fright.

The golden pig ran past him but stopped abruptly before raising its snout in the air and grunting. "What, did you lose track?" Golden Piggy groaned when she heard that. She looked around and saw the distraught butterfly boy. "Oy! Boy, have you seen a sexy, red-haired, green little guy around here?" She asked him.

Monte stared at her for a moment before pointing with his hand. He was pointing in a different direction than Lambert had run off. "Oh! Thanks... wait... sniff... sniff..." Golden Piggy leaned over and sniffed, and so did the pig. "I can smell him, but it's coming... from you!" Monte opened his mouth as the golden woman took the hand he was pointing to and began to rub it against her face. "Yes! It's definitely the smell of Lambert! Ahh why does it keep escaping me? When I catch him, I'll tie him up and carry him everywhere...."

Monte was a little boy who didn't know much about the world and couldn't even speak yet, but even he found this woman strange.

He snatched his hand from her and immediately flapped his wings and took to the air. "No wait!" Golden Piggy jumped up to catch him, but Monte was faster and moved away from her.

"Wait! Wait! Let me sniff more... No! Lick! Let me lick your hand!" She cried in frustration.

When Monte heard that, he started flapping his wings even faster and flew away.

***** 

Monte landed on the ground when he was within sight of the harbor, looked back, and rubbed his forehead. The strange woman was not following him. Then he sniffed his hand curiously but felt nothing strange. How could she smell Lambert on his hand if she was only holding his hand?

Monte shrugged and hurried to the warehouse he remembered, and without knocking, he went inside. He saw Mr. Brasho carefully oiling the rivets with a small oiler and then wiping them with a rag. Brasho was muttering something to himself as he did so, a wide smile on his face, obviously perfectly happy with what he was doing.

The boy came up to him. "That's you, boy. What are you doing here?" Brasho asked him, putting down the oil can and rag.

Monte stared at him, realizing he had no way to tell him why he was here. He thought for a moment before trying to explain with his hands. He pointed at himself, then around him, then back at himself. Brasho just looked at him in confusion, scratching his head under his hat. "What?"

He tried again and again before Brasho understood what Monte was telling him. "Ah! You want to take a ride in the Algae? Why didn't you say so right away?" Brasho smiled brightly.

Monte let his hands drop along his body, though it wasn't what he meant; it could probably be counted as a tour, so he nodded. "Good! Good! I'm happy to do it for you! Chacha!" Brasho jogged off, and in a moment, he was pulling the wheeled steps he'd attached to Algae and climbing merrily up. He opened the round door and motioned with his hand for Monte to get in.

Inside, the airborne submarine looked smaller than from the outside. In reality, most of the space was filled with machine parts that looked like masonry gears, and the entire inside of the ship was uneven as mossy wires crawled everywhere. To Monte, the whole Algae looked like a rotten apple. Beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside.

Brasho went forward and cleared his throat. "There's still a lot of work to be done. But it's not easy to find a substance that can withstand the force of the drive, so everything is so unaesthetic. It's just details. Just details!" He waved his hand and led Monte to the captain's quarters.

Things were looking better here. There was a soft carpet on the floor and several seats in front of a row of windows. Below the windows was a long counter on which were many controls, gauges, and levers, and Monte could only wonder how anyone would know where to even begin. It didn't even have any pictures with instructions.

He looked expectantly at Brasho, who walked confidently over to the counter and spread his arms. "So this is where all the magic happens! I know it looks complicated, but it's not! Just pull this, then turn this, push these buttons in the order of 5, 7, 2, 6, 4, and you'll twist this..." While he was talking, he was showing it to Monte, but he got lost while pushing the buttons.

It was fifteen minutes before Monte finally felt the floor begin to shake slightly and heard the machines in the back begin to move. He turned and watched as the arms of the machines began to move, and a bluish flash appeared. Several barrel-shaped copper kettles rose into the air, and the arms moved them up and down to resemble big fat fingers pounding on a typewriter.

Monte flew into the air to get a better look and saw that inside the barrels, under transparent lids, blue flames were slowly being fanned. He turned, confused, to Brasho, but he was in the middle of wildly turning some handwheel until he was out of breath, so he just watched.

"Ugh... ugh... takes... what little work, but it's worth it!" Brasho said as he stopped spinning and looked out the front eye. He pressed the last button, and a rumble was heard; the area was illuminated a little, and when Monte looked, he saw that the roof of the warehouse was opening up.

