Chapter 80: Chapter 71

We entered the vastly simplified camp a few minutes before sunrise with a hand at my nose to block the penetrating scent. Soldiers slept on the ground or anything they could salvage in complete silence. It was eerily quiet around here, no snoring, no soldiers turning around in their shallow sleep, no nightly conversations. Only the rats, scooting between the campfires made any sounds. It was a creepy atmosphere, even for me.

From time to time, I shook a few men awake and stared deeply into their eyes. Our assumptions were wrong, we didn’t have four days, let alone five. The infection rate must have increased rapidly in a single day as they were already close to the limit we set where we assumed an open rebellion couldn’t be stopped anymore.

Markus soon lead us to a larger campfire, surrounded by logs that made a few makeshift banks, mostly used by officers who waited for the sunrise. In silence, I sat down near Arthur and looked into his eyes. He was still himself, at least for now. Immediately afterwards, I closed my eyes as the sun was already rising and listened to the fire, waiting for Arthur to speak up.

“I hate to admit it, but your ways of dealing with these worms may be our only hope. A few officers spread the news about the plan to destroy the dam and forced me to retreat before the flood arrived. We already purged those, but the others forced me to reveal everything to them.” Arthur whispered into my right ear. There was no way he got all the officers and as I could already feel the warm sunshine on my skin, I couldn’t check the others. “I still have to ask: Did you leave me here to die?”

“I didn’t. I told a random soldier before that he should give you a letter if things stayed calm. Apparently, he was infected and the contents of the letters were used against us.” It was a blatant lie, but I had no other choice here. I needed his cooperation.

“Although I hate to admit it, destroying everything was the only choice there was. I am still kind of happy your plan failed though.” His voice wavered like he was at his wits and I couldn’t blame him. I was scared about living in this world with this monster worm as well, no doubt about that. I tapped the wood a few times until I exhaled loudly.

“She predicted my every move so far …” I mumbled as I turned around and finally let go of my nose. A mixture of strong smells penetrated my sensitive nose. Arthurs sweat, the alcohol spilt a few metres away and something I couldn’t quite categorize. The devourer was here, or at least one of the children she controlled. “How do you defeat an enemy who has the knowledge of ten thousand soldiers at a minimum and is capable of ripping the command structures apart in a matter of minutes?”

“I don’t know.” Arthur said as expected. Neither did I know. If we turned to internal fighting, the Devourer would undoubtedly win. If I tried anything else, she would anticipate it as she apparently knew my character quite well. There weren’t any dams we could make use of, nor were there any other advantages we had. I already lost, no matter what I would try at this point. A bit scared and immensely frustrated by my inability to change anything, I held my nose again and blocked the scents from entering my nose once more.

“Do you trust me?” I whispered towards Arthur. Not everything was lost yet. I still had one option left, although I didn’t want to pick it. The few words Aska spoke were enough to formulate a new plan and although it was risky and detrimental to my general goals, it was still better than giving up.

“I have no other choice, do I?” whispered Arthur back.

“There is a bridge a few kilometres upstream. It still stood as we went past it and hopefully all the water will go away until tomorrow. We will give her what she desires, another feeding ground inside the elven camp.” I whispered once again and turned my head around once I was finished towards the footsteps that approached us. “Miss Devourer, I presume?”

“Yes and no. I am obviously not here with my main body, but rather one my child controls.” It was a male voice, deep and firm. He was wearing armour and took a seat right next to me.

“Arthur, if you would be so kind.” I said and waited for Arthur to stand up and clear a place for the guard to sit down. He left us alone afterwards, taking the other officers with him.

“He is a smart man, knowing when to step down is a quality most miss. Although I have to admit that you broke him by your actions. He feels powerless as a useful toy for you and he knows exactly this isn´t going to end well.” He said directly to me. She was obviously implying that I should give up as well, but if she knew me good enough, she wasn’t betting on this.

“Maybe I should do that. I always wanted to live on a nice desolate island after all. Growing my own potatoes and stuff … couldn’t wish for a better life. Oh, by the way, do you see yourself as a daughter of some god?”

