Stray Elf: Lost in the System

XIII.

We arrived, much to my dismay. It was the only thing in common that the human captives and I shared. This Stomach of the World, or the “big fiery butthole” according to the goblins, was even more disgusting than I imagined. Its slop reddened the sands with its thick and gooey substances, and it smelled heinous, like rotten vinegar and fruit mixed together with corpses. The delivery of screaming humans went as expected— quite loudly. It was not until we reached the perimeter where the stench swiftly silenced their complaints. Yokgu and the other demons were seemingly unaffected by this stomach-twisting jelly. I never knew something could make me wish that I was a demon, but they were immune to it. Yokgu laughed at my disgruntled face.

“Home, sweet home!” He grinned. For some awful reason, he took a whiff of the fetid smell wafting from the Pit. “You Nameless wouldn’t get it.”

“It’s wretched,” I hissed. “Does it all really need to be so… red?”

“Red like your eyes, like the blood of our enemies,” the Fair Demon, Lee, sang. Are you some kind of bard? I wondered as I turned to him, which shut him up and caused him to salute. “Er, Captain.”

“It could use a few decorations, I guess,” I sighed. “Or at least safety regulations.”

“Safety… what?”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” I walked away.

The humans were given to the massive demon foreman, called an Overlord, which produced a scroll using magic for me. He was almost as tall as one of the bone spires, rooted in place but could sink into the blood and reemerge somewhere else within the pit. The Demon twisted and stretched to the Suns, but he did not seem to be uncomfortable. Tendrils and puss oozed out of this disgusting landmark as he moved, forcing me out of my thoughts. The Ack’Sa deserved a cleaner place, I thought. How scary could a booger monster be? More slop dripped on the floor, making me reconsider that thought immediately. Boogers could be a legitimate strategy if we were fighting against germaphobes.

“Your next mission, Nameless,” he scoffed, picking one of the carriages with his fist and tossing it into the Pit. I did my best to ignore the screams sailing down the descent. “Dead meat. You’re on the way to the Golden Lands where the Soul and Pestilence Armies wage their wars.”

Over the stench of this place or the mountain range to the south of here, I did not know which I preferred.

“When you die, the Ack’Sa shall remold your soul into a proper Demon’s,” the Overlord laughed. Skeletal remains dipped in reddened liquid dripped from his four arms as he buckled, dissolving in splatters as they collided with the ground. I decided I would rather go to the Golden Lands. “That reminds me, a gift unto you.”

The demon floated his lower palm flat on the ground in front of me. Hells, I groaned as his magic formed another black summoning circle burned the air with a hiss. Was it a Skill? I have never seen such magic before. His entire index finger was as tall as me, but the magic persisted as a strange reddened object the size of a human head formed inside of the circle. The flesh tendrils shuddered within the Pit, reaching at it as it descended into my hands. It felt like I was grasping a cold, soggy sponge. Yet the object did not crumble.

A free bloody glob of discharge and solids now rested neatly inside my hands. Great. Love to see this, can I go home now?

“A Hellcarver Core, for one of their cities. Bring the Hells upon them,” the Overlord writhed as he turned back to resume his duties, and I was left alone to splash through the bloody puddles back to my men. I pondered over the head-sized orb as I awaited someone to comment on it.

“Oh, another delivery, Captain?” Lee asked. For the first time in a while, I hesitated before telling him our orders as I placed the Hellcarver in one of the wagon’s chests. If only I had that Item Box feature in my Status skill unlocked, I thought. As the Skill explained, the Item Box was another dimension which held whatever I put into it. Now I have to worry about that stinky thing getting lost inside all of these things.

“We’ll be headed into the Golden Lands,” I told them all. All of them, to my surprise, saluted and cheered.

