Chapter 30: Chapter 24

"Dearest Brogard, loyal Brogard, noble Brogard," Lord Steward intoned, walking toward the troll who was trying to back down in clear fear. Dozens of eyes on the spherical head looked at the troll with an unblinking gaze. With each step of the ruler, new cracks appeared on the floor, the pulsating flesh appeared from within the cracks. Some of the bulbous growths sprouted more eyes, watching hungrily at the people around the room. The Lord Steward's current body was too thin, his head was too big. His hands were spread wide in greeting, "It pains me to see you now, a captured host, without a shred of your former dignity."

"What do you think you are doing…" Five started to talk when two fleshy tendrils broke from the floor behind him. Two living whips struck at the arm that held Aranea, the tip of each whip split apart, creating several more living whips. Wrapping around the fingers of Five, they pry open his hand, dragging Aranea away from his grip. Five tried to reach Aranea with his second arm, and at that moment, Lord Steward moved.

The being still walked toward the troll while his left arm extended itself, turning elastic. The thin arm rammed itself into Five’s face, the flesh splashing across his face like water, slipping into his ears, nose, and mouth. The eyes of Five widened, and with a muffed sound, he grabbed the flesh that tried to drown him, pushing it away from his mouth. The flesh of Lord Steward that left the mouth of Five looked weird, several long tentacles protruded from the wrist, replacing the former palm, purple flowers bloomed on each tentacle. Five coughed out a purple petal from his mouth.

"The indestructible types are so annoying." Lord Steward turned the spherical head to look at Five, while Aranea darted back to her troops, uncaring for how scared she might appear. Her heart was racing in her chest, threatening to jump free at any moment. Lord Steward! The ruler of the Oathtakers, the being whose might rivals that of Ravager, the living legend of the Oathtakers, was standing right here!

Lord Steward was an old enemy to the state. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of soldiers, he personally clashed against Ravager and Devourer several times. He lost each battle against them, however in losing, he would often advance his plans, either by allowing his saboteurs to explode nearby bases of the Reclamation Army, or by framing Ravager or Devourer for causing too much destruction, persuading the local population to accept the Oath. With his ability to manipulate his body at will, Lord Steward has faked his death too many times to count now, often escaping from the claws of Ravager.

The two countries might be at peace right now, but who knows what was on the mind of this being? Right now, she, and everyone else, was at the mercy of Lord Steward and the ruler of the Oathtakers, who lost way too many comrades and friends in the wars against the state. If he gives in to the desire for revenge, none save for the Wyrm Lord could have hoped to beat him back. Fighting back the fear, Aranea inhaled air through her nostrils and sensed something in the air. A smell that caused dizziness to appear in her eyes for a moment.

"Hermetic seal mode, at once, everyone!" She snapped, grabbing Markus by his shoulder and almost throwing the regulator back into the corridor leading away from the room. Whatever this smell was, if it caused dizziness in the wolfkin, then in…

"You ever heard about monksdemise?" Lord Steward asked Five, while the old man lifted a trembling hand to his mouth, trying to stop the drool that was dripping onto his beard, "No?" Lord Steward cocked his massive head. The numbers all around him opened fire at him. Like water, the body of the ruler produced ripples each time a bullet hit the thin body. Not a shred of flesh fell from him, not a drop of blood appeared from the places where his flesh absorbed the bullets. Seeing this, the numbers hesitated. Annie finally stepped away from Eight, slowly backing down to her allies, "You really should watch some discovery channels. You see, this flower," Lord Steward made one of his tentacles come close to him and sniffed a purple flower, "Is truly magnificent. Such a rich aroma, such a perfect shape… Ah, if only nature wasn’t so cruel, these flowers would decorate every corner in our capital! Alas, fate is cruel. Upon mere minutes after inhaling the aroma of this flower from a close distance, the victim suffers mild paralysis, temporal dizziness, and long-term exposure to the pollen of this flower causes permanent blindness and even death, but most importantly!" The tentacles of Lord Steward formed back into a hand, and he raised a clawed finger up, "The victim feels a sense of calm and a desire to lay down and rest, so to speak. First found by the monks of the Church of the Planet, the hapless victims lay down amidst the sea of flowers, dying and becoming fertilizers for the cruel roots of the flowers."

"You… Give Six back…" Five said, struggling to gain even a single breath. The parasite was losing control of the owner's original power, and his size was beginning to shrink in front of everyone in the room. Unable to instill fear in the host body, the parasite was losing control of the host body's power.

"This?" A fleshy tendril appeared before Lord Steward, waving the syringe in the air before Five, "You are worried about your little friend after you dared to steal mine? The nerve. Let me show you the truth of this world." Lord Steward took the syringe in his hand.

And plunged the needle into his own chest. Aranea screamed a warning behind her helmet, fully remembering Leila’s word about some mysterious being that controlled the numbers. The half-wyrm stepped back, visibly shaking. She looked around at her comrades.

"No…" Leila whispered in panic, "… We… we are all going to die. Run, while…"

"Yes!" Five shouted in a hoarse voice, falling on his knees and reverting back to his crooked form. The wrinkles had returned to cover his body; the muscles had vanished, but the number didn't care. He looked with anticipation directly at Lord Steward, whose flesh was pulsating while the ruler stood unmoving, still holding the now empty syringe, "Finally, a suitable body! With this, we can…"

The arm of Lord Steward moved, once more pressing itself against the face of Five, covering it whole like glue, deafening all sounds and blocking any air from coming to his lungs. Five gave out a sound, clawing at the mass of flesh that covered his face, while Lord Steward turned to face the troll once more. The arm that was pressed to Five’s face, slid down the ruler’s body like silk, stopping at the knee area, while a new arm came from the shoulder of Lord Steward.