Brasho cleared his throat. "So now... welcome dear passenger to test flight 00001. This is indeed a historic moment! Up to the skies!" Brasho pulled two levers simultaneously, and it began to sound like the snorting of a large animal in the rear compartment, but through the window, Monte could see that they had indeed begun their ascent. A rudder that looked like the ones on ships emerged from the deck rains, and Brasho grabbed it and began to turn it.

"Hoo hoo! This is so exciting!" Brasho was all excited and even more so when he had a passenger too.

Monte wondered if this thing was really safe, but he figured if anything happened, he could fly out.

The river climbed up slowly, and they accelerated when they left the warehouse. Soon they could see the receding End of the World through the windows, which had the outlined shape of an oval. Monte couldn't see the city from above, so he was curious. He was looking at the harbor; he could see the castle in the middle, yet he could only see the city from the north side, and the palace stood in that direction. Monte turned his head curiously because he had a feeling something wasn't quite right.

Beyond the castle to the west was a piece of forest that suddenly ended, and there was only the sea; there was no beach or harbor, as if a piece of land had suddenly been cut off. It also looked as if a piece of the eastern town was missing, and it looked the same to the south. When they stopped climbing Monte looked and couldn't describe it exactly, but it looked like the place wasn't complete.

Monte pointed his finger and looked at Brasho, who had a strange expression. His eyes bulged out and his mouth dropped, making him look like a very surprised run-over frog. "What... what... what happened?" Brasho stammered.

Monte pointed his finger again. "Of course, it's not supposed to be like that! The territory of our Liege is much larger! Ah! Where is the Sour Swamp? And the Dead White Forest? Oh no... even the Field of Blood Flowers is gone!" Brasho grabbed his hat and seemed to be trying to pull it over his eyes so he wouldn't be able to see that.

The boy looked out the window, but all he could see was the sea around the town. He pointed his finger again; what were those weird names anyway? Brasho took a breath and let it out, looking sadly outside before turning to Monte, surprising him by making his big red eyes glisten. "You don't get it, boy. This is our home. Our Liege created a place for the likes of us to live because they didn't want us anywhere else. Not even the gods. Whole clans and families came to this paradise. Not for nothing is our Liege the god of the Unwanted and the Forgotten."

Monte twisted the insect antennae on his head and made motions with his hands because he was curious, but he couldn't ask any other way. He wasn't sure Brasho understood. The kappa man smiled slightly. "Why? Because we're monsters kid. In every sense you understand. Murderers, maniacs, cannibals, we are the darkness in your heart, the terror in the shadows, and the screams of the murdered. We're everything evil you can imagine. We are hated and feared because we are what the world tries to turn a blind eye to and pretend we don't exist."

Monte rubbed his forehead and gestured with his hands again. He didn't ask that!

Brasho stopped smiling mysteriously and looked puzzled. "Oh? I see... why are the gods rejecting us? Because they can't gain power from us like other races." He replied calmly. He turned his gaze towards the palace that towered over the city and gave a short barking laugh. "Or at least that's what they believe! Haha!"

***** 

Island Edge End

Caspian was concerned. They had been around the unknown island for over a week now. His crew, save for a few individuals, could be considered recovered, which was a good thing.

What was giving him wrinkles was that some of the crew had begun to have the dream that Caspian had had. Which was odd because no one had set foot on the island but him. Despite what Caspian thought of Red and the island, nothing dramatic had happened, and he still hadn't had the courage to enter any of the supposedly cursed villages. He didn't want to do anything until he and his crew were safe. But the sudden change about the dream made him a little more nervous than the stone-faced chaser.

He was almost certain that Blood Knee was Red, but in the dream, he didn't make his guesses known and kept talking to Red. In his last dream, he had asked her about his crew and their sudden dreams. Red replied with a rather logical answer. "They eat our animals, drink our water, everything comes from the island."

So that was the crux of the problem. Even if they didn't set foot on the island, the long-term consumption of things from the island had the same effect. His only consolation was that the dream didn't affect anyone. His own dream had already been cut in half; now the dream ended the moment the ground began to shake. He regretted it a little because the sight of the face emerging from the sky was truly impressive, and sometimes he even regretted not reliving that first moment of utter shock.