Our objective sounded simple: Cross the mountains and create a Pit at a village marked on a map, then join the Soul Army and fight wherever they are. It still felt weird being the one leading the way, but Ake got transferred already to lead several groups of armies down south anyways. The Demon Territory was expanding, and now we were beginning to invade the south. I did not think we were going to have it easy like I did taking over Sarwitz, but the unit was excited to fight regardless.

Were demons just born to fight things? I would never know. The stench wafting from the Pit faded from my nostrils as we drew further. The mountain path was ahead of us, and my feet crunched on snow. We have traveled a few days so far, with nothing but wasteland in between the last demon city and the Golden Lands. I had several hunt for food after taking everything from that city, so Yokgu would not rampage. We were gathered along a ridge, where the air was getting thinner and cold settled on our skin. The Pit was far away, but I could still make out the bones and the fleshy valley under the sunset.

Was it starting to become wintertime? I wondered if seasons existed in this world, since most of the time it has been balmy or rainy. Several soldiers were gathered around fire pits that I lit with my meager magic. Despite having a high Intelligence stat, I still did not understand my magic. I could combine it with my Skills for devastating attacks and use Souls to upgrade them, but outright casting the only spell I knew produced a tiny flame much to Yokgu’s eternal amusement. There was nothing intuitive about that Stat! I regretted promoting it, but over the years it seemed to not matter at all.

A pair of soldiers looked nervous when I squatted down next to them at the fires. They must be new, I mused, but I continued downing my soup. Those moons barely pierced the misty skies up here. One of the demons shifted nervously around me.

“What?” I asked him.

“I-It’s nothing, Captain!” He stammered, his hands unsure to salute me and his eyes shying away from my gaze. “It’s just t-that I’ve never seen…”

“Shut it, Moglan!” The other demon smacked his shoulder. They reminded me of Samuel and Silmil.

“A Nameless before, huh?” I mused aloud. My nonchalant response seemed to surprise them. “I feel like a wild animal with you two looking at me like that.”

“Well, dear Lady Captain,” Lee spoke up from behind us, dragging a stool with him. “We demons are told, specifically: If you see a Nameless, you run.”

“Really,” I muttered.

“Aye, Captain,” Moglan confirmed. “They are incredibly dangerous, ha. Well, I’m sure you know that already.”

“You two new here?” I leaned back, plopping down on the snowy grass. “You’ll get used to me. Probably.”

“P-Probably,” the second one choked, but snapped to attention. “Ensign Ongran from the Hatred Army, just transferred from the Pit.”

“Ensign?” I muttered. Ranks in these armies made no sense to me. He was fresh blood, I noted. Lee was annoying in his own brand, but at least he did not see me as a dangerous weapon.

“Ensign Moglan, Captain,” Moglan managed to keep his voice steady. I guessed I had the time to learn something about myself.

“Why do you people think we are so dangerous?”

“Why?” Lee nearly spat out his soup, but maintained his composure. I looked at him expectantly. “You’re not really saying you’re a delicate flower, Captain?”

“No, it’s not that,” I stared at him blankly. “I’ve never been around my kind long enough to know why you should avoid us.”

“Then allow me to share a story about a legendary warrior, Captain,” Lee bowed. So he is a bard, I sighed. “The Great Ack’Sa before was struck down before, some millennia ago. Not His new Greatness today. An otherworldly Hero, a warrior from the Heavens with an unparalleled Skill, slew the Ack’Sa in one single blow. His remains are still scattered within the desert… You want to know exactly who that Hero was?”

“A Nameless,” I groaned. “When you put it that way, it seems less impactful.”

“It’s the truth,” Lee held the ancient king in great reverence, so it seemed like real history.

“This old Ack’Sa must have been furious about losing,” I guessed with a shrug. My butt started to get cold from the snow, so I grabbed a barrel to sit on. Lee looked angered from that comment, but a laugh came from behind us. Yokgu’s heavy steps clomped the snow.

“You’re damn right he was furious,” Yokgu laughed. “Now imagine how happy he must have been discovering you. That General and his bastard of a Knight.”

