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38. Welcoming Death
🕑 Added 2024-10-13 16:00:07 +0000 UTCThe three—no, four of them, counting the slombie, made bed in the ruined cultist camp that night. Levi snoozed in one of the nicer tents, while Isa dozed and kept an eye on the slombie. Some time around midnight, the sound of crunching and tearing flesh came from Colin’s corner. She didn’t look over, respecting her promise, but her lips tugged upward a hair.
Some eight hours later, Levi stumbled out of the tent, scratching his stomach. He looked around, taking in the remnants of the carnage. Pursing his lips, he nodded. “That slombie does good work.”
Isa sat up, yawning. She nodded. “I was impressed.”
What had been dozens of bodies had transformed overnight into dozens of skeletons. Not a single scrap of meat remained on their bones. White, bleached bone stood under the flickering green light, as clean as though it had rotted away for centuries. Levi lifted a hand to his eyes, peering after the slombie, who stood at a wobbly attention near one of the entrances. “Don’t foul feeders eat bones?”
“They don’t like them. It takes them a long time to fully dissolve them, and they’ll only choose to eat them if they have no other food source. Otherwise, that skeleslime of yours wouldn’t have lasted this long,” Isa pointed out.
“I was wondering about that.” He stretched. More quietly, he added, “What about our other zombie friend?”
“Ate well.”
“Mmm. Good. Hey, Colin!”
Across the room, Colin looked up. His whole face and his clothes were perfectly clean. He smiled, as if nothing had happened. “What?”
“Have you tried asking the System for Life magic resistance? It came to me last night. Why are we doing this runaround with gloves when we can just ask the System for things?”
“I… actually did.”
“And?”
“Well, I’ve managed to level the skill up to ten percent Life resistance,” Colin said, nodding.
Levi pursed his lips and hissed a slow breath. “Oof. Guess they won’t hand it out that easily, huh?”
Colin rubbed the back of his neck. Tipping his head to the side in embarrassment, he smiled again. “It seems even being able to use life magic as a dead person is pushing the limits, let alone asking for resistance.”
Levi nodded slowly, then gave him a thumbs-up. “Good going. Keep on that grind.”
Rock ground against rock. All three of them spun toward one of the entrances. The rocks shifted, falling in on themselves, and on the far side of the entrance, someone grunted.
Levi drew closer, quietly drawing his sword. Colin stiffened and clambered to his feet, staff at the ready. Isa simply turned her head, standing completely still where she was.
The final rock slid aside, and finally a tunnel opened, letting the person outside see what awaited inside. Sean, the one who’d bumped Levi and dumped the other party into the slime pit, gave a friendly smile. “I’m back—”
His expression soured. His eyes narrowed.
“Welcome home, honey!” Levi trilled in a falsetto. He charged the hole, stabbing through to the other side.
Sean jerked his head back. The blade slashed his face open, but it failed to pierce his eye. He glared. “How?”
“Come on in, I’ll tell you all about it,” Levi invited him, stepping back. He eyed the hole, stroking the Spinal Cord contemplatively.
“Why would I do that? You already tried to kill me!”
Abruptly, Levi’s expression turned sure. He threw out his hand. The Spinal Cord leapt into action, surging through the hole and curling toward Sean’s throat.
Sean blurred backward with supernatural speed. The Spinal Cord curled around nothing. Levi clicked his tongue, displeased. “Almost had him.”
On the other side of the rocks, Sean sprinted around the corner and out of sight.
Isa drew up alongside Levi. “Want me to eat him?”
Colin cringed closer. “Should we run?”
Levi shook his head. “Might as well clean up the hanging threads, right? I’m betting he comes back with whatever’s left of the cultists. Let’s make a nice entrance for them. Invite them in.”
He turned, gesturing at the floor around them. Skeletons littered the earth, lying ready for his call. A grin spread across his face. “After all, why abandon a position of strength?”
--
“Just up ahead. We need to finish him off,” Sean said, gesturing.
Muscular men and women followed him. One nodded. They were the elites of the Death Cult, the ones who had no fear ranging alone in the dungeon. Veteran delvers, who had spent years in these depths. Most of them preferred to delve alone, but when they’d heard tell of the man who’d killed all their weaker comrades, they’d all joined up with Sean. An outsider, killing Death Cultists in their own dungeon? Even the most lonesome delver wouldn’t stand for such a thing. The sheer audacity of such a person, the foolishness—they all felt the same wrath.
Outsiders? Otherworlders? Killing Death Cultists on their home turf? They might as well have signed their own death warrants.
Looking back, Sean barely suppressed a smug smirk. That foolish outsider didn’t know what he’d done. He had no idea what he’d invoked. He might think himself invincible for killing the weakling Death Cultists, but he was only a fool who didn’t know his place in the world. And they would teach him where he belonged, shortly before he stopped learning anything at all.
He turned back to face forward, pointing ahead. “Right up here—”
A figure stepped out of the darkness.
Sean jumped, screaming instinctively. The Death Cultists behind him tensed, reaching for their weapons.
The handsome outsider strode forward, blocking their way. He carried a single sword at his hip and wore a haughty look, as though he could barely stand to look at them. Unlike the other outsider, who had a scruffy and unwashed air to him, as if he’d spent an entire life on the road—not to mention a pervasive rotten stench akin to meat gone bad—he stood tall and firm, as crisp and clean as the day he’d arrived.
Kai tossed his hair. “Where are you going?”
Sean quavered for a heartbeat, hesitating, then scoffed at himself. What was there to fear? The strongest delvers of the Death Cult stood behind him, second in strength only to the Death Cult’s elders and the few Holy Otherworlders who had been recognized by their leader. He stood upright again, smug look returning. Who cared if he insulted this outsider? All the better! It would give the veterans an excuse to kill him. “To kill those filthy outsiders.”
The man raised a single brow. “Who, Levi?”
Sean hesitated. “The dirty one who smells like death?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
The outsider barked a laugh. His eyes narrowed, and he gestured for Sean to go ahead. “Lead the way.”