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"Your so-called "Creator" is just a big fish in a small pond, that’s all. Meanwhile, I am a shark in the ocean," Lord Steward threw to dying Five, "All in all, not the worst catch. I get to end four single digits, will save my old friend and will repay a debt, I dare say the trip was well worth it, even at the cost of aiding the resistance and reclaimers. Heh, I am better at cleaning Iterna’s mess than iternians themselves!" The troll tried to run, but the wall of bone spikes came from the ground behind him, blocking any route to retreat, "Now, where were we.. Ah, yes. Seeing you without any shred of dignity angers me, Brogard. Let’s fix it."

A line ran all along the body of the Long Steward, from his crown all the way to his groin. The body of the ruler opened like a man trap, expanding and stretching itself to surround the panicked troll. Like some wicked sort of backward lifegiving, Lord Steward pushed the number before him within his own body, for a moment becoming a fat figure, with lights of projectors showing the struggling figure within his nearly transparent skin. The digestive fluids, or whatever passed for them in the body of the ruler, washed away the skin and organs of the troll, with shocked eyes Aranea could see how countless worm-like fleshy appendages inside the body of Lord Steward were hollowing out the bones of the troll, leaving behind just the brain alone. The oversized figure compressed itself, returning back to the normal thin size. Meanwhile, the brain became connected and cared for by the insane physiology of Lord Steward’s body as it slowly sank through his left leg, disappearing beneath the floor.

"There, that’s much better. While the brain is alive, the body can be rebuilt in no time. Please endure it, oh loyal Brogard! Pain is merely temporal, before the week is over, I will purge the parasite out of your DNA, this I swear by the Oath that binds us both."

"Grenades. At once." Eight said, backing down toward the podium. His legs merged back into normal human shaped legs, only covered by steel, arm blades returned to the human form, while Eight was looking around the room.

Three of the numbers reached out for the grenades on their belts. These were the simple grenades, not the acid ones that the wolfkins used. Lord Steward still stood, unmoving, when six grenades hit his body, causing his flesh to go ripples once more, allowing the grenades to slither into his body, passing through his flesh like stones through water. The explosion flashed within his body, creating small domes of flesh in places where grenades were absorbed by the flesh. The ruler only smiled, seeing how his skin wasn’t even cracked, while his own body absorbed and contained the force behind the explosions. He looked at one of the numbers and spat at her. The woman never even managed to scream, when the strange fluid almost licked away the upper part of her skull, along with her helmet. The dead body stumbled, while the unnatural acid of Lord Steward slowly burned through the remains of the deceased body.

Lord Steward turned to face the other numbers with a leer on his spherical face: "Time for a mop up operation."

The ruler did not move, but the floor of the room utterly collapsed, causing Eight to jump and grab at the ceiling. Flesh poured from beneath the stones, pushing the wolfkins and resistance soldiers away from the room. Spikes made of flesh shot up from the mass, spearing the numbers. The moment the spikes penetrated the bodies of the hapless soldiers, they twisted within the bodies, changing course and coming from the tip of the enemy heads, utterly destroying the brain in one single move. Countless maws appeared on the flesh spikes, hungrily devouring the deceased bodies, adding new mass to the oversized body of Lord Steward. The dead and dying, all who were too slow to stay on the ruined floor, ended up being absorbed by the pulsating flesh, while Lord Steward was standing on a pillar made of flesh that connected his legs to the pulsating mass below.

Aranea saw the soultaker, the one she assumed to be dead after Eight pushed his hand through his chest. The man coughed, trying to stand up, while the floor was falling all around him into the pulsating flesh beneath. Before the wolf hag could leap to help the wounded ally, Kayleen was already on him, grabbing the man in her arms. She made an attempt to jump back when the stone beneath her feet collapsed.

"Kayleen!" Annie shouted, seeing how her soldier fell into the pulsating mass of flesh along with the soultaker, straight into the opening maw that consumed both of them with a wet sound. Olesya and Aranea both had to grab their fellow wolf hag by her shoulders, dragging her away from the ever-widening precipice. The life signs of Kayleen went dark on the screen of Aranea’s helmet, her icon turned dark in an instant.

Eight reached for something on his belt and pressed a button, causing explosions to shake the very foundation of the hospital and throw the wolfkins away from the room. The last thing Aranea saw, before the shockwave carried her several meters away, was the figure of Lord Steward standing in white flame, looking up.

"No!" Aranea did a full backflip in the air, landing on two feet, while cracks ran across the walls, ceiling, and even floor of the building. The numbers planted bombs all around the place, and according to the video feed from Lucendra’s helmet, the upper floors were about to collapse at any time. The warrior right now was panicking, leading two people from the upper floor, "There are still people in the…"

"You stupid, useless asshole!" Annie snapped at her, catching several soldiers from the Aranea and her own pack, putting them on the floor and showering them toward the exit. She and Olesya were the only ones who kept standing despite the shockwave, "I gave you the order to lead people away!"

"Wolf hag, there were injured here, I had to treat wounds and some people were still in hiding…"

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