“Mind your tongue, orc,” Lee snapped. Was this guy related to Vastil or something? Yokgu laughed again. A challenge, I mused. I sat back, eager to watch them fight but Lee was smart enough to not take the bait. Something bad must have happened between the Fair demons and the orcs in the Hells.

“The Nameless are terrifying beings,” Ongran muttered. Moglan grunted in agreement. “Some say that Hero is still alive even today.”

“Even today,” I tried to maintain my composure. Elves can live for that long? It seemed like time moved rapidly without this knowledge, but the idea of living for thousands of years put my mind into an odd state. Several hours could go by and I would find myself looking for my boots without a care in the world. These people before me and this little battle between good and evil seemed meaningless if I still remained a thousand years from now. Perhaps, I really am lucky. “Well that’s enough horror stories for me tonight. Try not to freeze to death. We got a long day ahead of us.”

A loud screech of a beast echoed in the distance as I said that. I decided to play it cool and chuckle as if I knew something.

“What’s tomorrow?” Moglan asked. Ongran hit his shoulder, making him clear his throat. “Captain.”

The screeching echoed further away, as I stopped moving towards my tent.

“We’re attacking a mountain village near here,” I tell them. Yokgu smacked his leg with a satisfied grunt.

“Finally!”

I chuckled and trotted away, but heard him telling those two newbies that they would get used to me. The morning’s light came too soon as I awoke to howling and the wind heavily blowing. Were we under attack? I reached for my helmet, but realized I was hearing my men cheering. I leapt off my mat and looked for the group. A crowd of them were hollering at something in the sky casting a fiery glow. It must be the source of the loud wind, as its flapping drew near.

“What in the hells?” I barely had time to ask as the fiery rainbow wing of a majestic bird took flight over the camps. The flying beast blotted the sky out, dropping fiery streams of ash down as it flapped its wings. “A phoenix?”

“Aye, Captain,” Yokgu grinned with a stretch. Luckily, none of the flames seemed to make it to the ground. “She’s just in time for some good luck, huh?”

“Truly a rare sighting,” Lee marveled. He then said what I was thinking. “Let’s hope we can get a feather or two from it. We’ll be rich with Tusks if we do!”

“Right,” I watched the massive bird soar off into the horizon. For a moment, I indulged in tapping the warm feather encased in the lamp I carried with me. A retirement fund, I designated it. Perhaps in a hundred years or so. “Show’s over. Let’s get to moving.”

The collective groan of my men could be heard from all along the ridge, but they obeyed. It was kind of nice bossing people around, despite being the designated campfire girl. I did not have to lift a finger, smirking to myself as I watched the wagons get loaded.

“You’re just enjoying this a bit too much, aren’t you?” Yokgu was next to me, eating stale bread.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snapped. “Now get back to work.”

“Aye, Captain,” Yokgu walked away.

A few hours later, we trudged along. The land seemed familiar, as if it was calling to me. As I watched my step, I noticed in my boot’s imprint golden leaves twinkling within the snow. We were definitely inside the Golden Lands territory now. No sighting of the phoenix, though, much to my men’s dismay. Feathers were not in our future, it seemed. For now, we trudged along, as well as started to begin the ascent. I should have known that the scroll’s descriptions of the mountain village were accurate, since they were not from Vastil.

“This ain’t good,” Yokgu sniffed. I could smell something off in the air as well and signalled the unit to stop their march. “The smell of death is in the air.”

“Death?” Someone asked, making me correct them both. The village was ahead of us, but no signs of life seemed to taint the area.

“Undeath,” I made another signal to be ready. “Someone, or something, got here before us. Be ready.”

“Figures, up ahead,” a scout warned, closing his telescope. I was reminded of Caspan, for a moment, but realized he was correct. Frozen figures were posted all around the wooden village walls. “Unleashed Magic, Captain.”