“The god of corruption personally gave me my life, naturally I see him as my father.” I chuckled as she said that and remembered a certain prophecy I heard as everything was still alright.

“Two hundred years ago, an oracle made a prophecy about the end of the world. The daughter of a god will come to this world and will try to open the gates of hell for every monster there is. She is supposed to look human, but she isn’t. She feeds on us, has no mercy, and will be responsible for thousands of thousands of deaths if the heroes that will come forward to stop her don’t succeed. If you ever see her … run, because she will be the end of the world … that’s you, isn’t it? I have no intention of starting any kind of apocalypse and I don’t really intend to open the gates of hell for everyone.” She laughed as I finished as if I made a great joke. Somehow, I got the feeling she already knew about this prophecy and couldn’t wait to fulfil it.

“Oh, yeah, Kamachakyatamakyan personally told me this story as I took over his brain. On a side note, how does it feel to be called a hero?” I chuckled and tried to cover up my sadness and rage. This worm would die by my own hands, that was for sure, and if I needed to lure her out using my greatest weakness, so be it.

“I doubt a hero would do what I tried. How did you uncover my plan anyway?” I asked, curious about her knowledge about my plan.

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“There were a few adventurers who ventured into this area once. After getting ahold of them, I directly searched for you but couldn’t find you anywhere. And then, it wasn’t that hard to understand where you went.”

“Ahh, shit. Didn’t think anyone except me and a few others had knowledge of the beavers. And, what do you plan to do now?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

“I already won, I just have to keep going on like previously. You are out of options and the only choice you have is to run.” Well, she was right about that. The army was completely lost now and it was only a matter of time until it was fully controlled by the Devourer.

“You are a fearsome enemy. It was a pleasure to lose against you.” I said with a smile on my lips.

“I´m sorry I cannot give that back to you. Your actions were just too predictable. I studied you in purgatory, you aren’t capable of surprising me.” He said and I placed my left hand on his shoulder.

“Ouch.”

“It will be a pleasure to rip you to shreds though.”

“Yeah, about that …” I grabbed his head and yanked it to the right. It creaked loudly as his neck broke and he slumped away from me. I wasn’t going to let myself be caught by her, no matter what. Completely blind, I felt his body and soon found his hips and the sword. After drawing it, I poked the corpse with interest and smelled the blood. This was definitely not drinkable as it stank like socks that weren’t cleaned in a year. Disgusted, I turned to another guard who stood still a few metres away but made noise due to the wind.

“Devourer, could you please discard this corpse for me? You can use it as you wish.” The guard approached me in silence, grabbed the corpse, heaved it over his shoulder and left without saying a word. If she acted this openly, she must be damn sure of her victory already.

After a few minutes, I relaxed considerably as I heard a few familiar voices once more. Arthur and the officers came back, meaning I wasn’t in danger anymore. Fighting blind wasn’t my forte and I was especially endangered because my sharpened senses slowly dulled with the arrival of the sun and even the sword felt a lot heavier. My body was acting highly unusual due to the sun, completely unlike before. I felt so spent, so so powerless as my newly awakened vampirism showed its dark sides once and for all. I would never be able to fight durning the day like this. Frustrated, I let the sword fall to the ground as I couldn’t lift it up anymore and turned my head towards the position where I assumed Arthur was.

“I have an idea. The night after tomorrow, I will search for the Devourer and kill her. I don’t know if I have any chance of succeeding, but I do have to try.”

“Why not start tomorrow?” He asked, just as I hoped.

“There are a few knights I want to ask for help beforehand, that will take some time as I ordered them to stay away from the camp. I need to find them first and so on, you know how it is.”

“And these knights will make a difference?” Arthur wasn’t exactly sure about my claim which was honestly understandable. Even I didn’t think one second they would make a difference, but I still had to sell it to him, or whoever else was listening.

“Tom is among them, so yes, they will.” I said and clapped in my hands. “Can I have roasted beef? I think I saw something a few minutes ago …” As smart as he was, he didn’t try to continue the conversation. I had no intention of actually saying anything more, especially because I couldn’t confirm if there were any possessed humans nearby. A few minutes later, I was chewing on my beef in silence, trying to contain the other thirst that drove me insane once again.

 

 

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