Therefore, when he woke up the next day, he made a decision. He would investigate the mystery of the chasing stone face. Caspian had his strength back and felt healthy. For now, he didn't have the courage to go to the village; he wanted to take his crew to do so, but the stone face was still disturbing, and he knew he would need to spend the night on the island so they could make observations of the villages. So he needed to investigate the stone face first and see what dangers it might bring them.

Caspian once again sailed his boat to the island, leaving his crew behind while he walked out onto the beach. He looked around for a moment before finding the stone face. It was hiding again at the edge of the forest, half hidden behind a bush and looking towards the ship.

He made his way over to the stone face, Caspian drew his slender sword, never taking his eyes off the stone. It was a mystery to him how the thing could move on its own. It wasn't a large stone, but it would still need at least two strong men to lift it.

He stopped a few feet from the stone and watched it for a moment. The stone face looked as still and lifeless as an ordinary stone should.

Caspian slowly walked closer, step by step, his heart racing as he imagined Stone Face suddenly growing legs and running towards him or even leaping up and pouncing on him. But it was all imagination. The stone didn't move. Finally, Caspian was only an arm's length away.

He used his sword to lean toward the stone face and lightly poke it. Several times before he took another step closer and began to poke at it with his sword a little more boldly. Even though Caspian poked it in the blue eye, nothing happened.

"Weird," he muttered to himself, lowering his guard a bit. He had already verified that it only moved on its own at night. But he expected something to happen now that he knew about it and would tempt the stone face like that. So during the day, it was just a rock, and at night, something would happen to make it move?

Caspian tugged at his beard thoughtfully before using his sword to begin carving a circle around the stone into the ground. He then picked up a leather pouch from his belt, reached into it, and held a pinch of seeds between his fingers, dropping them in places into the groove he had created and carefully covering the seed man with dirt again.

When he finished, Caspian pulled a talisman from his neckline that looked like a pictured tree with roots at the top and a leafy crown at the bottom. Caspian, being higher up in the church, no longer needed talismans if it came to that, but it was still a powerful medium that could strengthen his abilities, and he preferred to use them when he had the chance.

He exhaled and closed his eyes for a moment as he needed to keep his focus. It was still somewhat unusual for him that he didn't need to refer to his God in his prayers and that the power he had actually came from him as well. So he had to adjust his prayers to reflect that. Unfortunately, Caspian hadn't yet understood that he didn't really need prayers at all for his level.

He breathed quietly for a moment before he began to recite the modified prayers, which caused the talisman to glow slightly. The prayer was short, but he wasn't looking for a powerful ability either. Finally, he pointed his hand, a light the color of acid yellow glinting in his eyes, and several brief flashes shot from his finger, landing in the dirt around the statue.

In an instant, tiny sprouts emerged from the ground, and in the next second, they shot out like springs and began to tie themselves around the stone face, forming a thick green web of sprouts. Once the sprouts had attached themselves, they began to thicken and grow leaves on them until finally, the statue was not visible at all.

Caspian exhaled and nodded. "I'll go hunting now. I'll come back tonight and see what you can do, Stone Face. I will reveal your secrets or I will destroy you," he decided. Even if he didn't find out what Stone Face was, he would destroy it just in case. He turned and walked away.

He didn't see the cocoon of sprouts shudder slightly.

***** 

Caspian returned to the ship after the hunt, where he handed over the spoils. After the meal, he divided the watch, intending to remain on the island himself. The Podacs did not like this and were the first to force a couple of sailors on him, but Caspian refused.

He sent the ship out to sea, giving no thought to the fact that they would sail without him. They had been through too many hardships together to betray him now. And they had no supplies.

Caspian had kept a rowboat in reserve, in case something happened that he couldn't handle. He could go to sea alone and row to the ship. Then near the bound stone, he made a small campfire, deliberately keeping to the sandy shore, since the stone never set foot on it for some reason. So he just guessed there might be a reason.

He sat by the small fire and watched the bound stone. The sun was slowly setting, and as the sky darkened, Caspian tensed. He had prepared a few prayers beforehand and did not let the sword leave his hand.

When the sun finally set behind the horizon, darkness enveloped the island, and the overgrown stone shook slightly. Caspian stood and stared at the stone, which shook more and more frequently, and a faint light began to shine through the gap.

Caspian swallowed. "Come on. Show me what you've got."