“Unleashed,” I muttered. The magic of the abyssal heavens. I supposed that was apart of the sky, and whatever reaching back to answer prayers was bound to be spooky. The entity that answered happened to be a god of death, who watched the Ack’Sa with great interest. The idea of outer beings giving each other props in the far flung corners of space seemed outrageous to me, yet who would entertain such chatter? I pulled a soldier away from one of the frozen corpses. “Watch it.”

They were undead, but under whose command was another story. I heard tales of humans being able to tap into the same power demons had, but there were a lot of them here. Low creaking and utterances could be heard murmuring throughout the desolate place. I checked one, keeping my distance, when suddenly its eyes glowed blue and it cracked apart, lunging at me. Well, it attempted to, before the frost snapped its limbs off. I punched its head off in a fit of surprise. More ice crackled as the horde was alerted to our presence.

“Get ready for a fight, I guess,” I stood over it. The headless zombie suddenly reanimated, grasping my ankle tightly. “What the fu—“

Yokgu casually walked over as I tried to kick the thing off of me, as if it was a tiny dog biting at my heels. He stomped its midsection repeatedly and immediately the zombie ceased moving, left in a state of its brown soup. An alert showed in my Status, revealing many more of the frozen corpses were starting to crack apart and attack. There was more movement inside the walls. Did someone really leave their undead horde here unattended? I sighed. How irresponsible! Yokgu laughed, slashing at a corpse shambling its way towards us.

“You remember the seige of Hycrescent?” He reminded me of that awful battle. We launched Undead artillery over their walls. Zombies of this world did not feel pain, nor did they care about what state they were in most of the time. Even when they splat on the ground after getting catapulted in they still wreaked havoc upon the living human soldiers. We have taken cities like that easily afterwards, but that was not the real reason I hated that battle.“You looked so funny sailing through the air like that!”

“I try not to remember it,” I groaned.

“What? You agreed to it,” Yokgu laughed. The undead started to roar, so he sprinted on the offensive. “To battle!”

Getting launched from a trebuchet over the wall was their smartest solution at the time. Make the indestructible and all-powerful Nameless destroy the city with Land Breaker, which was a Power Breaker Skill that evolved through my system. That Skill cleaned out both humans and the Undead slave soldiers. I copied his aim, and swung the Black Blade directly at an encroaching zombie’s stomach. It was odd that its weak point was not its brain, I mused. A hissing sound twisted the air, as brown goo and gases puked out of its new cavity.

Number of souls defeated: 9712

Huh, I did not realize destroying these things would grant me Souls. Were they still alive, trapped in a rotting state? Undead started to pour out of the gates, some getting impaled by the wooden stakes, thankfully distracting me from my own thoughts. Despite how disgusting their festering bodies were, I cleared many of them like grass before making my way inside the village.

The source was close by if all of the crowd was active like this, I glanced at the piles of dead villagers crawling over each other to get over the walls. Another hissed and gurgled when it met my blade. My Status alerted me of a Crowned enemy nearby, within a closed hut. That had to be the necromancer, I guessed. The faster I dealt with it the better.

What I did not expect to see was a boy shrouded in the hut’s darkness after breaking the door.

“A human boy?” I uttered aloud. The alert in my Status confirmed that the boy was the Crowned entity. He was soaked in blood and rotting flesh, surrounded by rune circles all invoking that god of death’s name. The human boy’s eyes bulged as his neck muscles gave way to a will of its own. He gazed at me, but seemed catatonic. “Children should know better not to toy with death.”

I drew my blade once more, but black bile oozed out of his mouth slowly like a tar pit being poured. Vague humanoid faces began to form inside the bubbles, as the boy’s neck snapped. I dodged a stray vertebrae that ejected from his new cavity, as more of the tar drained out. Macabre, but the Crowned entity was revealed in my status to have been defeated.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of speaking to?” I asked the dead boy. Its unhinged jaw formed a new face with the black bile, but I could see its sunken eyes watch me by shifting in my direction.

“This boy desired vengeance against the villagers for shunning outside help,” the black gooey creatures declared, their slurpy and chittering cackles pierced my ears. A tar demon, I noted. At least, this possession was a friendly one, because despite being messengers, they were corrosive and riddled with diseases. “Place the Core here, and the dead will sink to the Hells to serve.”

“Okay, uh…” I barely had time to say before the boy melted and the goo disintegrated. I slashed his stomach wide open, then again just in case. The dying gurgles outside silenced as the body’s halves dropped to my feet.

“Captain?” The door swung open. “The dead stopped moving and losses are at a min… oh.”

“Yeah,” I slashed my sword clean and turned to whoever was speaking to me. “Get the Core. We’re putting it here.”

The soldier saluted and immediately departed after the sight of me. Was I really that scary to look at? I wondered. Trudging through the snow, I found Yokgu standing over a pile of what I presumed was his kills.

“Captain,” he smirked. The ice sped me up as I traveled over to him, making my ankles cold and threatening to travel up my legs.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I sighed. Yokgu grinned, pushing several dead corpses out of the way with his foot.

The Core bloomed in scarlet petals, drenching the ground like an overflowing chalice as I marched with it in my hands. They told me I was supposed to do the honors, though I wanted to refuse. I carefully held the fleshy thing, feeling its bumpy surface pulsate as whatever inside of it moved. The splotches stained my hands, but the men stood around as I prepared to dunk it into the corpse where those tar demons told me. Immediately, the ground bubbled, causing me to back up.

What a blighted world I live in anyways, I figured what more harm could add to my current situation. This gross orb was going to transform this place into a smelly Pit anyways, in the ruins of an undead village, no less. My Status Skill started alerting me that the ritual was complete. As soon as I scrolled by it, rumbling shook the village, not caring about who or what was on top of it as it thundered. I signaled the men to get back as a small, but widening fissure in the ground started to become unstoppable. Something big was coming out of it, I could sense it. My Status Skill, however, did not seem to alert me that the entity was an enemy. For now, I had to wait at the border of the village with the others as the being grew within.

At least, this blight did not affect any living beings yet. Cheers came from the men as a massive tendril erupted from the hole, crashing upon the ground like a mop sloshing red ink. The tendons within the inert structure shuddered and weaved together into a hand. The snapping continued as the body of a new Overlord started to grow, breaking apart the walls in spectacular fashion, but our morale wavered into boredom already. It was admittedly macabre and exciting, but that was a few hours ago.

The newly formed beast lurched into life, bloodying the air and frost, before leaning down to match its skull face with me.

“Ruler of Death,” it greeted me. I realized it was bowing to me, though its massive form dwarfed the hells out of us. The others knew better than to speak in the presence of such a creature. “Take these gifts, and may Death follow you wherever you go.”

I would rather it not follow me, but who was I to say no to free gifts?

Red bubbles oozed out of the puddle the Overlord sat in. Bodies. They spasmed as life wormed itself in their shells, snapping as they stood up as bipeds. However, the viscous coating they were trapped in made it difficult to tell what kind of bipeds they were. Two newly formed beings meant two new recruits. I will take any help I could get. The Overlord rose to its full height into the sky like a watchtower before speaking again.

“You are to go to the White Tower, and crush its guardian. Humanity’s Mountain City shall fall when the deed is done,” it declared with an impossibly loud and booming voice. The two forms kneeled together before me. Is the Ruler of Death position some kind of evil CEO? This kind of royal treatment was bad for my ego. It was then I noticed more bodies were rising from the pools. “I shall be here, building the reinforcements, my Liege.”

“Well, uh, carry on then,” I mumbled. I signaled to the rest of my men to march. I am more than ready to get the hell out of here. I ignored both their groans and the sinuous snapping of the bloody bodies rising to follow me as I started the death march. “We have our orders. Let’s go.”